ABOUT US

centre for excellence in therapeutic care

The CETC mobilises knowledge about “what works” in out-of-home care to better resource carers and organisations supporting children and young people living in all forms of care, including foster and kinship care, residential care and secure care.

our vision

Our vision is that organisations and carers can be better equipped with the knowledge, skills and networks to ensure that children and young people experience safe, meaningful and resilient relationships in every form of out-of-home care.

About the team

meet the team

Janise Mitchell

DIRECTOR

Janise is the Director of the CETC and the Deputy CEO of the Australian Childhood Foundation. She completed a Master of Social Work in 2008 in which she researched the implementation of therapeutic foster care in Victoria. In doing so, she researched best practice elements in therapeutic models of care and looked at the change process required to move an existing way of delivering care to a therapeutic model of service delivery. Janise has 30 years’ experience in the field of child protection and therapeutic care. She has extensive experience providing consultancy to governments and organisations, policy analysis, program development and evaluation. Janise is the lead editor of a Handbook on Therapeutic Care to be published in September 2019 by Jessica Kingsley.
Noel Macnamara

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Noel is the Deputy Director of the CETC, and the Executive Manager, Research and Policy at the Australian Childhood Foundation. Noel brings 30 years of experience to the Centre in therapeutic out of home care and child protection having worked in operational and senior management roles, policy and organisational consultancy. In 2013, Noel’s contribution to the field was acknowledged in his being awarded the Robin Clark Award in Victoria for his contribution to the field of child protection and out of home care. He has a particular interest in supervision and leadership and organisational development.
Glenys Bristow

Senior Residential Care Advisor

Glenys is a Senior Residential Care Advisor for the Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care in NSW and brings over 35 plus years experience in therapeutic residential care as a residential care worker, manager, trainer, and consultant. In 2003, Glenys was awarded the Robin Clark Award and later the Residential Care Learning & Development Strategy (RCLDS) Leadership Award in Residential Care for demonstrating achievement and innovation having significant impact on residential care systems and outcomes for children and young people. Glenys is passionate about providing relevant and up to date industry informed training and caring for the workers who care for the young people. Glenys recently completed her Doctor of Education researching what makes a good residential worker – Artistry Fact or Fiction?
Kelly Royds

Head of Knowledge Mobilisation & Innovation

Kelly Royds is the Head of Knowledge Mobilisation and Innovation with the Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care, where she works to mobilise practice and research knowledge into training, education and policy resources. Kelly works in close partnership with therapeutic care providers, practitioners and other key government and non-government stakeholders to progress the goals of the CETC. She has spent the past 15+ years developing child and youth-centred policies, evaluation systems and programs that lift up and respond to the voices of children and young people across human services and not-for-profit sectors in Australia, South-East Asia and the United States. Kelly has a particular interest in the power of storytelling to improve systems and outcomes for young people.
Dr Lynne McPherson (SCU)

Director of Research

Dr McPherson brings a strong professional and academic background in child protection and out of home care spanning more than 30 years in practice, management, training and research. She has considerable research and organisational consultancy experience, including but not limited to evaluation of therapeutic care programs, numerous organisational consultancy and development projects and leadership, supervision and change management. In 1997, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to examine international best practice in child protection. In 2017 Dr McPherson and Noel Macnamara released a book ‘Supervising Child Protection Practice: What Works?’ An Evidence Informed Approach. This book was published and distributed internationally by Springer Publishers. Alongside Dr Lynne McPherson is an SCU based Research Team: Kathomi Gatwiri – Senior Research Officer (SCU) Nadine Cameron – Research Officer (SCU) Natalie Parmenter – Research Assistant (SCU).
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Janise Mitchell

Director

Janise is our Director and Deputy CEO of the Australian Childhood Foundation. She leads the CETC across all knowledge mobilisation, research, practice, government relations, and stakeholder engagement activities.

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Joe Tucci

CEO of Australian Childhood Foundation

Joe is the CEO of the Australian Childhood Foundation and shapes the delivery and strategy of the CETC as a division of the Australian Childhood Foundation.

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Noel Macnamara

Deputy Director

Noel is our Deputy Director and informs and shapes the research, policy and education agenda of the CETC, with a current focus on evolving research and support for foster and kinship carers.

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Lynne McPherson

Director of Research

Lynne is our Director of Research. She leads the research agenda at the CETC in conjunction with her role as Associate Professor with Southern Cross University based in the Centre for Children and Young People in the Faculty of Health.

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Kelly Royds

Head of Knowledge Mobilisation & Innovation

Kelly is our Head of Knowledge Mobilisation & Innovation. She works to ensure young people, carers, leaders, and policymakers can access, share, and contribute to knowledge about what works in therapeutic out-of-home care.

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Cyra Fernandes

Senior Specialist, Therapeutic Care

Cyra is our Senior Specialist, Therapeutic Residential Care. Her work with the CETC is focused on evolving understanding and education around harmful sexual behaviours and sexual exploitation.

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Prue Walker

Senior Project Officer, FASD

Prue is our Senior Project Officer, FASD where she is working across the CETC and the Australian Childhood Foundation to bring an FASD focus to our work with trauma.

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Glenys Bristow

Senior Specialist, Therapeutic Residential Care

Glenys is our Senior Specialist, Therapeutic Residential Care where she advocates to ensure the needs of young people and residential workers are front and centre of what we do.

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Glenda Kickett

Cultural Advisor

Glenda is our Cultural Advisor and works to deepen knowledge of cultural safety for children and young people and cultural supervision for staff in out-of-home care.

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Billy Black

Care Experience Resources and Training Specialist

Billy is our Care Experience Resources and Training Specialist, leading the design and development of special projects, resources, and training that amplify the voices of children and young people in care.

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Jacqui Jones

Training & Digital Learning Manager

Jacqui is our Training & Digital Learning Manager. She manages the development and coordination of our training and e-learning activities.

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Sally Denning

Senior Specialist, Therapeutic Care

Sally is a Senior Specialist at CETC and works on the development of practice guides, tools, and resources to support capacity building of foster carers, kinship carers and professionals within the Therapeutic Care sector.

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about us

Highlights

spotlighted stories

About Stories
  • All blogs
  • Behaviours that challenge
  • Care system
  • Care teams
  • Child & youth development
  • Leaving care
  • Lived experience
  • Relationship
  • Residential care
  • Self care
  • Therapeutic specialist
About Us

The therapeutic power of imaginary storytelling

Written by: Skye Bekaert

Stories are a powerful therapeutic tool that can create real change and give children and young people the skills and confidence to make their voices heard in future.

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About Us

New years’ resolutions and other goals for teens in care

Written by: Billy Black

If you’ve ever found a resolution hard to stick to and depressing to fail, remember that young people in out-of-home care have similar experiences with care goals. If you’re working with someone who’s struggling with a care goal, maybe this can help you find something outside the box that would fit their abilities better. A goal that is a trivially easy behavioural direction change rather than a behavioural destination puts less pressure on kids to be “better” and offers an avenue for slower and more permanent progress, with more opportunities to enjoy success.

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Christmas in residential care: It doesn’t need to be the most wonderful time of the year

Written by: Alex Novak

Christmas is a time of joy and celebration for many Australians, but it can also bring pressure and unrealistic expectations. The shops are decorated, Christmas songs are everywhere, and cheesy ads show happy families celebrating. However, for young people in residential care, these seemingly innocuous things can be a blunt reminder of their own challenging situations and experiences, triggering big emotions and behaviours.

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Get involved

jobs, research, writing

Working at the CETC

As a division of the Australian Childhood Foundation, the CETC primary aim is to mobilise knowledge to improve outcomes for children and young people in out-of-home care.  If you have a commitment to hard work and would love the opportunity to support system change, we would love to hear from you.

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Participate in research

Our research relies on strong partnerships with practitioners, organisations and those with lived experience of out-of-home care. If you would like be involved, please read more about our latest research project. 

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Share your knowledge

We believe in the common saying, “none of us is as smart as all of us”. If you are a carer, practitioner, policy maker or researcher with knowledge to share, we would love to hear from you.

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Partners

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CONTACT​

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