What is Foster and Kinship Care?

Althea Foster and Kinship Program

What is Foster and Kinship Care?

Foster and Kinship Care means caring for someone else’s child in your own home.

Foster and kinship carers provide a safe, secure and stable environment until the child or young person can return home. Depending on the circumstances, this could be overnight, a weekend, a few days, weeks or several years.

Carers provide the ongoing, day-to-day care for a child or young person, which can be both challenging and rewarding. In addition, a carer needs to understand how to support the child or young person’s emotional needs. Carers will not only be caring for a child, they also need to manage their own feelings and those of their family.

A child living in foster or kinship care has experienced some kind of harm. This could be neglect, emotional, physical or sexual abuse or any combination of these. They will also experience loss and grief from being separated from their family. The level of needs and difficulties faced by children in out of home care can include a range of trauma based behaviours, behavioural challenges or disability including intellectual, physical or developmental.

The role of a foster or kinship carer also involves supporting contact between the child and their family. Children and young people in out of home care tell us that continued contact with their families has a positive impact on how they see themselves and their sense of self-value. The goal for a child in out of home care is to be reunited with their family.

Foster Carers

Foster carers provide an invaluable service in the support of children placed in care.

Fostering placements can be for primary, respite, emergency or pre-adoptive care.

Emergency – this involves caring for children or young people who need somewhere safe to stay immediately, or after hours.
Primary – this involves looking after children or young people for a few months or up to 2 years until difficulties at home are resolved or alternative plans are made for their future. Primary placements could also involve caring for children or young people until they reach 18 years of age.
Respite – this is caring for children or young people for short periods to provide a short break for their primary foster or kinship carer.
Pre-adoptive care – sometimes, foster carers may be asked to care for a child whose birth parents are considering adoption as an option for their child’s permanent care.

When organising placements, we do our best to match carers to a child or young person’s needs based on the information provided, carer skills, knowledge and experience. We take into consideration what would be the best gender or age range. If possible, we encourage our carers to be flexible and consider taking more than one type of foster care placement.

Kinship Carers

Kinship carers are carers who have a significant relationship with a child or young person such as a relative, family member, close friend or a member of the child or young person’s community.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, a kinship carer may be a person who is a member of their family or their own community.

For further information

For further information about foster or kinship care, or to register your interest please contact one of our team members by phone or email.

Althea Foster and Kinship Program is a program of Althea Projects Incorporated and is funded by the Department of Child Safety.