List of Categories

A
Advocacy Body
Advocacy bodies are groups formed by people who share concerns around a particular issue, in this case child welfare, and who seek to raise the priority of their concerns on the public and or government agendas.
Anglican
A person or institution affiliated with the Anglican Church.
C
Care Provider
Care provider is an umbrella term that refers to the group or organisation responsible for providing and administering out-of-home ‘care’ for children. Although this term was not in common usage before the late twentieth century, this website applies it to describe all organisations which operated ‘care’ services, no matter when they were active.
Catholic
A person or institution affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Children's Home
Children’s Home is a term used to describe institutions providing out-of-home ‘care’ for children. The term was commonly used during the period from the 1920s to the 1970s.
Community Service Organisation
Community Service Organisations are privately run groups, often with a religious affiliation, which provide services to the community, including services to support families and out-of-home ‘care’ programmes. Although they are private organisations, they may receive some funding from government to provide particular services.
Cottage Care
Cottage care was a model of institutional 'care' which began in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century. Along with 'boarding out', cottage home accommodation was seen as an alternative to large scale dormitory-style accommodation (although cottage homes could house up to 40 children).
D
Diocese
A Diocese is the district or area under the control of a particular Bishop of a specific Church.
Doctor
A person qualified to practice medicine.
F
Family Group Home
Family group home is the name given to a model of 'care' where small groups of children are accommodated in buildings that approximate the size and form of an average family home. They began to appear in as a form of ‘care’ in Australia from the late 1940s, following concerns about the lack of individual attention given to children in large-scale institutions.
Foster Care
Foster care is a method of out-of-home ‘care’ provided to children and young people who are temporarily or permanently unable to live with their families of origin. Foster care places these children in private family homes.
G
Government Agency
A Government Agency is an organisation or service provider directly under the control of and funded by a state or federal government.
Government-run
An organisation or activity for which a government (usually State, Territory or Federal) is directly responsible.
H
Hostel
A hostel was one type of institution for young people, usually those leaving children's homes or reformatories, to prepare them for life after 'care'. Hostels generally catered for 'older' children and young people, from around the age of 15. They were designed to assist former residents of orphanages and children's homes with the transition to paid employment and independent living.
I
Industrial School
Industrial Schools were a form of children’s institution popular in the late nineteenth century. Technically ‘neglected’ children were sent to industrial school to receive industrial training whereas ‘criminal’ children were sent to reformatories. This model of ‘care’ was promoted by the British nineteenth century child-reformer Mary Carpenter.
J
Juvenile Justice Centre
A term adopted in the 1990s to describe institutions providing custodial accommodation for remanded or sentenced young people.
L
Legislation
A legally binding statute of a parliament (usually State, Territory, or Federal).
N
Non-denominational
Non-denominational organisations were (and are) Protestant organisations without any specific denominational affiliation.
Nurse
This term may apply to people formally trained and qualified to practice as medical nurses but, historically, was also used to describe women employed to perform day to day ‘care’ of children in residential institutions.
P
Public Servant
A public servant is a person who works for the government, for example in a state, territory or federal department, but who was hired, rather than elected, to that position.
R
Receiving Home
A receiving home was an institution designed to provide short term ‘care’ for children before they were sent to a longer term placement (typically a foster home). From the 1950s onwards this type of institution was often called a reception centre.
Reception Centre
A reception centre was an institution designed to provide short term ‘care’ for children before they were sent to a longer term placement (typically a foster home). Prior to the 1950s and 1960s, this type of institution was often called a receiving home.
Records Service
A Records Service is an organisation, or part of an organisation, which helps people find and locate records that were contain information about them and their time in ‘care’.
Reformatory
Reformatories were a form of children’s institution first promoted by the British 19th century child-reformer Mary Carpenter. They were originally intended as a means of separating children who had been convicted of criminal offenses from the adult prisoner population. In Australia reformatories were used for children who were convicted of offenses, but also for children who were, for a variety of reasons, judged as needing strong discipline.
Religious Order
A group composed of initiated people committed to a particular set of values within a Church – within Christianity this often refers to religious Brothers (monks) and Sisters (nuns).
Repository
A storage facility.
S
Support Service
Support Services are groups who provide services to assist people who, as children, experienced time separated from their families through being placed in out-of-home ‘care’. Some of these organisations also provide support services to other family members who have been affected.
T
Training Institution
Tasmania only. Training institutions were institutions responsible for juvenile offenders or other children considered to require firm discipline.
Y
Youth Welfare Service
An organisation providing a range of support services to young people, particularly teenagers, sometimes including short term hostel placements and life skills training.