Care and Protection (1976 - )

The modern system of out of home care recognises that children or young people who need care and protection are not to blame for their situation. This wasn't always the case. Historically, children and young people who were abandoned were seen to be tainted and liable to influence other 'good' children. Giving evidence to the Select Committee of the Legislative Council into the State Children Act Amendment Bill in 1918 (p.10), Frederick Daniel Good, President of the Justices' Association of Western Australia and a magistrate in the Children's Court, gave an example of these values: 'A girl of 17 who has had two illegitimate children and who is known to be abandoned should not be sent to an institution where other girls who have not been guilty of anything serious are inmates. Goodness only knows what harm an abandoned girl will do in an institution, where other inmates are not as bad as she is.' The issues around the proximity of children who are taken into care for their own protection and children who have been brought into care via the juvenile justice system has been an ongoing factor in placement decisions and influenced the creation of separate government departments for juvenile justice and child welfare in 1994.

The care and protection of children in Australia is regulated by Acts of Parliament. In Western Australia, there have been five significant phases of this regulation:

• 1800s: Neglected and destitute children were seen as a problem for society. There were different pieces of legislation to regulate the 'protection' of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. For example, the Industrial Schools Act 1874 and the Aborigines Protection Act 1886.
• 1890s to 1900s: Child mortality and wide publicity about baby farming led to a broader awareness that neglected and destitute children were victims who needed protection as well as offenders from whom society needed protection. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children were dealt with through different systems. For example, the Health Act 1898, Health Act 1911, State Children Act 1907, Aborgines Act 1905, and the Child Welfare Act 1947.
• 1970s: The battered baby syndrome identified in the professional literature in the 1960s once again highlighted the need to protect children. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children were brought into the same child welfare system and the Child Welfare Amendment Act (No 2) 1976 substituted the term, child in need of care and protection for neglected child.
• 1994: The Young Offenders Act 1994 repealed the juvenile justice sections of the Child Welfare Act 1947 and moved juvenile justice from the Department for Community Development to the Ministry of Justice. However, both juvenile justice and child protection cases continued to be heard in the Children's Court, under the auspices of the Children's Court of Western Australia Act 1988.
• 2000s: The care and protection of children is a responsibility that is shared by the community, with parents playing a significant role. National standards for children in out of home care were developed, along with an increased emphasis on family reunification. This approach is enshrined in the Children and Community Services Act 2004.