Spit hoods don’t create safety—they escalate harm and undermine trust between young people and youth justice officers. Real safety comes from trauma-informed care, restorative practice, and investment in people and relationships.

This blog explores powerful new research amplifying the voices of young people in therapeutic residential care, highlighting the relationships, practices and systemic changes they say are most vital to their wellbeing.

This blog shares powerful insights from a study on child sexual abuse disclosures, revealing why children are often not believed—and what must change to keep them safe, heard, and protected.

Conversations about consent can be complex—especially for children and young people in kinship care. In this blog, kinship carer Shantelle shares how she approaches consent as an everyday, trauma-aware conversation grounded in safety, trust and lived experience. Her reflections form part of the new online course When yes means YES – for kinship carers, now available free for Victorian carers and professionals.

Australia is facing a national child protection crisis. From childcare abuse to residential care failures and youth detention trauma, children are being harmed by the very systems meant to protect them. In this blog, Noel Macnamara breaks down the crisis—and makes the case for urgent national leadership.

Australia still imprisons children as young as 10. It’s time to raise the age and reform youth detention. Learn more and sign the NATSILS pledge.

In this blog, Noel unpacks a recent study that sheds light on the personal costs and quiet rewards of foster care — and why better support for carers is essential to a stronger, more sustainable system.

As National Reconciliation Week (May 27 – June 3) comes to a close, I find myself reflecting deeply on this year’s theme, “Now More Than Ever.” It feels like a heartfelt call—one that asks us all to pause and listen, especially when we think about the First Nations children who are caught in the out-of-home care system.

Young people’s participation in decisions that affect them is a right, not a privilege. Yet for young people in out-of-home care and detention, this right is often seen as aspirational.

This blog shares key insights from the 2025 MASOC/MATSA conference, highlighting international perspectives on preventing harmful sexual behaviour through trauma-informed practice, cultural responsiveness, youth engagement, and emerging online safety concerns.

The words we use shape how children and young people feel—especially those with lived experiences of trauma. This blog explores how small shifts in language can foster trust, safety, and connection in care settings like out-of-home care and youth detention.

Kelly Royds explores how AI offers promising support for professionals in child-facing sectors by easing admin burdens, but its use in client documentation poses serious ethical and privacy risks.