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Event Agenda

Join us for a comprehensive multi-day program exploring the future of child protection. The agenda includes a pre-conference day, two full days of forum sessions, and post-conference workshops featuring keynote presentations from sector leaders, practical case studies, and evidence-informed insights into prevention, system reform, and cross-sector collaboration to strengthen outcomes for children and families.

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7:00 AM Registration opens

8:40 AM Welcome to Country

8:50 AM Welcoming Remarks from the Conference Chair

Addressing the foster care and placement crisis by building sustainable systems for children, family, and kin

  • Unpacking placement demand, carer supply and system bottlenecks to identify drivers of the placement crisis 
  • Redesigning placement planning systems to reduce emergency and short-term placements 
  • Aligning policy, funding and service delivery to stabilise care systems

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

  • Strengthening child assessments to match placements based on developmental, trauma and disability needs 
  • Implementing placement matching frameworks that prioritise relational fit and long-term stability 
  • Integrating specialist therapeutic supports to stabilise placements for children with complex needs 

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

  • Building community-based recruitment strategies to grow diverse foster and kinship carer pipelines 
  • Expanding foster and kinship care recruitment and retention strategies to address carer shortages 
  • Ensuring financial assistance, respite and practical supports to retain long-term carers 

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

11:00 AM Morning Tea Break

  • Developing structured training pathways that prepare carers for trauma, disability and neurodivergence 
  • Establishing mentoring and peer learning models that strengthen carer confidence 
  • Expanding ongoing support services to sustain carers managing high-complexity placements 
  • Implementing trauma-informed and neuro-affirming care approaches that respond to the behavioural impacts of adversity 
  • Ensuring access to disability, mental health and allied health supports for children in care 
  • Coordinating specialist services around carers to prevent placement disruption 

12:30 PM Mindfulness and Wellness Session

12:40 PM Lunch Break

  • Developing therapeutic foster care and specialist home-based care models for children with complex needs 
  • Strengthening intensive placement support services that prevent escalation into residential care 
  • Prioritising family-based care through funding models that support therapeutic foster and kinship placements
  • Developing place-based recruitment strategies that grow regional carer networks 
  • Partnering with community organisations to identify and support potential carers 
  • Designing regional support models that sustain foster and kinship carers in rural and remote communities 
  • Recognising kinship carers through tailored financial, legal and practical supports 
  • Strengthening culturally responsive support models that sustain kinship placements 
  • Embedding kinship-led care approaches within statutory practice

3:10 PM Afternoon Tea Break

  • Embedding structured placement decision reviews that prioritise relational continuity 
  • Implementing structured decision-making tools that reduce reactive placements 
  • Aligning supervision and review processes to improve placement planning
  • Strengthening Aboriginal community leadership in placement planning and decision-making 
  • Embedding kinship and cultural connection as central considerations in placement decisions 
  • Aligning statutory systems with Aboriginal-led care models 

5:30 PM Closing remarks

7:00 AM Registration opens

8:40 AM Welcome to Country

8:50 AM Welcoming remarks from the Conference Chair

Understanding and responding to child safety and child protection challenges

  • Examining the social, economic and systemic drivers contributing to rising child protection involvement 
  • Identifying early intervention opportunities that prevent family challenges escalating into statutory responses 
  • Reframing child protection as a system that addresses the underlying causes of harm affecting children and families 

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

  • Recognising domestic and family violence as a primary driver of child protection involvement 
  • Improving risk assessment and safety planning approaches that prioritise the safety of children and non-offending parents 
  • Shifting system responses toward perpetrator accountability rather than placing responsibility on victim-survivors 

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

  • Exploring the neurodevelopmental impacts of trauma, adversity and chronic stress on children 
  • Understanding how trauma shapes behaviour, emotional regulation and family dynamics 
  • Embedding trauma-informed approaches that improve practitioner responses to children and families in crisis 

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

11:00 AM Morning Tea Break

  • Identifying indicators of disability and neurodivergence during intake and child protection assessments 
  • Improving assessment processes that distinguish trauma responses from disability-related needs 
  • Integrating disability-informed perspectives into case planning and statutory decision-making 
  • Clarifying roles and responsibilities between NDIS and child protection to reduce service gaps 
  • Establishing coordination processes that ensure disability supports are in place before removal decisions 
  • Developing joint case planning approaches that align statutory responses with disability service supports 
  • Building multidisciplinary teams that coordinate responses across health, education and disability services 
  • Implementing shared care planning approaches that address developmental, behavioural and therapeutic needs 
  • Connecting practitioners across sectors to provide coordinated wrap-around supports for children and carers 

1:00 PM Lunch Break

  • Recognising how trauma, disability and neurodivergence shape children’s behaviour and developmental needs 
  • Designing care environments that support emotional regulation, sensory needs and relational safety 
  • Equipping carers and practitioners with practical strategies that promote healing and stability 
  • Connecting child protection, disability, health and education services to provide coordinated support 
  • Establishing shared care planning processes that address children’s developmental and therapeutic needs 
  • Facilitating information sharing across services to prevent gaps in support for children and carers 
  • Preparing transition plans early to support young people moving from care to adulthood 
  • Linking housing, education, employment and disability supports to create stable pathways 
  • Empowering young people to participate in planning their future and accessing ongoing supports 

3:30 PM Afternoon Tea Break

Safeguarding Children in a Changing Risk Environment

4:00 PM Mindfulness and Wellness Session

  • Examining emerging safeguarding risks including online exploitation, grooming and exposure to harmful content 
  • Understanding how digital environments, peer dynamics and social media are reshaping risks for children 
  • Strengthening safeguarding approaches that respond to both online and offline environments
  • Embedding child safe standards across schools, community services and youth settings 
  • Improving cross-sector safeguarding coordination between child protection, education, policing and community services 
  • Building prevention-focused safeguarding approaches that reduce opportunities for abuse and harm 

5:30 PM Closing remarks from the Conference Chair

  • Recognising children as active participants in decisions affecting their care and wellbeing 
  • Applying age-appropriate communication methods that support children to express their views 
  • Embedding child voice in assessments, case planning and review processes that influence decisions
  • Valuing lived experience as expertise that strengthens service design and delivery 
  • Establishing roles for parents and families with lived experience within services and programs 
  • Integrating lived experience perspectives into program development, evaluation and improvement 
  • Creating youth advisory and governance roles that influence organisational decision-making 
  • Supporting children and young people to participate safely in policy and program discussions 
  • Embedding youth-led insights into service planning, governance and accountability processes 

1:00 PM Lunch Break

  • Introducing family-led decision-making processes that centre families and kin in planning for children 
  • Facilitating family group meetings that identify safe care options within family networks 
  • Embedding family-led planning approaches within statutory decision-making processes 
  • Understanding how trauma, power dynamics and system involvement affect participation  
  • Developing participation approaches that ensure children and families can contribute safely and meaningfully  
  • Embedding ethical engagement practices that prevent extractive or tokenistic consultation 
  • Reframing participation from consultation toward shared authority in decision-making 
  • Establishing governance structures that include families, kin and community representatives 
  • Embedding community-led insights into policy, service design and accountability processes

3:30 PM Afternoon Tea Break

Safeguarding Children in a Changing Risk Environment

4:00 PM Mindfulness and Wellness Session

  • Examining emerging safeguarding risks including online exploitation, grooming and exposure to harmful content 
  • Understanding how digital environments, peer dynamics and social media are reshaping risks for children 
  • Strengthening safeguarding approaches that respond to both online and offline environments
  • Embedding child safe standards across schools, community services and youth settings 
  • Improving cross-sector safeguarding coordination between child protection, education, policing and community services 
  • Building prevention-focused safeguarding approaches that reduce opportunities for abuse and harm 

5:30 PM Closing remarks from the Conference Chair

7:00 AM Registration opens

8:40 AM Welcome to Country

8:50 AM Welcoming remarks from the Conference Chair

Designing a Preventative and Integrated Child Protection System

  • Designing early family support systems that identify emerging risks and provide assistance before statutory thresholds are reached 
  • Developing referral pathways that enable health, education and community services to connect families with preventative supports earlier 
  • Restructuring funding and service models to prioritise family preservation, practical supports and early intervention responses

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

  • Recognising poverty, housing instability and material hardship as drivers of child protection involvement 
  • Linking housing services, financial assistance and family supports so families can access practical help earlier 
  • Delivering coordinated responses that stabilise families experiencing hardship and prevent statutory escalation

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

  • Connecting health, housing, education and family services around shared responses to emerging family needs 
  • Establishing collaborative planning processes that allow services to respond collectively to children and families 
  • Supporting integrated service models that address children’s developmental, social and family needs together

Barbara Brennan

Managing Director
Bars Behind Me

11:00 AM Morning Tea Break

  • Recognising how institutional bias and colonial assumptions influence reporting, assessment and decision-making 
  • Challenging deficit-based narratives that frame Aboriginal families through risk rather than cultural strength 
  • Shifting practice toward culturally grounded responses that respect Aboriginal family structures and authority 
  • Learning from Indigenous understandings of kinship, collective caregiving and child development 
  • Incorporating cultural knowledge into assessment, case planning and family engagement 
  • Designing responses that honour extended family networks and cultural connection in child protection practice 
  • Understanding how cultural norms around caregiving, discipline and family roles can be misinterpreted in statutory systems 
  • Working alongside cultural leaders, interpreters and community organisations during assessment and engagement 
  • Adapting practice approaches so cultural difference is not misidentified as neglect or risk

1:00 PM Lunch Break

  • Supporting Aboriginal-led family support programs that assist families before risks escalate to statutory systems 
  • Drawing on cultural knowledge and community leadership to guide early intervention responses 
  • Delivering family support approaches that prioritise cultural connection, kinship networks and community care
  • Acknowledging the cultural responsibilities and pressures experienced by Aboriginal practitioners in statutory systems 
  • Providing culturally safe supervision, peer networks and leadership pathways for Aboriginal staff 
  • Creating workplace environments that recognise cultural authority and sustain Aboriginal workforce participation
  • Partnering with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to deliver culturally grounded family support services 
  • Sharing decision-making authority with community organisations in prevention and early intervention responses 
  • Connecting statutory systems with Aboriginal-led services to support families before crisis occurs

3:30 PM Afternoon Tea Break

Sharing Power with Families, Kin and Communities

4:00 PM Mindfulness and Wellness Session

  • Introducing family-led decision-making processes that place parents, kin and extended family at the centre of planning for children 
  • Facilitating family group meetings that identify safe care arrangements within family and community networks 
  • Reframing statutory decision-making so families participate as partners rather than subjects of investigation
  • Exploring governance approaches that include families and communities in decision-making structures 
  • Recognising lived experience as a form of expertise that should shape policy, service design and accountability  
  • Committing to shared authority models that redistribute power within child protection systems  

5:30 PM Closing remarks from the Conference Chair

  • Coordinating health, education and family services around shared plans for children and families experiencing risk 
  • Establishing communication pathways that allow services to respond collectively rather than in isolation 
  • Delivering wrap-around supports that address children’s developmental, educational and family needs together 
  • Building locally led support networks that connect families with practical help within their communities 
  • Partnering with community organisations to identify emerging family needs earlier 
  • Delivering neighbourhood-based support models that reduce escalation into statutory systems
  • Positioning early childhood services as key entry points for identifying and responding to emerging family needs 
  • Linking early learning, family support and child protection services through shared referral and support pathways 
  • Providing coordinated early supports that reduce escalation into statutory intervention 

1:00 PM Lunch Break

  • Preparing transition plans that begin well before young people exit care 
  • Connecting housing, education, employment and health supports to create stable pathways into adulthood 
  • Enabling young people to participate in planning their goals and future supports
  • Responding to family crises through coordinated housing, mental health and disability supports 
  • Bringing together multiple services to address complex family needs holistically 
  • Providing practical assistance that stabilises families and reduces the likelihood of statutory involvement
  • Clarifying shared responsibilities between agencies involved in supporting children and families 
  • Developing governance structures that track outcomes across multiple service systems 
  • Monitoring cross-agency responses to ensure families receive coordinated and continuous support

3:30 PM Afternoon Tea Break

Sharing Power with Families, Kin and Communities

4:00 PM Mindfulness and Wellness Session

  • Introducing family-led decision-making processes that place parents, kin and extended family at the centre of planning for children 
  • Facilitating family group meetings that identify safe care arrangements within family and community networks 
  • Reframing statutory decision-making so families participate as partners rather than subjects of investigation
  • Exploring governance approaches that include families and communities in decision-making structures 
  • Recognising lived experience as a form of expertise that should shape policy, service design and accountability  
  • Committing to shared authority models that redistribute power within child protection systems

5:30 PM Closing remarks from the Conference Chair

  • Practical tools for listening to children of different ages, abilities and communication styles 
  • Adapting engagement approaches for children with disability, neurodivergence and trauma 
  • Methods for capturing child voice in case planning, assessments and decision-making 
  • Embedding child voice into policy design, service delivery and organisational governance 
  • Moving beyond consultation to ensure children’s perspectives influence real decisions 
     

12:00 PM Networking Lunch Break

  • Understanding burnout, moral injury and psychosocial risk in child protection work 
  • Recognising how high caseloads, trauma exposure and system pressure impact practitioner wellbeing 
  • Practical strategies to support workforce resilience and sustainable practice environments 
  • Strengthening reflective learning, peer support and supervision structures 
  • Creating organisational cultures that retain and support child protection practitioners 

4:00 PM End of Post Conference Workshops

Addressing the foster care and placement crisis by building sustainable systems for children, family, and kin

Morning Plenary

Understanding and responding to child safety and child protection challenges

Afternoon Plenary

Safeguarding Children in a Changing Risk Environment

Afternoon Plenary

Safeguarding Children in a Changing Risk Environment

Morning Plenary

Designing a Preventative and Integrated Child Protection System

Afternoon Plenary

Sharing Power with Families, Kin and Communities

Afternoon Plenary

Sharing Power with Families, Kin and Communities

  • Practical tools for listening to children of different ages, abilities and communication styles 
  • Adapting engagement approaches for children with disability, neurodivergence and trauma 
  • Methods for capturing child voice in case planning, assessments and decision-making 
  • Embedding child voice into policy design, service delivery and organisational governance 
  • Moving beyond consultation to ensure children’s perspectives influence real decisions 
     

12:00 PM Networking Lunch Break

  • Understanding burnout, moral injury and psychosocial risk in child protection work 
  • Recognising how high caseloads, trauma exposure and system pressure impact practitioner wellbeing 
  • Practical strategies to support workforce resilience and sustainable practice environments 
  • Strengthening reflective learning, peer support and supervision structures 
  • Creating organisational cultures that retain and support child protection practitioners 

4:00 PM End of Post Conference Workshops