About Us
Research. Practice. Capacity Building. Collaboration.
Supporting Excellence in Therapeutic Care
The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care is an Australian first Intermediary Organisation established to support practitioners and key sector, stakeholders of Intensive Therapeutic Care in New South Wales, Australia.
The NSW Intensive Therapeutic Care (ITC) reforms underway in New South Wales provide an integrated continuum of therapeutic care options that are positioned to more effectively address the needs of traumatised children and young people and achieve improved outcomes across the domains of safety, permanency and well-being.
As a key element of this reform, the Australian Childhood Foundation (ACF) and Southern Cross University (SCU), in partnership, have been contracted by the NSW Government to support all providers of Intensive Therapeutic Care in NSW.
1 - We Make Knowledge Accessible & Fill the Gaps
We produce a range of research and practice-based resources to support young people living in the Intensive Therapeutic Care system in NSW and in therapeutic care elsewhere. These include Research Reports, Research Summaries, Practice Guides and Tools, and Practice Reflections.
2 - We Support Knowledge to be applied to Practice
The Centre provides a range of training and capacity building activities, including:
- Provision of the mandatory, Foundational Training in Intensive Therapeutic Care
- Facilitation of Therapeutic Specialist Communities of Practice and bi-annual Forums
- Tailored consultancies for ITC Agencies and other residential care and out-of-home-care agencies regardless of context and location.
3 - We Co-Produce New Knowledge
The Centre responds to the evolving knowledge and practice needs of therapeutic care. As such, we initiate research projects that seek to identify and expand knowledge around best practice in close collaborations with our research and sector partners. Examples of current research projects include Client Mix and Placement Matching and the needs of LGBTQIA+ young people in residential care.