Abstract: Recruitment of staff in child protection services is a major challenge for statutory agencies in Australia and overseas. Retaining experienced staff is difficult given that the nature of the work is stressful, complex and staff turnover is high. Recruiting child protection staff from different countries is one strategy used by many national organisations to increase staff numbers. This paper reports on how a group of 23 child protection workers recruited during 2003-5 by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Office of Child, Youth and Family Support from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic experienced this recruitment process and their transition to working in an Australian child protection context. The paper concludes with a discussion of how these experiences can inform international recruitment strategies in child protection organisations.

The attached document is an author’s draft