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Foster care

• About foster and kinship care
  • What is foster care?
  • What is kinship care?
  • Who needs care?
  • Provisionally approved carers
  • Specialist foster care
  • Non family-based care
• Becoming a carer
  • Expression of interest
    • Register your interest
  • Questions to consider
  • Rewards and challenges
  • Steps to becoming a carer
• Blue cards for carers
  • Blue cards for existing carers and their adult household members
• Carer training
  • Foster carer training
    • Foreword
    • Procedures and guidelines
    • Frequently asked questions
    • Orientation
    • Learning outcomes
    • Pre-service training
    • Learning journal
    • Standard training
    • Advanced training
    • Recognition of prior learning
    • Acknowledgments
    • Forms and templates
  • Kinship carer training
• Children and young people
  • Transitioning from care
  • Info kit for children and young people in care
    • Family group meeting (FGM)
    • Case plan
    • Education support plan (ESP)
    • Child health passport (CHP)
    • Transition from care (TFC)
    • Matters of concern (MOC)
    • Complaints
  • Children and young people's participation strategy
• Support for carers
  • Carer handbook
  • Federal Government allowances and benefits
  • Foster and kinship care support line
  • Foster and Kinship Carer Card
    • Business Discount Directory
      • Tips on using the card
      • Nominate a business
    • Information for businesses
      • Business proposal application form
      • Terms and conditions
    • Frequently asked questions
  • Financial support
  • Support care
  • Support groups
• Rights and responsibilities
  • Standards of care
  • Statement of commitment
  • Charter of rights for a child in care
  • United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Case planning for a child in care
  • Child health passport
  • Children and young people with disabilities
  • Education support plans
  • Family contact and reunification
  • Long-term guardianship
  • Placement Agreements
  • Transition from care
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
  • Child placement principle
  • Recognised Entities
• Regulation of care
  • Screening and assessment
  • Matters of concern
  • Community Visitors
• Contacts
  • Community foster care agencies
  • Indigenous foster care agencies
  • Peak bodies and advocacy groups
  • Foster and Kinship Carer Card contacts
• Library

What is kinship care?

Kinship care is provided by a person who is a relative, considered to be family or a close friend, or is a member of the child or young person's community.

Kinship carers can assist children and young people to maintain connections with their family.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, a kinship carer may be another Indigenous person who is a member of their community, a compatible community or from the same language group.

Steps to becoming a kinship carer

Once you have made the decision that you are interested in being a kinship carer, there are a number of steps you go through to become an approved kinship carer.

The aim of this approval process is to make sure that you:

• are a suitable person to be an approved kinship carer, and all members of your household are suitable persons to associate with children and young people on a daily basis
• are able to meet the standards of care in the Statement of Standards outlined in the Child Protection Act 1999
• are able to help work towards achieving goals for the safety, care and protection of children or young people.

For more information on the process of becoming a kinship carer, see Steps to becoming a carer, download the fact sheet Steps to becoming a kinship carer (PDF 195 KB) or contact the Department of Child Safety on 1800 811 810 or 3224 8045.

Last updated

5 December 2008