Key points
- There is need for foster carers in Australia
- There are many different types of foster care ranging from long-term care to respite care
- The starting point is to get in touch with a foster care agency in the state and territory where you live
Children go into foster care for many reasons. For example, there might be family violence in the home or a history of neglect or physical abuse.
Monica* and her husband have three foster children, all from the same birth mother. They are five, three and a half and one years of age.
After applying through an agency to become foster parents, they got approved for up to three children — zero to 10 years of age.
"We thought we'd get like an older family, but we got matched with a little boy and he was seven months old at the time," she said.
Monica says they have built their family in the same way as most other families take on kids — "one at a time."
"His sister was born about 10 months after that and they asked us if we would be interested in fostering her too".
The same happened with her sister, two and half years later.
Source: Pexels/Karolina Grabowska
Nationally, 46,000 children are in 'out of home care'
Renée Carter is the Chief Executive Officer at Adopt Change.
She says there is a shortage of foster parents in Australia.
Across Australia, there are actually around 46,000 children who are in what is called ‘out of home care.’
'Out of home care' is government care, where children are living away from their biological parents and the government organises for them to either be in foster care, kinship care, or an alternative temporary accommodation when a home isn't found for them yet, Ms Carter explains.
She says sometimes there is a real need for a foster family from a specific cultural background.
Alanna Hughes is the Manager of the Benevolent Society's out-of-home care program Fostering Young Lives, which provides foster care placements across Greater Sydney.
"We have up to 200 kids at any one particular time and around 150 to 160 carer households who provide the care for those children," she explains.
Why children may require foster carers?
Children go into foster care for many reasons.These include:
- concerns that children's lives at home with their parents are unsafe or inadequate.
- family violence in the home or,
- history of neglect and/or physical abuse.
"There can be other reasons that children are in care, such as, you know, tragic circumstances where maybe family members have passed away, and there's no one else to look after the children," said Ms Hughes.
Ms Carter says most of these children have been exposed to some form of trauma.
These are everyday children who have experienced challenges that we can't even fathom.
Having a stable, safe and nurturing home is key for the recovery of these children, who have often been exposed to some form of trauma, Ms Carter adds.
Source: Stocksnap/Pixabay
Types of foster care
Ms Hughes says people can put up their hand for different types of foster care.
"We have everything, from short-term emergency carers, long-term carers, carers that are seeking adoption or guardianship of the children in their care, and we have respite carers as well — so carers that just provide care as and when they can. So, that might be one weekend, a month, or two weekends a month," she explains.
Processes vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction
"The legislation and the processes do vary depending on where you're living and whether you're working directly with the government department or with a foster care agency. But there are some essential steps that really are the same, no matter where you are in Australia," says Ms Carter.
To start with it is...about reaching out to whoever your local agency is and find out some initial information.
Ms Hughes says in NSW, agencies like The Benevolent Society approve people to become foster parents, but it’s the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) that matches approved foster families with children needing care.
DCJ is the statutory organisation, it is the body that brings the child into care.
"DCJ will contact us to say, ‘we have a child that needs a placement; do you have any available carers that are a match?’ We look at the profile of the child and any carers that we have, and if it's a match, we might then propose a placement," Ms Hughes sums up.
Who can become a foster parent?
According to the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) website, applicants who wish to become foster carers are:
- ideally over the age of 25
- Australian citizen or permanent resident
- in good health,
- not to have an unfavourable criminal record.
Ms Hughes says if they meet these criteria and the first interview goes well, they will then go through an assessment process to see whether they would be suitable to become foster parents.
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Interim and final orders
"When a child initially comes into care, they come into care on what are called 'interim orders'. So the court will grant an order for a short period of time in order for work to be done regarding what the overall goal for that child will be," Ms Hughes explains.
In some cases, a child who joins a family for short-term, may end up staying with them long-term or vice versa, but it’s almost impossible to know for sure from the beginning, Ms Hughes clarifies.
Other times, a long-term carer that has a child in their care for years, can express an interest in guardianship or adoption.
Monica admits, especially at the beginning, it was not easy not come to terms with the uncertainty of foster parenting.
"It's just always something that doesn't feel as permanent as a child who's adopted or your own birth-child."
Maintaining contact with the birth family
In most circumstances, foster parents are expected to maintain the connection with the children's birth family.
"Sometimes...birth family involvement is non-negotiable, unless there's a significant safety risk, but it's really important for kids to have access to their birth families to understand where they came from," explains Monica.
Currently she has contact with the birth family mostly through the agency, several times a year.
"We send photos, we send reports on the kids' health and wellbeing. We also participate in family conferences once a year to formally update the birth families on how the kids are doing," says Monica.
Source: Pexels/Josh Willink
It is a "rewarding experience"
Ms Hughes says being a foster carer is much more than just providing a home for a child.
"We have to parent these children in a trauma informed way and provide therapeutic parenting to help these children heal through some of the trauma that they have".
Ms Carter says in terms of the therapeutic parenting and understanding what a child has gone through and how to best help them, these are things that foster parents are given training and support on.
Can you open your home and your heart?
"Absolutely that's a rewarding experience as well because you get to know these little people and watch them grow and have access to opportunities and tap into their potential for what they want to get out of life," she added.
*Not their real name.