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 card for carers
• 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
• 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
    • ADSS Shopper
    • 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 of 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

Screening and assessment

Approval of individuals to be fosters carers is prescribed by Section 133 of the Child Protection Act 1999 and Section 9 of the Child Protection Regulation 2000. These provisions set out that applicants to be foster carers must meet all of the following criteria:

• is a suitable person to be an approved foster carer, and all members' of the applicant's household are suitable persons to associate on a daily basis with children
• is able to meet the standards of care in the Statement of Standards (see Section 122 of the Act)
• is able to help in appropriate ways towards achieving plans for the child's protection
• does not pose a risk to the child's safety
• understands, and is committed to, the principles for administering the Act
• has completed any training reasonably required by the chief executive to ensure the person is able to properly provide the care
• understands the policies and procedures implemented by the chief executive to ensure the care meets the standards of care in the statement of standards.

In addition, the applicant must be assessed as able to:

• identify personal experiences, background, current family dynamics and lifestyle, and reflect on how these are relevant to caring for a child in care
• provide a safe and stable living environment that is free from harm or risk of harm
• provide a nurturing environment that contributes to a child's positive self regard
• work as part of a team that includes the child, their family, the department and other relevant service providers.

Key steps in the screening and assessment of foster carers:

1. Screening and assessment phase
2. Initial inquiry
3. Assessment interviews
4. Safety assessment and initial home visit
5. Formal application
6. Blue card application
7. Referee and medical checks
8. Personal history checks
9. Pre-service training (may occur prior to formal applicant and assessment interviews, but not prior to safety assessment and initial home visit)
10. Formal approval
11. Standard training
12. Advanced training
13. Renewal of approval
14. Cessation of carers

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Last updated

3 August 2007