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A B S T R AC TChild protection authorities in many countries are concerned with reducing the rates of investigations and with diverting at-risk families from the child protection service system. In several countries, differential responses have been introduced into child protection law providing service providers with some choice between investigative or family support pathways, depending upon the level of risk posed in the circumstance. In this paper, we report on a study into a form of differential response known as Intervention with Parents' Agreement introduced in Queensland, Australia, in 2005. A unique feature of this differential response is that it occurs after an initial child protection investigation, although it does provide child protection services with options for providing supportive interventions to at-risk families to prevent the further escalation of concerns. In this paper, we analyse practitioners' perceptions of factors that inhibit and promote implementation of the Intervention with Parents' Agreement. Drawing upon interviews with 25 practitioners, we identify factors that become important for securing participation after an initial investigation has occurred. We discuss the implications for the development of differential responses in child protection service systems.

With growing concerns about the efficacy and costs of intrusive child protection interventions and increasing recognition of citizen rights to participation in governance, jurisdictions are looking to collaborative alternatives that divert families from the courts and out-of-home care. In Queensland (Australia), "intervention with parental agreement" (IPA) is one such response. Under IPA, the statutory child protection authority can work collaboratively with families, without a court order, to respond to children assessed as "in need of protection." In this paper, we use procedural justice theory as a lens to explore how IPA policy is enacted in practice. Procedural justice relates to the quality of treatment a person receives and the fairness of the process than an authority uses during decision-making (Tyler, 2006). It is associated with voluntary cooperation and compliance; key practice concerns when working to address child maltreatment via parental agreement rather than court ordered intervention. We report on a qualitative study that utilized semistructured, in-depth interviews to capture the perceptions of 30 practitioners regarding the factors that shape the extent to which they enact IPA policy in a procedurally fair manner. Strategies for enhancing procedurally just enactment of IPA policy in practice are discussed.

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In Australia, there are more than 46 000 children in out-of-home care (OOHC). Most of these children have been in OOHC for more than 2 years. Similarly, there are more than 407 000 children in the United States and over 80 800 in England who are 'looked after' with approximately one third of these children being in OOHC for more than 2 years. This paper concerns 'looked after' children's rights to contact with their birth parents. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) requires child protection systems to recognize the rights of children to maintain contact with their families except where this is not in the child's 'best interests'. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study conducted in Australia exploring legal and family support practitioners' perceptions of barriers to contact between children in OOHC and their birth parents. The thematic analysis identified four themes: These were as follows: a focus on systems driven responses; lack of cultural recognition and responsiveness; carers' disconnection from birth parents; and parents' exclusion. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding and recognizing children's right to contact with birth parents. K E Y W O R D S'best interests', 'birth parents', 'family contact', 'human rights', 'looked after children', 'out of home care'