Cultural Diversity, Community and Family Services: Experiences among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse parents of local early childhood services. The evidence is clear that strong communities and effective early intervention strategies play a key role in preventing social disadvantage later in a child's life. Through the provision of high quality training to a doctoral student, this project will have significant benefits at many levels of policy and government. Local, state and federal gover ....Cultural Diversity, Community and Family Services: Experiences among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse parents of local early childhood services. The evidence is clear that strong communities and effective early intervention strategies play a key role in preventing social disadvantage later in a child's life. Through the provision of high quality training to a doctoral student, this project will have significant benefits at many levels of policy and government. Local, state and federal governments and family service providers will have the opportunity to see the effectiveness of their services on parents over an extended period of time and to learn from the project about new strategies that may be deployed to assist culturally diverse families in their communities. Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354698
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$40,000.00
Summary
Future Generation: New Knowledge for Better Outcomes for Children and Young People. Australia is a prosperous country, yet over recent decades many indices of the health and wellbeing of children and young people have deteriorated. Reasons for this are not well understood, and the nation is poorly equipped to devise effective, sustainable responses. Our vision is to create new ways of thinking and acting through new collaborations across disciplines, sectors and levels of government, with non-re ....Future Generation: New Knowledge for Better Outcomes for Children and Young People. Australia is a prosperous country, yet over recent decades many indices of the health and wellbeing of children and young people have deteriorated. Reasons for this are not well understood, and the nation is poorly equipped to devise effective, sustainable responses. Our vision is to create new ways of thinking and acting through new collaborations across disciplines, sectors and levels of government, with non-research communities of interest as full partners. The aim is to generate and apply new concepts and forms of knowledge, undergirded by comprehensive, better integrated data. Expected outcomes are enriched life chances for children and young people.Read moreRead less
ARACY/ARC/NHMRC Research Network: Future Generation. Research across a range of disciplines is urgently needed to understand the complexity of pathways contributing to the healthy development of children and young people in modern societies like Australia and to develop effective strategies to improve them. Given our economic prosperity and the level of knowledge about human development, it is profoundly disappointing that many child and youth problems are increasing, creating a crisis in servi ....ARACY/ARC/NHMRC Research Network: Future Generation. Research across a range of disciplines is urgently needed to understand the complexity of pathways contributing to the healthy development of children and young people in modern societies like Australia and to develop effective strategies to improve them. Given our economic prosperity and the level of knowledge about human development, it is profoundly disappointing that many child and youth problems are increasing, creating a crisis in services. This application brings together a highly talented network of researchers to work collaboratively and innovatively with policy makers and those providing services, to enable both new knowledge and implementation of what we already know, to enhance children's futures.Read moreRead less
Inclusion of young children with disabilities in mainstream early childhood services. The aim of this APAI doctoral project is to investigage the barriers to, and factors which facilitate effective inclusion of young children with disabilities in mainstream early childhood services in the Australian funding, policy and practice context. The proposed project combines quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the process and outcomes of inclusion in long day care, preschool and family day ca ....Inclusion of young children with disabilities in mainstream early childhood services. The aim of this APAI doctoral project is to investigage the barriers to, and factors which facilitate effective inclusion of young children with disabilities in mainstream early childhood services in the Australian funding, policy and practice context. The proposed project combines quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the process and outcomes of inclusion in long day care, preschool and family day care. The findings will inform policy and practice by enabling early childhood agencies to be more responsive and to better tailor their services to individual child and family needs.Read moreRead less
The Costs of Foster Care in Australia. The aim of the study is to determine adequate and appropriate levels of reimbursement for carers by undertaking empirical research on the economic and social costs associated with fostering. For the first time in Australia the indirect costs to carers will be examined and a model developed for reimbursing foster carers similar to other paid carers in the community. In collaboration with the Industry Partner it will explore the feasibility of using budget st ....The Costs of Foster Care in Australia. The aim of the study is to determine adequate and appropriate levels of reimbursement for carers by undertaking empirical research on the economic and social costs associated with fostering. For the first time in Australia the indirect costs to carers will be examined and a model developed for reimbursing foster carers similar to other paid carers in the community. In collaboration with the Industry Partner it will explore the feasibility of using budget standards methodology to estimate the direct costs of care of children by refining and adapting budgets to reflect costs specific to different types of foster care.Read moreRead less
Building technologies and engagement processes for using spatialised data to enhance family and community outcomes in a region experiencing major change. The NSW government's Families First Initiative (FFI) seeks delivery of more effective services to families with children. FFI agencies need information about children's life circumstances, risk of disadvantage, and the effectiveness of intervention programs. The project uses innovative techniques and processes to develop practitioner-friendly, ....Building technologies and engagement processes for using spatialised data to enhance family and community outcomes in a region experiencing major change. The NSW government's Families First Initiative (FFI) seeks delivery of more effective services to families with children. FFI agencies need information about children's life circumstances, risk of disadvantage, and the effectiveness of intervention programs. The project uses innovative techniques and processes to develop practitioner-friendly, finely-scaled indicators. The collaborators bring professional skills in service delivery to the project. The University researchers bring cross-disciplinary expertise in statistical/spatial modelling and policy analysis. Outcomes include PhD training, inter-agency engagement skills, new indicator techniques, high-impact contributions to literatures on quantification and state theory, and the development of an ongoing socio-spatial modelling facility.Read moreRead less
Enhancing services to Australian children and families: linking workforce characteristics, job quality, and quality and outcomes in social services. This project aims to promote best practice in child and family welfare services, and to improve the industrial and social recognition of child and family welfare work in Australia. The CIs will construct an analytical framework for explaining the links between the nature and deployment of the child and family services workforce, service delivery sys ....Enhancing services to Australian children and families: linking workforce characteristics, job quality, and quality and outcomes in social services. This project aims to promote best practice in child and family welfare services, and to improve the industrial and social recognition of child and family welfare work in Australia. The CIs will construct an analytical framework for explaining the links between the nature and deployment of the child and family services workforce, service delivery systems and outcomes, and social policy regimes, with wider application to other personal social services. Judicious use of international comparison will assist identification of best practice. The project will inform policy and research in social service provision to vulnerable families, and the aged and disabled.Read moreRead less
The costs of youth homelessness in Australia. This three-year research project will provide a detailed picture of the cost of youth homelessness in Australia, the use of services by young homeless people and the costs and benefits of providing support services to young homeless people. The study will extend the evidence base on the cost-effectiveness of programs attempting to alleviate youth homelessness, and enable Australian governments, community groups and agencies involved in the provision ....The costs of youth homelessness in Australia. This three-year research project will provide a detailed picture of the cost of youth homelessness in Australia, the use of services by young homeless people and the costs and benefits of providing support services to young homeless people. The study will extend the evidence base on the cost-effectiveness of programs attempting to alleviate youth homelessness, and enable Australian governments, community groups and agencies involved in the provision of support services to homeless youth to understand better the pathways followed by young homeless people and the impact of service provision on the lives of young homeless people.Read moreRead less
The role of community connectedness in retaining skilled migrant women in Australia. Australia faces a severe skills shortage in areas central to its social fabric and that are traditionally dominated by women: nursing, childcare and teaching. While we are successful in attracting skilled migrants to fill these gaps, one third choose to leave Australia within 5 years. This is a very unfavourable outcome in view of the continuing skills shortage and the unrecoverable costs associated with attract ....The role of community connectedness in retaining skilled migrant women in Australia. Australia faces a severe skills shortage in areas central to its social fabric and that are traditionally dominated by women: nursing, childcare and teaching. While we are successful in attracting skilled migrants to fill these gaps, one third choose to leave Australia within 5 years. This is a very unfavourable outcome in view of the continuing skills shortage and the unrecoverable costs associated with attracting skilled migrants. The project will gain insight into factors that influence the retention rates of skilled female migrants and, in doing so, enable government agencies to develop targeted retention measures.Read moreRead less
Enabling inter-agency data sharing to support the spatial analysis of social vulnerability in a transforming region. This project's resolution of constraints to government agency data sharing will enable modernisation of public sector information management, creating a secure environment for joined-up use of agency data and enabling major resource savings. It will produce more geographically sensitive indicators of social vulnerability, marking a major advance in its understanding and assessment ....Enabling inter-agency data sharing to support the spatial analysis of social vulnerability in a transforming region. This project's resolution of constraints to government agency data sharing will enable modernisation of public sector information management, creating a secure environment for joined-up use of agency data and enabling major resource savings. It will produce more geographically sensitive indicators of social vulnerability, marking a major advance in its understanding and assessment. The project will significantly broaden agency's capability for research and analysis. It will generate major social benefits nationally, enabling the development of research-based policy enhancements that better align human service delivery with community needs. Lastly, it will contribute significantly to the strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric.Read moreRead less