ABSTRACT
In our study, we saw many ways in which good policy kept hope alive but also served to distract from the ongoing systematic criminalisation of children with care experience, particularly those with experience of residential care. We refer to the interplay of good policy and parlous or no implementation as ‘hope tropes’. Hope tropes enable key stakeholders to talk about the ways in which problems that are widely identified across the sector are being addressed and places on the horizon a pathway out of trouble that sounds reasonable and evidence based. However, the associated policies are not resourced; recommendations are ignored; protocols are not adequately implemented, monitored or evaluated and, as a result, routine criminalisation continues largely unabated. In using our empirical data to develop this concept, we argue that attention to four factors could shift policy and legislation away from ‘hope tropes’ towards genuine transformative change: monitoring and accountability mechanisms, trauma-informed and strength-based approaches and the tools and resources needed to address complexity. Each of these elements is explored in this concluding chapter, which concludes with a discussion of two further trends seen in the United Kingdom and relevant to the Australian context – unaccompanied minors and exploitation.
