List of Categories

A
Adolescent Care
Adolescent Care refers to models of out-of-home care geared to the needs of young people, including Adolescent Units, Early Adolescent Units, Teenage Units and Adolescent Community Placement. Programs for adolescents became more common from the 1980s.
Advocacy Body
An Advocacy Body is a group 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.
Amending Act
An Amending Act is a law passed to amend (change) another law. Amending Acts can change original pieces of legislation (Principal Acts) or they can change previous Amending Acts.
Anglican
The term Anglican describes a person or orgnisation 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
The term Catholic describes a person or organisation affiliated with the Catholic Church. With child welfare, services were often clustered under the umbrella terms of Protestant and Catholic.
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.
Church
Church is a general term which may be applied to any number of (usually Christian) religious groups. The phrase 'the church' usually refers to the official opinion, policy or practice of a particular denomination.
Community Service Organisation
Community Service Organisations, or CSOs 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’ programs. In some states and territories, including New South Wales, such organisations are known as Non-Government Organisations, or NGOs. 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.
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 a 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. Family Group Homes could be run by government departments or by non-government organisations. In Tasmania, Family Group Homes were not introduced until about 1980. In Tasmania, Family Group Homes run by the Social Welfare Department provided temporary 'care' for children.
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 Department
A Government Department is a group of public servants organised to administer a particular area of government activity, under the control of a minister.
Government-run
The term 'Government-run' is used to describe an organisation or activity for which a government (usually State, Territory or Federal) is directly responsible.
H
Home
The term Home is used to describe any institution that accommodated children, for example, orphanages, children's Homes, disability institutions, family group homes, hospitals and juvenile justice institutions.
Hostel
The term 'Hostel' refers to a type of institution for young people. Most commonly, hostels catered for 'older' children and young people from around the age of 15. Often young people came to a hostel after leaving a children's home or reformatory. Hostels were designed to assist former residents of orphanages and children's homes with the transition to paid employment and independent living. Educational Hostels were another category, providing accommodation and possibly some educational support for young people, in a location nearby to school. Educational hostels are usually located in rural areas.
J
Juvenile Justice Centre
A term adopted in the 1990s to describe institutions providing custodial accommodation for remanded or sentenced young people. These places were also sometimes known as juvenile detention centres or youth detention centres. At times, young people have been accommodated in adult prisons.
N
Non-denominational
The term Non-denominational describes Protestant organisations without any specific denominational affiliation.
P
Policy
The term Policy refers to a guiding principle adopted by a group, sector or government with respect to a particular issue.
Principal Act
A Principal Act is the original piece of legislation enacted to introduce a particular policy. A Principal Act can be amended (changed) by Amending Acts.
R
Receiving Agency
Receiving Agency was the name given to the organisation named as the ‘custodian’ of children who were sent to Australia as migrants from the United Kingdom or Malta. The term is used mostly for post-World War Two migration, but includes some organisations that were responsible for children who came earlier in the century.
Records Access Service
A Records Service is an organisation, or part of an organisation, which helps people find and locate records that contain information about them and their time in 'care'.
Records Holder
A Records Holder is an organisation, family or person which holds records.
Religious Order
The term Religious Order refers to 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).
Residential Care
The term Residential Care refers to models of out-of-home care that emerged from around the 1980s, including Residential Units. Residential Care is different to Home-Based Care (such as foster care or kinship care). Residential Units are usually run by Community Service Organisations or Non-Government Organisations.
S
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Church with a strong philanthropic mission which led it to become highly involved with child welfare in many parts of Australia.
Support Service
Support Services are groups who provide services to assist people who were in 'care' as children. Some of these organisations also provide support services to other family members (like the care leaver's children or grandchildren) who have also been affected.
T
Temporary Care
Temporary Care is a term to describe the short-term, emergency, respite or crisis accommodation of children and young people.
Type of 'care'
A method of providing for children who are not living with their families.
Y
Youth Training Centre
Youth Training Centre is a term adopted from the 1950s onwards in place of 'reformatory' or 'training institution' to describe residential institutions designed for children and young people considered to require stronger discipline that those directed to other forms of 'care'. In some cases, children placed in Youth Training Centres were on remand, or had been convicted of a criminal offence. Sometimes, these institutions were also known as Juvenile Detention or Juvenile Justice Centres. At times, young people have been accommodated in adult prisons.
Youth Welfare Service
The term Youth Welfare Service refers to an organisation providing a range of support services to young people, particularly teenagers, sometimes including short term hostel placements and life skills training.