About foster care
We are making a positive and lasting difference to children, young people and their families.
What is foster care?
When a child or young person is taken into care, they need a safe and supportive place to stay. Foster care is often the preferred choice for such children and young people. Foster Care means a child lives with a different family who aims to provide them with the care and support by offering a safe, secure and nurturing home.
There are many foster care placement types. Fostering can be short-term, ranging from a few days to a few months, or it can be longer, from months to several years, or even become a permanent arrangement. 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.
Types of foster care
Children and young people need fostering for lots of different reasons. That’s why we offer a range of different placement types – so we can match each child with the foster family that has the skills and characteristics to meet their needs.
If you are looking to foster, please try and be as flexible as you can. Being happy to accept more than one type of foster care placement helps us find safe, supportive homes for children and young people more quickly.
Children in care
Children and young people come into the care of state government departments when their parents and family are unable to provide a safe home for them. This can be for a very short period of a few days or for most of their childhood until they reach 18 years of age.
Children who come into care are likely to have suffered physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse, or neglect. Indeed neglect is the main reason children come into care. This means the child’s basic needs for safety and care have not been met at home.
Steps to foster
Becoming a foster carer is a life-changing thing to do. Key Assets is a Child Safe Organisation the safety and wellbeing of the children and young people in our care is of paramount importance. That’s why all our foster carers go through our comprehensive fostering assessment process, including criminal clearance and working with children checks. This helps make sure all the children, young people and families we work with are safe.
FAQ
If you are new to the idea of fostering, it is important to equip yourself with all the facts before getting involved.
We’ve compiled and debunked a list of fostering myths to give you a greater understanding of what it truly takes to become a foster carer.
