Home | Site map | Contact us | Help |

Search Child Safety:

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
• Real carers really needed
  • 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 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 Carer Card contacts
• Library

Support for carers

Being a foster or kinship carer is a challenging role with certain stresses and pressures. Research shows that carers who feel supported:

• achieve better outcomes for children and young people in their care
• continue in their role as carers for longer periods of time
• are less likely to experience 'burnout'.

Support for carers includes:

• Carer handbook
• Federal Government allowances and benefits
• Foster and kinship care support line
• Foster Carer Card
• Financial support
• Support care
• Support groups

It is important to build a network of people around you who can provide both formal and informal support.

Formal support is provided by people or organisations with a formal responsibility to help and support carers. Our department and other non-government foster and kinship care services are the main providers of formal support available to carers. These supports may include:

• access to local support groups
• crisis response
• financial support
• home visits
• information about your role and how we can help you
• support placements
• telephone calls
• training.

Informal support is provided in the form of social support which enables carers to feel cared about and access emotional support. Informal support comes from:

• community groups
• family and friends
• neighbours
• other carers.

Building a support network helps carers to manage the challenges of providing care. For further information about support groups in your local area, contact your local child safety service centre or community foster care agency.

Carers can also seek assistance from Foster Care Queensland (FCQ), a community organisation open to all foster and kinship carers. FCQ is committed to informing, supporting, representing and advocating for carers and the children in their care.

Top of page

Last updated

6 June 2008