A life’s work in the Children’s Court Clinic: the historical development of the Clinic in the forensic field and the politics impacting on the Court Clinic and now on the law

Abstract

Over 50 years’ experience at the Children’s Court Clinic of Victoria informs this valedictory account of its director. Changes over time to the model of service at the Clinic are detailed; an independent practitioner model (psychologist/psychiatrist) with oversight now endures, while the Clinic works exclusively for the Court. Clinic operations, clinicians, clients, reputation, the nature of referrals and the need for kindness in report writing are discussed. An integral theme is the politics of the child protection field, which can affect the Clinic, and lately – through new child law – has also affected the powers of the Court and the lives of children on care applications (and the purview of the Clinic’s protection assessments). New child protection legislation is discussed along with its impacts on the care of a growing number of children, signalling the need to revisit the legislation, promote better engagement of families and greatly increase coordinated expert services to them.

Keywords:

• Children’s Court Clinic of Victoria
• independent practitioner model
• political interference
• kindness
• positive engagement
• coaching
• sequestered information
• parent lovers
• care by secretary orders
• residential (Resi) units

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Patricia Brown declares no conflict of interest save that identified in the course of the article. This pertains to the 1988 Victorian Sentencing Committee – the ‘Starke Sentencing Committee’ – studies by Brown and Steger.

Ethical approval

Pertaining to the aforementioned Brown and Steger research, all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Starke Sentencing Committee (overseen by former Supreme Court Judge Sir John Starke, and approved by the Chief Justice of Victoria) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants (that is, magistrates, judges from Supreme Court and County Court and some senior lawyers in Victoria).