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Foster carers need to offer a safe home environment and be able to provide loving and secure relationships.
Foster carers are generally aged between 25 and 70 and can include:
- individuals - male or female
- couples - including same sex couples
- people with their own children
- people who do not have children.
Make sure you talk with everyone living in your home about offering foster care. The whole household will need to meet with the assessment worker and be involved at each step of becoming a foster carer.
Carers don't need to be available full time, so you can combine work and other commitments with being a foster carer.
Personal qualities of a foster carer
Foster carers need to work openly and cooperatively with all people in the child's life.
Carers must be:
- flexible
- able to work in a team
- keen to learn and willing to keep learning
- interested in strengthening a family.
They will learn about and understand the impact of the serious issues that lead to children coming into care. This includes the effects of abuse and neglect.
Foster carer abilities
Carers must be able to:
- accept a child as a member of their family
- care for and nurture the healthy development of a child
- strengthen connections to the birth family
- help transition the child to their next care placement or to return home if it's short-term arrangement
- value their role as a member of the child's care team
- advocate for the needs of a child
- know when to ask for help.
Different types of care
There are different types of foster care opportunities.
Respite care
Respite care involves having a child in care for short stays. This could be regular weekends, school holidays, or one-off overnight stays. Respite care gives longer term foster carers a break and allows children to build new relationships and have new experiences.
Emergency care
Emergency foster care may involve an overnight stay or last for up to 2 weeks. Carers who provide emergency care can be contacted at short notice at any time of the day.
Short-term care
Short-term care can last from 2 weeks to 2 years. The aim is to give the birth family some time to manage a difficult issue. The child may then return to their birth family if it's appropriate, or they may be placed in long-term care.
Video transcript - short-term care
We love looking after kids, it can be very challenging but it's also great to watch them grow and know that you've been a part of that. So when we see the children whose parents may be having trouble then we just have to help. Imagine if no one did.
There's no question children should live with their birth parents, but it can take time for some parents to be ready. That's why we offer short-term help as foster carers. We take a child in for 12 to 18 months. It's helping the parents as well as the children. Helping someone get ready as a parent is why we choose to foster.
Long-term care
For some children, returning to their birth family is not possible. Long-term care is provided until family circumstances change or until the child turns 18.
Specialist care
Specialist foster carers care for children and young people who have complex needs. This can include children and young people who have disability or special needs. Specialist carers undertake extra training and receive additional support.
Other types of care opportunities
Specific child only
Carers provide family-based care in their own homes for an individual child or young person based on their specific relationship with them.
Kinship care
Kinship care can help a child or young person maintain a connection with their family. Carers are usually related to the child or have a strong personal connection to them, their culture or their community.
Contact
Foster Care Services
Phone 1300 2 367 837
Related information
On this site
Steps to become a foster carer
Other websites
Carers in South Australia - Department for Child Protection
What makes a good foster carer? - Guardian for Children and Young People
