Sunday, March 09, 2008

Types of Foster Care in the state I live in!

I have had a few questions of what type of Foster care we will do and how it works in our state of Australia...

We have been told that they will only allow a total of 6 kids bio and foster under one roof! But I know of other family's who have more than that so hmmmmm NOT sure what that's about!

We only have beds at the moment for 2 foster kids! The ages we will start with will be 0 - 4 year old until Arliah is 5yrs and then the age will ho up as she gets older but will (hopefully) always be younger than Arliah. Again I know they like to keep the age difference at 2 year younger but I don't think that will happen to often! I am fine with that!

I will blog about the kids I have in care but there will be no identifying names or photos or anything that will identify them!


short to medium term care
emergency placements and placements during court adjournments
These placements are needed when they believe the child or young person is at risk of immediate and serious harm and must be removed from their parents to ensure their immediate safety, welfare and wellbeing.


respite care
A form of foster care generally for a regular planned period of time such as one weekend a month or a week during the school holidays.


long term foster care or permanent care
In cases where serious abuse or neglect has occurred, or there is a significant family breakdown, it may not be possible for children to return to their own parents or carers. Long term care may be needed until the young person reaches 18.

Children in need of long term out-of-home care were once called “wards” of the state but are now referred to as children and young people for whom the Minister for Community Services has parental responsibility. Although the Minister has been allocated parental responsibility, some of these responsibilities can be delegated to individuals and agencies, including the authorised foster carer.

As the designated out-of-home care agency,
When a long term foster carer has established close bonds after caring for a particular child or young person for two or more years, they are eligible to apply to the Children’s Court for an order to give them Sole Parental Responsibility.

This requires the written consent of the birth parents or person who had parental responsibility for the child before they came into care. If the young person is aged 12 years or over, they must give their consent to the application.

4 comments:

Anna B. said...

Chelley,

Of course you can add us to your blogroll. How sweet of you! I am so glad you found me! People like you who reached out to us during Sarah's surgery were such a gift to us. Thank You!!! When I post an update to My Adoption Website this week I will put the new blog address there (I think). I am so going to read on in this blog of yours. Fostering....I think that is such an amazing thing and I am so proud of you. You go girl!

junglemama said...

When do you think children will finally be placed in your home? Are you doing long term or short care?

Melissa said...

do you get to choose/put preferences of what kind of care your family provides?

OziMum said...

Do you choose whether you want to do emergency, long-term or respite? We did contemplate fostering before we started our adoption. I thought I'd only be able to cope with the emergency care - that way I thought I wouldn't get too attached... but I probably still would!!!

I know the rules say you can only have X amount of kids - I'd say, once you've done it for a while, and proven you're capable etc - you may get allocated more, depending on what you want to do.

The rule about the kids being younger than your youngest, is the same with adoption.