What is foster care

There is a type of care to suit your life.

An woman stands in a brightly lit doorway, smiling as she holds the door open for three children. The children, two boys and a girl, appear to be heading out, possibly for school or an activity. The boy on the left smiles broadly, holding a soccer ball and wearing a blue backpack. In the center, a young girl in a pink sweater looks forward, and to the right, an older boy carries a large dark duffel bag. The scene is set in a warm, narrow hallway with wooden floors and a straw bag hanging on the wall.

What is foster care?

Foster carers provide a safe, nurturing, and stable home to children and young people aged 0–17 years who can’t live at home or with other family members. 

It is almost always best for children to be cared for safely by their family. We work alongside parents and families to prevent children from coming into care.

When this is not possible, we make every effort to keep them with their extended family, kin, and community. When family or kin are not available, we turn to approved foster carers. 

This is where you can make a difference.

What do foster carers do?

Foster carers support families by caring for children while parents get help to change. They meet children and young people’s emotional, social, educational, cultural and health needs by:

  • Undertaking usual daily parenting tasks.
  • Helping children settle into their new environment and feel safe.
  • Talking, listening, and communicating openly and respectfully with children about their lived
    experiences and family.
  • Supporting a child’s identity, whether that is cultural, religious, disability, sexual, or gender
    related, for example.
  • Helping children and young people to build new relationships, and stay connected with family,
    friends, and community.
  • Supporting positive engagement in education and therapeutic support.
  • Nurturing children’s existing hobbies and interests and supporting them to discover new ones.
  • Being involved in planning decisions about the children in their care.

The different types of foster care

Emergency care

Emergency carers take in children and young people at short notice, sometimes on evenings, or weekends. This may be a for a night, a week or up to 12 weeks while we find important family and community members that a child can live with or support a child to return safely home.

Respite care

Where friends and family are not available, formal respite care can give all types of carers a rest for short periods of time, such as during school holidays and weekends. Respite care is usually scheduled in advance but can be unplanned too.

Short term care

Short term care is required when children need to reside with a carer, while their parents or family are working on making changes so they can be reunited. These placements may last up to two years.

Long term care

Sometimes children require a longer-term placement. This could be while restoration is being explored, where children cannot return home for an extended period, or until they reach adulthood and are independent.

Intensive foster care

Intensive Foster Care (IFC) is a home-based care program for children who have higher or more complex needs or large sibling groups. Intensive foster care is currently being piloted only in the Sydney metropolitan region.

*Timeframes for foster care types are a guide only. Sometimes placements are extended where in the best interests of children and young people and in collaboration with their authorised carers.

 

I am interested in starting my caring journey

Enquire about becoming a carer

Prefer to speak with someone? Call us on 1300 770 240. Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm.

Email: fosteringwithdcj@dcj.nsw.gov.au


 

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