Out-of-Home Care, Contact Orders and Infant Mental Health

Recognising a Unique Developmental Stage in Law, Policy and Practice

Bibliographic Data

ID6173889
AuthorsRachel Gregory‐wilson (0000-0003-3659-8182), Rachel Gregory-Wilson, Elizabeth D Handley (0000-0002-0087-0263), Elizabeth Handley, Liesel Spencer (0000-0002-4579-1278), Toby Rayburn
Year2024
Volume47
Issue1
Publication date2024-04-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueUniversity of New South Wales Law Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0313-0096 • E-ISSN: 1839-2881
PublisherUniversity of New South Wales Law Journal (PUBLISHER • AU)
DOI10.53637/gnmd3155
OpenAlexW4396656965
LanguageEN
Citations received1

Child protection legislation in New South Wales (‘NSW’) has the advancement of the best interests of the child as a fundamental objective. This article argues that advancing the best interests of one group of children – infants (ie, children under 12 months of age) – involves recognising needs that are so distinct and important that infants should be treated as a discrete category of children under all legal instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and child protection legislation. The article examines how the status of ‘infancy’ influences contact orders for infants in out-of-home care (‘OOHC’) in the NSW jurisdiction and proposes law reform to recognise the unique developmental status and vulnerabilities of infants who are placed in OOHC. The lack of legal identification and regulation specific to infants as a sub-category in existing legal frameworks represents a deficit in the child protection regime; the best interests of infants require unique legal protection

Infant mental health · Mental health · Political science · Project commissioning · Psychiatry · Publishing · Sociology · Stage (stratigraphy · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology

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