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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
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• Support for carers
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  • Financial support
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• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
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• Library

Specialist foster care

Specialist foster care services are responsible for recruiting, training, assessing and supporting carers who have been approved by our department.

• Specialist foster care is provided to a child or young person with complex to extreme support needs in a carer's home.
• Carers supported by specialist foster care services should have access to regular and emergency support.
• Some specialist foster care services may also support carers who have been provisionally approved by our department, while those carers are undertaking the formal departmental carer approval process.
• Non-government and specialist foster care services are grant funded to provide an approved number of places.

Departmentally approved foster and kinship carers supported by grant funded non- government service providers may be eligible for the Complex Support Needs Allowance.

Specialist foster care services may also be funded to employ direct care workers to assist in meeting a child or young person's needs.

Last updated

6 June 2008