Introduction to welfare law Issues 2022

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO WELFARE LAW
1
Introduction to welfare law
Name
Institution

INTRODUCTION TO WELFARE LAW 2
AUSTRALIAN WELFARE SYSTEM
INTRODUCTION
The Australian children’s welfare system is in charge of providing child protection and
assisting vulnerable children. Statutory child protection is the responsibility of territory
governments and the state. Departments have been formed to handle such issues and one such
department is the children’s court of Victoria.
THE CHILDREN'S COURT OF VICTORIA
The children’s court of Victoria is located in Victoria, Australia and is mainly involved in
proceedings related to children less than seventeen years of age. It also deals with any criminal
offenses that may have been committed by children between the ages of ten and seventeen. It is
headed by the president of the court and had a koori division that deals with young offenders of
indigenous background.
The structure of the court consists of registrars of the court, the magistrates and is headed by
the president, who is usually a county court judge. It comprises of four divisions: the family
division, the criminal division, which also includes the koori division and the neighborhood
justice division.
The family division is concerned with proper care and protection of minors. They carry out
processes such as determining the guardian of a child, giving orders for therapeutic treatment
when necessary and making interventions in the interest of the children.
The criminal division is in charge of criminal offences that were committed by minors,
usually aged between ten and seventeen. Any criminal offense can be tried except cases that

INTRODUCTION TO WELFARE LAW 3
resulted in death such as attempted murder or murder, arson, manslaughter or motor vehicle
accidents that caused death (Mathews & Bross, 2014). . Children below the age of nine are not
usually tried for criminal offenses.
The koori division only deals with children who have an aboriginal background. It works like
the criminal division. The neighborhood justice division is in charge of offenses committed by
homeless children and in some cases can also handle children with aboriginal backgrounds.
These courts handle cases with the intention of restoration.
COURT CASE
A case was brought to court involving a twelve year old girl who had been living in foster
care since she was nine years old. She was adopted by her legal guardians from a local children’s
shelter. She had two guardians, who were a married couple with their own children who were
both boys aged fourteen and fifteen. The couple had been reported because of child neglect.
The girl attended the same school as her brothers and although her brothers seemed to be well
off her case was the opposite. She was always dressed in worn out clothes and did not have some
basic school supplies that were required of her and sometimes did not carry food or money for
lunch. She was often withdrawn and quiet and hardly ever associated with her classmates.
On one particular day she fell sick in school and had to be taken to hospital by one of her
teachers. Upon further examination it was discovered that she had a lot of scars that had healed
from previous wounds (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). At first the doctors
suspected that the wounds could have been sustained while playing with her friend in school. But
because of her withdrawn personality they decided to question the girl, who revealed that she had