Reflecting on the ACCP’s achievements of 2023 really brings home the breadth of our work across research, policy, and practice. The Centre has continued to grow and strengthen through our talented leadership, staff and student teams, all of whom contribute to new knowledge generation and supporting the sector in the development of new approaches and solutions. 

In 2023 we strengthened our leadership and governance with the appointment of Amy Cleland as our inaugural Aboriginal Strategy and Engagement Lead. In addition to chairing the ACCP's Aboriginal Leadership Group, Amy’s leadership provides ongoing guidance in keeping decolonisation and self-determination as a central focus of the ACCP’s approach and projects.

The year also saw the official launch of the Lived Expertise Advisory Panel (LEAP), formally embedding the voices of victim-survivors into the bedrock of ACCP's approach. Our LEAP members' perspectives bring the voice of lived experience into our programs and activities to inform best practice as well as helping to identify research gaps and priority areas in tackling and responding to child sexual abuse.

Our research went from strength to strength in 2023 with foci including perinatal child protection interventions, harmful sexual behaviours, families with multiple and complex needs, and understanding and addressing the impacts of colonising child protection practices on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. These projects have been supported through partnerships across the sector, funding bodies including the Australian Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Medical Research Future Fund, as well as philanthropic organisations such as the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation. Our team members have shared their findings on international stages from Europe to North America, demonstrating the reach and influence of our expertise, and highlighting opportunities for international collaborations along the way including in Norway, Scotland, England and Singapore.

We have continued translating our research, combining this with the clinical experience of our practice teams into leading policy and practice outcomes, including the launch in Children's Week 2023 of the Minimum Practice Standards: Specialist and Community Support Services Responding to Child Sexual Abuse, which set a minimum expectation of service provision for providers.

Our workforce development achievements have also been considerable. Our teaching and practice team have worked diligently to design our new Graduate Certificate in Childhood Trauma, creating a valuable addition to our Professional Certificate courses and an opportunity for practitioners to upskill with engaging, accessible and flexible online learning. The Professional Certificates were completed by more than 700 students, with 89% of survey respondents strongly agreeing that they were satisfied with the quality of their course. Our bespoke workforce development service has extended to the creation of a series of modules for the WA Police Force, which will be undertaken by all WA police officers - a significant step forward for a workforce which works closely with vulnerable young people.

2023 also ushered in a new era of focus on redesigning South Australia's child protection system, with the creation of the Child Protection Expert Group and my appointment as Chair. Whilst I am honoured to be appointed to this role, I do not take lightly the enormity of the task ahead. The Ministerial support for this program of work and the intent to harness the expertise of the sector and those with lived experience of the service system are significant resources that will support the achievement of a goal of this magnitude. 

The diversity and innovation in our activities this past year give me great confidence that we will continue to grow and help to lead the continued development and translation of new knowledge to enhance our approaches to preventing and responding to abuse and neglect. Keep an eye out this year for new ACCP-hosted seminars where we look forward to sharing our team’s expertise and knowledge with you - and for our 20th birthday celebrations in October!

In January 2023, ACCP Director Professor Leah Bromfield was appointed as Chair of South Australia’s Child Protection Expert Group by The Hon Katrine Hildyard MP, Minister for Child Protection. The group has been tasked with developing a 20-year vision for transforming child protection, and to work towards improved outcomes for South Australian children and young people. In May 2023, 15 experts were appointed to the group, including ACCP’s Deputy Director, Research, Prof Melissa O’Donnell.

An inaugural symposium, titled Beginning Together co-hosted by Prof Bromfield and Min Hildyard, took place in November 2023 at Adelaide Oval with over 300 attendees from across the child protection and related sectors, including not only those working in the sector but those with lived experience of the system, including parents, carers and young people with a care experience.

Photo credit: Richmond Visual

The ACCP Research team, led by Prof Melissa O’Donnell, Deputy Director, Research, continued their work focussing on the impacts of perinatal child protection notifications, substantiations and child removals on Australian families, with the outcomes of multiple studies published in 2023. Funded by an initial ARC Discovery Grant, with additional funding from the Perron Foundation, this ongoing program of work looks at infant removals across many facets of the child protection sector including court outcomes and requirements and child developmental assessments. This includes trends in reporting across Australian jurisdictions, and working with families with lived experience of perinatal child protection intervention to co-design better services and practices to support vulnerable families and reduce risk of removal.

Our team also have international collaborations in this area with researchers (Prof Karen Broadhurst and Dr Claire Mason) in the UK who are focused on improving practice and processes for families at-risk or subject to infant removals.

The ACCP, led by Ms Amanda Paton, Deputy Director, Practice, was engaged by the National Office for Child Safety to develop the national Minimum Practice Standards: Specialist and Community Support Services Responding to Child Sexual Abuse (the Standards), which were launched by Attorney-General Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP during National Child Protection Week 2023.

The Standards have been designed to guide practice responses across Australia by detailing a minimum expectation of services that allows for safe and effective service provision. They are also intended to assist victims, survivors, and their supporters to make informed choices about services they receive.  The 18 month national project brought together significant research and clinical practice expertise, including expertise across the sector in academia, service design, practice, standards auditing and quality management, as well as lived experience perspectives from the project’s Community of Practice Lived Experience Advisory Group.

The ACCP delivered a significant piece of work in partnership with the WA Police Force, with the launch of a program of three online training modules drawing on the latest research and practice knowledge in understanding and responding to abuse and neglect, including child safeguarding, mandatory reporting and reportable conduct. These modules, which are required to be undertaken by WA police officers, will be updated annually with the latest research and data as part of the innovative ACCP-WA Police Force partnership.

The ACCP was proud to launch the Lived Expertise Advisory Panel (LEAP) as a formal ongoing advisory group for the Centre in November 2023.

Comprising child sexual abuse victim-survivors, LEAP represents the critical inclusion and embedding of the voices of victims, survivors, and their supporters into our programs and activities, helping to identify how best to tackle and respond to child abuse.

The Centre’s short course offerings went from strength to strength in 2023, with our Professional Certificates seeing more than 700 completions over the year, and the introduction of our new Graduate Certificate in Childhood Trauma. The first cohort of this 12 month, part-time program completed their first course in December 2023.

Students in the Graduate Certificate develop specialist knowledge to recognise the signs of abuse and its impacts, and tailored skills to respond, benefitting from regular interactive online Community of Practice Seminars with the ACCP’s team of child trauma specialists – a unique opportunity to engage with other professionals and our clinical knowledge experts.

If you’re interested in undertaking the Graduate Certificate, check your eligibility and complete your application for the next intake, commencing 24 June 2024. Applications close 29 May 2024 (with credit) or 13 June 2024 (without credit).

You can find out more about ACCP's short course offerings under 'ACCP Opportunities', below.

The ACCP has recently welcomed a new cohort of students for 2024, including students completing their third year Psychology placements, Honours projects, and PhDs. In March our Adelaide office held a morning tea to welcome the students to the Centre.
These new students are supervised by ACCP team members across a range of topics, including:

Honours projects

• The Trajectory of Childhood Trauma to Juvenile Incarceration: A Longitudinal Study
• Parental emotional regulation in low socio-economic status settings
• Exploring LGBTQIA+ parents and their families' contextual experiences of pride and stigma
• The Child Protection system is not fit for purpose: Informing radical systems redesign
• Community understanding of the long-term impacts of Child Sexual Abuse and victim-survivor experiences of stigma

PhD projects

• Monitoring the well-being of children in out-of-home care
• Families with multiple and complex needs: refocusing on early intervention

Pictured L-R: Ebony Tucker, Tracey Corcoran, James Tremonte, Ebony Roberts, Madeleine Williams, Zullynette Yanez, Kelly Winslade, Amelia Williams, Elizabeth Dwyer, D'Arcy Dubois and Dr Eden Thain.

We would like to congratulate two of our staff/members on their well-deserved 2024 promotions:

2023: Watch it again!

Professional Certificate in Understanding Childhood Trauma

The ACCP is excited to announce that enrolments are currently open for our Professional Certificate in Understanding Childhood Trauma.

This self-paced, six week online course is suited to professionals currently working with children and young people impacted by child abuse and neglect. Led by the ACCP’s world-renowned child protection experts, this course is a great way to upskill and build knowledge in theory and evidence-based practice in responding to childhood trauma.

Previously offered by invitation only, the course is available for direct enrolment for the very first time. Three intakes are available in 2024 with enrolments for the May intake closing soon - Friday 26 April. 

Contact us to discuss group enrolments.

Chikwava, F., Cordier, R., Ferrante, A., O'Donnell, M., & Pakpahan, E. (2024). Trajectories of homelessness and association with mental health and substance use disorders among young people transitioning from out-of-home care in Australia. Child Abuse & Neglect

Dhamrait, G., O'Donnell, M, Christian, H, Taylor, C & Pereira, G. (2024). Interpregnancy interval and adverse birth outcomes: a population-based cohort study of twins. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Hawkes, M., Evans, J., & Reed, B. (2024). Caring records: professional insights into child-centred case note recording. Archival Science.

Hawkes, M., Paton, A. & Ibrahim N. (2024). Meeting the training needs of a child-protection workforce: perspectives on professional certificates in understanding, assessing, and responding to childhood trauma. Social Work Education

Herbert, J. & Paton, A. (2024). Effects of Therapy at a Community Based Trauma Therapy Service Treating Child Abuse and Neglect: A Pre-Post Study Using Administrative Data. Child & Adolescent Trauma.

Lima, F., Taplin, S., Maclean,. M., & O'Donnell, M. (2024). Infants entering out-of-home care: Health, developmental needs and service provision. Child Abuse & Neglect.

Sims, S., Pereira G., Fatovich D., Preen D., & O'Donnell, M. (2024). The hidden impact of alcohol on young victims: an analysis of alcohol-related police offences resulting in hospitalisation. BMC Public Health.