Best Interests Children's Law Podcast

In “The Importance of Being Well at Work” series we explore what it takes to maintain health and wellbeing when working in trauma saturated environments – in this case, where the work involves working for or on behalf of children. In this episode, we focus on the health and wellbeing of psychologists. We speak to Ashleigh Barber, an Educational and Developmental Psychologist dedicated to providing compassionate and evidence-based support to children and their families. Show Notes: https://w...

"In Conversation" is a parallel series where we invite lived experience speakers to come share our stories with us. In this episode, Paige Buck, a lived experience advocate, shares her journey growing up in care and the experiences that inspired her to become a lawyer, advocating for children and families navigating the child protection system. Best Interests thanks all lived experience advocates who talk openly and courageously about their experiences for the benefit of others. ...

The Youth Justice Bill 2024, introduced into parliament on June 18, 2024, outlines plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility for most offences to 12 by early 2025. This change reflects a growing recognition of the need to approach youth justice with a focus on rehabilitation and the developmental needs of children. Scientific evidence of the brain’s development has shown that someone aged between 10-14 years may not be able to understand the moral consequences of criminal behaviour an...

In “The Importance of Being Well at Work” series we explore what it takes to maintain health and wellbeing when working in trauma saturated environments – in this case, jurisdictions dealing with children’s law. In this episode we focus on the health and wellbeing of Barristers. Show notes: Dr Michelle Sharpe, Victorian Bar – Michelle is a member of the Victorian Bar, practicing primarily in the area of general commercial and regulatory law. In 2006 she was a founding member of the Vic...

In an effort to promote a simpler family law system and safer outcomes for families and children, the Federal government has proposed a suite of changes to the Family law Act, one of which is the abolition of the ‘presumption of equal shared parental responsibility”. But what is the ‘presumption of equal shared parental responsibility’? How did it come about? What happened between 2006, when it was first introduced, and 2023 that has prompted its abolition? And what will replace it? Show No...

Being involved with the child protection system can be a scary and daunting experience for families. Victoria Legal Aid’s “Independent Family and Advocacy support” [IFAS] was a pilot program created to assist those involved in the early stages of the child protection system by offering support, non-legal advocacy, and referrals for families to legal services and other supports if required. Several years down the track, the program is being rolled out across the State with noted benefits not j...

High quality, healthy and happy carers lead to better mental health outcomes for children in out of home care but what support do we give carers to undertake their role and is there more we could be doing? There is no doubting there is a persistently growing population of children in out of home care. The community relies on carers – whether they be foster carers or kinship carers – to provide a safe, stable, supportive home for them. It almost goes without saying that having high quali...

"In Conversation" is a parallel series where we invite lived experience speakers to come share our stories with us. In this episode, Leigh Pappos, lived experience advocate gives us insight into the impact her parent's drug use and itinerant lifestyle had on her as she was growing up. You may recall episode one when we interviewed Leigh about the evidence she gave at the Parliamentary Inquiry into Children Impacted by Parental Incarceration. Leigh is living proof that those impac...