What is foster care?
Foster care provides safe and supportive homes for children and teenagers when they are unable to live with their own families. The aim of foster care is to reunite children with their own families where possible.
Children or young people can be in care for just a few nights, weeks or years, depending on their family circumstances. Foster carers able to choose the length and type of care they are willing to provide, as well as the age of children they are willing to provide care for.
Who are the children or young people who need foster care?
Children and young people in foster care are just like other children, except that they are highly likely to have experienced some form of trauma.
Children and young people come into care at all ages (0 - 18 years) and from many cultures and religious backgrounds.
The behaviours of children and young people in care can sometimes be challenging, as many children come from backgrounds of abuse and neglect. Foster carers may need to be very patient and committed to helping the children and young people in their care.
Why do some children and young people need foster care?
Children and young people come into care because they cannot safely remain in their own homes. This may be for a variety of reasons that are not their fault, including abuse, neglect, illness, disability, poverty and family breakdown.
What are the different types of care?
Foster carers can elect to provide one or more of the following types of care:
- Respite care, which gives full-time foster carers or birth families a regular break, perhaps for a weekend every month, or a week in the school holidays.
- Emergency foster care, for children who need an urgent placement because there are concerns for their immediate safety. Due to the urgency of these placements, there is usually very little notice before the child is placed with carers.
- Short or medium-term care, for children who require a placement for three to six months. The child may be able to be reunited with their birth parents or extended family at the end of the placement.
- Long-term care, arranged when a child cannot return home for some time, while a permanent care placement is found, or until the young person becomes independent.