In Western Australia (WA), a coronial inquest into the death of a child who had been in care is mandatory. An inquest is a public hearing, a fact-finding process to determine the cause of the death, prevent future deaths from occurring in similar circumstances and to comment on the public health implications. With these functions in mind, an analysis of the inquest reports regarding the deaths of children aged 13-18 years who were in care was undertaken. The aims were to make visible the representations and frames that describe child protection practice in relation to these children who were in out of home care, the complex problems faced by their families and the care and support provided to them by the child welfare system. We identified three frames: blame featuring individual responsibility and parental deficits, disengagement and service delivery failure as a missed opportunity. We conclude that what is needed in coronial inquests is a fuller representation of broader systemic issues that are inevitably consequential for child and family well-being. Highlighting social and structural inequalities, trauma, discrimination and racism could arguably maximise the potential for coronial findings to reflect the need for supportive practice and a more preventative approach.

Grandparents become custodial carers of their grandchildren for a variety of reasons, including love, fear of losing the children to the system, efforts to protect children while managing relationships with the adult child (parent), policy impetus, and even for the convenience of child protection systems. As obvious candidates for care provision, grandparents report feeling pressured to take on care, and yet many grandcarers are poorly supported and feel taken for granted. Drawing on a mixed method study of grandparent carers and service providers located in Western Australia, we argue that there are important issues of inequity and injustice associated with being a grandcarer, in particular due to systemic and discursive failures to recognize the complexity and challenges of care provision. Misrecognition and epistemic injustice result in further marginalization and disempowerment, compounding barriers to accessing services and supports, which in turn impact upon child and family wellbeing. The aim of this article is to analyse the complex circumstances described by grandcarers and service providers in interview and survey data, highlighting issues of inequity and injustice and therefore areas for improving policy and services to support grandfamilies.

Child welfare policy making is a highly contested area in public policy. Child abuse scandals prompt critical appraisals of parents, professionals and the child protection system creating a tipping point for reform. One hundred and six transcripts of debates in the West Australian Parliament from August until December 2006 relating to child welfare and child deaths were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The analysis found that statistics about child deaths were conflated with other levels of childhood vulnerability promoting blame, fear, risk and an individual responsibility theme. The key rhetorical strategy was the use of numbers to generate emotion, credibility and authority to frame child maltreatment narrowly as a moral crime. Rhetoric and emotions is about telling causal stories and will remain ubiquitous in social policy making. So, in order to guide policy debate and creation, ground their claims and manage ambiguity and uncertainty, policy makers, researchers and practitioners working with complex social issues will do well to step into this public and political discourse and be strategic in shaping more nuanced alternative frames.

This paper focuses on the removal and placement in state care of newborns and infants. National child protection data show a growing proportion of infants entering care. Pre-birth provides an unparalleled opportunity for early intervention. Arguably, the removal of infants from their mothers undermines this opportunity and unarguably, creates cascading negative effects on women and their families. Western Australia is used as a case study wherein data over a seven-year period details an increase in infants entering care. This paper presents these data and examines the policy text to identify how they portray the problem of risk to infants, represent their mothers and shape practice. The findings suggest a lack of attention to the interdependence of the mother-infant relationship and the needs of vulnerable women. Being exploratory and interpretive, these findings constitute a guide for alternative representations and solutions that promote the health and wellbeing of the mother-child unit.

This paper is the first of a series emerging from a study of the practice of policy creation when a child welfare event comes to the notice of the public as a scandal and engages the attention of politicians and the media. The daily newspaper, The West Australian reported extensively on the Coroner's finding into the death of an 11month old toddler, Wade Scale, known to the child protection department. Debate and policy responses in the West Australian Parliament during the period of four months in 2006 are used as a case study to explore and identify the policy proposals that emerge out of a politicized landscape. The aim was the development of a theoretical framework and practical strategies to enable the public to have a more nuanced understanding of this complex issue and develop more supportive practice models for vulnerable families. The analysis identified specific policies dominated by a discourse of blame and regulation.

This article reviews initial findings from an Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute [AHURI]-funded research project examining housing outcomes among Australian young people who have been in state out-ofhome care. Our findings suggest a linkage between incidents of in-care abuse and poor postcare housing outcomes among our research participants, including primary homelessness. Not attending school when leaving care was also highly associated with having experienced in-care abuse. The authors postulate that adverse in-care experiences may have contributed to poor postcare housing outcomes among the research participants; and this article raises a number of specific concerns related to neglect, abuse and assault while in care. It is also argued that support in the transition from care needs to be strengthened to mitigate poor postcare outcomes, as does accountability for in-care adversities.

A study by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute on housing pathways after out of home state care is discussed. The study identifies two major pathways from care, namely a smooth and a volatile transition. A majority of care leavers are found to have a 'volatile transition' into independent living, leading to poor housing outcomes. Three key areas for helping care leavers acquire and maintain accommodation in their transition from state care are identified.

The dawning of the new Millennium coincided with intense change within museums, as new technologies and new approaches towards history and the past raised profound questions about the identity and direction of UK museums. The paper discusses these matters in terms of the construction and reception of museum exhibitions. The first part, which draws on 49 exploratory interviews with a sample of staff in UK museums, considers the processes determining both the choice of appropriate exhibition topics and the inclusion or exclusion of particular artefacts and perspectives. The second part, drawing on the core findings from 200 semi-structured interviews with visitors, argues that many museum visitors are highly active and discerning in their interpretation of exhibitions and museum-mediated histories. An implication of the findings is that the preferences of visitors may have a proactive influence upon the flavour and direction of museum accounts. The final part considers the implications of the data for contemporary museum practice and its context. It concentrates upon the increasing validity of sexuality as topic within UK museums and as way of illustrating the shifting milieu within which museums are currently working. Ultimately, museum accounts of the past may never be the same again.

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