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Foster carers play a pivotal role in supporting children who cannot live at home, providing for the child’s physical and emotional needs to heal from past traumas. While the initial goal is often for the foster child to return home, some children will need care until they turn 18 years or beyond. The ultimate goal of foster care is to give every child a chance to reach their full potential by ensuring they have access to education, healthcare and opportunities within a caring family environment.

Most of the children needing foster care have experienced adverse childhood experience including abuse or neglect. This can impact their behaviour, self-esteem, emotional and educational development. They may have difficulties trusting adults and forming relationships with others. By providing a safe environment and a secure attachment to carers, children who have suffered developmental trauma can begin to heal and explore the world around them.

• Emergency carers provide immediate crisis care ranging from a single night to a few weeks. The duration of the placement depends on whether the risk at home can be removed or, until the child is placed with an alternative short-term or family carer if the safety concern cannot be resolved.
• A respite carer is an individual or family who for one weekend per month or more often cares for a child in our program. Respite care provides a child’s full-time foster family with a break, and a chance to recharge. It also provides the child with the opportunity to learn more about living with safe, caring adults.
• Short-term care can be as little as a few weeks or up to 24 months while a child’s matter is before the courts to determine whether or not a child can go back home safely, or an alternative family can be found.
• Long-term carers will care for a child until the young person reaches 18 years of age or is ready to move into independent living. CatholicCare expects that long-term carers commit to achieving this goal for the child in their care, with ongoing financial, emotional and practical support provided.
• Kinship care is where children are placed with relatives or close family friends rather than with unrelated caregivers. Kinship care preserves valuable connections for the child by allowing them to stay within familiar family networks, which may reduce trauma and sustain a sense of stability during a difficult period.

CatholicCare offers foster care as a pathway to permanency, which may include options such as guardianship or open adoption. Adopting a foster child is a complex process that requires careful consideration and legal requirements, and our care team will support and guide you through the process.

The need for foster care spans across a broad range of ages in NSW, catering to infants, children, and adolescents between 0 and17 years who need temporary or long-term nurturing and stability in their lives.

Every child is unique, and so are the behaviours presented. These children and young people may have difficulties trusting adults and forming relationships with others. As a result, it can take some time for a child to settle into a foster family and their emotions may be expressed in ways that carers may find difficult. Some children adapt quickly to their new home, while others can take longer to form a secure connection with their carers. CatholicCare supports our foster carers in developing knowledge and tools for trauma informed parenting skills.

An allowance is provided to cover the care and living costs of the foster child.

On top of the carers allowance, additional funding can sometimes be accessed to engage services to meet children’s additional needs, such as orthodontic and optometrist costs.

We provide regular training for carers facilitated both in-house and externally to mentor carers through their journey and learn how to be great foster carers. As part of the application process, foster carers complete the trauma-informed program called Shared Lives, empowering them with a deeper understanding of fostering and an approach to building a safe and nurturing home environment for children who have suffered from trauma.

If the applicants have children, additional consideration will be given to ensure safety and minimise risk in respect to any child in the home. In most instances, this may result in the child placed by CatholicCare being the youngest child in the family with at least a 2 year age gap.

The child or young person should have their own room to sleep in. There may be an exception for siblings who can share a room.

The process of becoming a foster carer involves probity checks, including a Nationally Coordinated History Check (police check), a Working with Children Check, a Community Services check and a medical check from your doctor.

Applicants need to be at least 25 and under 70 years of age. Married or defacto couples must have been married and/or living together continuously for a minimum period of 2 years.

It can take between 3-6 months to become an authorised foster carer in NSW.

As part of the application process to become a foster carer, an assessor will conduct a series of discussions about your history, attitudes and connections, relationships and resilience, and child focused nurture. The assessor may conduct a conversation with family members, referees and support network.

Foster carers can only be authorised with one agency at a time. If you are already a foster carer with another agency, it may be possible to transfer to CatholicCare. Please contact us to discuss further.

In most instances, yes. Children in foster care generally maintain a connection with their birth family, as this supports their sense of identity and belonging.