In recent years, war has affected many civilians. More than 24 million people worldwide were displaced from their homes because of wars in 1996 (Machel, 1996). Half of the displaced people are children, who are particularly vulnerable to increased risk factors associated with displacement. Risk factors include physical danger (shelling, sniping, land mines), limited access to food and water, separation from parents, high levels of violence, substance abuse, illness, rape, prostitution, sexual molestation and mutilation, trafficking, and conscription. Such risk factors continue to exist in refugee camps. The arrival of peacekeeping troops does not lessen all the risk factors. Increased rates of child prostitution, and subsequent HIV infection, are often the result of living in areas occupied by peacekeeping troops (Machel, 1996).

Graduates from both a University and TAFE programme in Children's Services since the mid-nineties were asked to report on their employment experiences since graduation. University graduates had participated in a wide range of employment opportunities, both within and outside of the children's services field. TAFE graduates were more likely to have remained in the child care industry. Many graduates expressed concern about the quality of child care they had experienced, and a number had chosen to leave the industry because of these concerns.

There is consensus around the world that young children must experience high quality services, not only to ensure the best possible future outcomes, but because children have the right to the best possible present (Elliott 2004; Myers 2004; Wylie & Thompson 2003). All children are found to benefit from high quality early childhood programs, but those from disadvantaged backgrounds demonstrate stronger advantages (Myers 2004). The catchphrase 'the importance of the early years' has now become a call to arms: it is recognised worldwide that we must provide the best possible services to young children and their families (Stanley, Prior & Richardson 2005).

Who should care for our youngest children? For decades, Western society has emphasised the importance of mothers as their children's first carers, and the research agenda has supported this. However, the world is changing around us and successful approaches to child rearing from the past do not necessarily meet the needs of today's families. In this paper I argue that an exclusive focus on maternal care is detrimental to the well-being if many infants. Involvement of others in a circle of attachment around infants is, I argue, a strong protective factor, buffering infants against the risks in their environments. Evidence from anthropology suggests that the involvement of allo-parents in the rearing of infants is, in fact, something that has existed for humans (and other primates) for a much longer time than has the concept of the nuclear family. At a time when we are debating the care of infants, we need to ensure that in our reflections we clearly separate our ideologies from the available evidence.

In our modern society parenting is a difficult and undervalued task. Today parents raise children in isolation with very little support yet face immense criticism when they experience problems. Families who do not fit the western image of the 'ideal family' face even more stress (as they are pressured to conform) yet often find that available services do not easily meet their needs. This paper uses conversational interviews to develop a shared understanding of the experiences of these parents. The factors identified in this research were: the interaction between the desire to parent differently than their own parents, their stress levels, the satisfaction they experienced from the parenting role and their ability to develop a range of coping strategies. Coping strategies focused around the role of religion, culture and routines in providing frameworks for shaping their new lives, and the availability of practical and emotional support in giving parents the resources to manage.

Quality child-rearing environments play a significant role in shaping positive long-term outcomes for children. In Australia, quality in child care is controlled both by state legislation and national accreditation. However, recent concerns expressed by a wide range of professionals and interested parties have led to the development of several projects by the author, each investigating concerns about child care quality. This report focuses on the perspectives of Supplementary Service (SUPS) workers, whose roles require them to visit and share experiences of children in various child care settings. SUPS workers in this study talked about their definitions of quality care, and shared stories about their experiences of what they perceive to be high and low quality child care.

As 12:30am on Thursday 18 September 2008, Janet got a call saying that her preschool was on fire. The fire had taken hold, and all she and her husband could do was stand on the pavement outside and watch it burn. She spent the next few hours trying to visualise the children's lockers as an aid for remembering the names of the children and the days they attended the preschool.

Children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are particularly vulnerable to stress when beginning child care. High stress levels not only impact on children's transition into child care, but can have undesirable long-term consequences if not handled appropriately. In Australia, there is provision for specialist personnel (called bicultural support workers in this study) to facilitate the transition into care of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This paper reports data from interviews with parents from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds whose children attended child care, caregivers in centres who worked with children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and bicultural support workers. Recommendations are made for quality practice during the transition phase into child care services for children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. For young children the transition between home and child care is a difficult process. Child care represents a new environment, with new people, new routines, new play opportunities and unknown peers. Ensuring the transition is a positive experience is crucial for children's development. Children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds enter child care unfamiliar with many components of Australian culture and child-rearing practices. The environment is unfamiliar and often they cannot communicate with the adults and children they encounter, especially if verbal and non-verbal communication are different between cultural groups. Play experiences may also be new to them, and for some children there may not be one aspect of the environment (human and physical) which is familiar. This means there is a much higher risk that children from CALD backgrounds will experience a difficult transition into child care. A difficult transition experience means children are likely to feel less secure and more stressed, which may lead to difficulties participating in learning opportunities. They may also be less likely to develop secure attachments to caregivers, which puts them at risk of social isolation and developmental disadvantage. Recent biological research indicates that children experiencing high stress levels are more at risk of impaired neurological development. Facilitating positive transition experiences for children from CALD backgrounds is important. This study investigates transition for children from CALD backgrounds, and makes recommendations for practice.

Social and emotional competence develops through the children's first years of life and the relationships they develop with their families and others around them. Research (Hutchins & Sims, 1999) has clearly demonstrated the benefits associated with strong parent-child relationships and we now know that strong relationships with other carers involved in children's lives also have a major impact on their outcomes. Social competence refers to a person's ability to get along with other people. Children's social competence is affected by how well they communicate with other children and with adults' (Illinois Early Learning, 2008). In recognition of this, the Child Mental Health Foundations and Agencies Network in Chicago commissioned a paper - the 'A good beginning report' - aimed at closing the gap between research and policy: reviewing the evidence and making recommendations as to the appropriate interventions (Peth-Pierce, 2008).

We grow up immersed in our own culture, our own experiences and our own language. Through these we construct our understandings of the world (Billett, 1996). Once we have established our models, we are more likely to interpret what we see and experience through this lens (Gelman, 1997). In developmental psychology, this is labelled assimilation (Piaget, 1950): an understanding of the world, which comes about through the addition of information to existing schema. When we experience new events that do not neatly fit our existing schema we find these difficult to interpret and assimilate and therefore feel discomfort (Roberts & Smith, 1999). Our usual response is to try and alleviate the discomfort through reframing the information to make it fit existing schema (Feldman, 1995). When we are sufficiently motivated, we change our models of the world. However, often we are likely to ignore the new information, or modify it slightly so that it does assimilate into existing schema.