The care and protection of children experiencing or considered to be at risk of abuse or neglect within their families is a major policy dilemma. Children in the care and protection system do not fare well on a range of indictors, when compared to the overall population. In recent years there have been significant changes in policies and support for children in out of home care, including the adoption of the language of rights. Nevertheless, the care and protection of children who enter the system bearing that name is often dubbed one of social policy's 'wicked problems'. This paper synthesises concepts of human rights, children's needs and citizenship as a basis for redefining policy and services for children in out-of-home care. We suggest that improved support for children in out of home care requires the recognition of children as partners.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.