Family Group Conferences in Four Australian States

Abstract

This chapter outlines the development of family group conferencing in child protection during the 1990s in four of the six states, with the most populous state—New South Wales. The four states covered here are Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia. The chapter considers the use of pilot projects for the implementation of conferencing and discusses whether the states have incorporated family group conferencing in child welfare legislation. It explores the location of conference coordinators and their perceived independence and the role of evaluations to assist the implementation process in the four states. All four states promote the values of working in partnership with families; however, South Australia has a nonnegotiable process ensuring full family participation at the time of greatest crisis. This approach has shown that most families do participate and develop their own protective plans, rather than some families in special circumstances as has been the case in Victoria and Tasmania.