Foster Families

Foster care is provided to children and young people who are unable to live with their own families. A parent may be unable to care for a child because of illness, stress or family crisis and subsequently request the assistance of the Department of Community Services. The Department places the child or children with a voluntary foster family.

The Department also places children suffering abuse or neglect in temporary short-term foster care. This may be for a minimum of one night, to a maximum period of three months. The courts then decide whether or not it is suitable for the child to return to the family home or if longer-term care should be sought.

Foster care aims to provide the basic day-to-day needs of children, including adequate food, shelter, care and affection. A foster family needs to be emotionally supportive of a child’s situation. Children have to deal with being separated from their parents, siblings and other relatives. The foster family may have to help maintain contact with these relatives to assist with the child’s sense of family identity and feelings of self-worth. The Department of Community Services usually tries to ensure that brothers and sisters are kept together in one foster family.

Foster families are temporary arrangements and the biological family does not relinquish parental rights to the child. The foster family is legally obliged to provide for the child’s everyday needs, but their long-term welfare remains the responsibility of the State Government.When a family does agree to surrender their rights it is then possible for the child to be adopted, which is a permanent and legal agreement.

	Created by bhabyjanevirgo almost 10 years ago

Note on Community and Family Studies - Families and Communities, created by bhabyjanevirgo on 04/09/2014.