Matthew Wilson

With a 25 year professional history of statutory, clinical, leadership and managerial roles across the child and family welfare sector, and most recently in the Children’s Court of Victoria, Matthew Wilson has significant expertise in the complexity of need of vulnerable children and families, in the potential for innovation to have a significant impact on what is a worsening child protection crisis in Victoria, and in the implementation and management of such innovation.

As a 2020 Churchill Fellow, Matt investigated innovative, proven, Court-based approaches to the complexity and vulnerability of infants and their families in care and protection jurisdictions throughout the United States and United Kingdom. Matt believes that solution-focused, court-based approaches that engage families in the intensive, judicially-led integration of services around the multiple and complex needs of these most vulnerable infants and families, has the potential to create sustainable change and significantly impact on child safety and stability, and on the psychosocial and socio-cultural harms associated with Victoria’s escalating child protection crisis.

As Statewide Program Manager of the Children’s Court of Victoria’s Family Drug Treatment Court, Matt led the program to being awarded the prestigious 2019 Victorian Protecting Children Awards’ Robin Clarke ‘Making a Difference Award’ – the first award of its kind to be awarded to the Court.

Matt holds a Bachelor of Social Work and a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Science from the University of Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma in Child and Family Practice Leadership from LaTrobe University, and a Master of Addictive Behaviours from Monash University.