Fostering in Victoria
July 31, 2007 at 3:51 am | In Uncategorized | 7 CommentsWelcome! This blog is for existing carers and people interested in fostering. We plan to post useful information about events, training opportunities, links to helpful articles, and provide opportunity for engaging in discussion about fostering in Victoria.
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This is a great idea and hopefully will be of benefit to all Carers.
JUST ONE VOICE
I am a grandparent who has been caring for grandchildren since 1988 – full time since 1992. A boy now 18yrs, a girl 15 yrs and also a little five year old boy who is with me over 50% of the time.
There seems to be very little justice or logic with regard to finiancial support to kinship carers. If DHS have Court Orders to protect the child, financial assistance is sometimes granted. If a Court Order runs its course and is not renewed, even though the Department stays heavily involved and the Child Protection case is not closed and will most likely not ever be closed, finiancial assistance to Respite Kinship Carers and full time Carers is terminated, even though the the financial burden on the carers does not cease.
In my particular case is providing and nurturing and educating three generations of children.
The Governments finiancial figures are so out of touch with the regards to the cost of for Children in Care and quite deceptive to the general population.
If something is not done to ease the burden on families soon, relying on the Kinship Carers may not be an option for the relevant Government Departments and the current Govt. plan to phase out Foster Care is absolutely disasterous, both ill advised and distructive to our community.
Comment by H. Aldersey — August 14, 2007 #
Hi H. Aldersey, thanks so much for sharing your story, and for highlighting some of the specific challenges experienced by kinship carers. Kinship carers should be far more valued by the care system, as the next best thing for children who can’t live with their parents is for them to live with extended family. Without people like you willing to parent all over again, children experience even greater disruption to their lives. Is there a body to support Kinship Carers? I know that there is a thread on a foster care forum for Kinship carers – I am not sure how much action has happened there as the forum is new, but it might develop into a good place to support each other. Here’s the link:
http://fostercarevic.theiforum.com/kinship-care-f4.html?sid=c45ffc62ee7b3d69450eca321437186a
Comment by Christina — August 15, 2007 #
This is my first blog ever, so please bare with me. I lived in foster care most of my life, and found 1 family that was the best! That family is “The [surname] Family”. The last I’d heard, they had a foster home, and a petting zoo, where they foster children in Melbourne Australia. I don’t know if it’s the same Walters Family that I remember, but I really hope so. If it’s the same Family, is there any way possible that I can (or you can) get hold of them because I miss them very much. My older brother “Danny Adgey”, “Shane Murphy” and I used to live with her, and Shane and I really miss her alot! Thank you for your time for reading this blog! Since it was my first one, I didn’t know what to put under “Website”???
Comment by Kevin Adgey — October 21, 2008 #
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for sharing your story with us, it’s great to hear that you had a positive experience with your foster family.
The best way to get in touch is to contact the Department of Human Services, 1300 650 172 (free call except from mobiles) or have a look at the DHS website to find your local office. DHS keep files on past foster placements and since these are private, they’ll only let you access them.
I hope you don’t mind that I edited the names of the family members, we need to do that for privacy reasons.
I hope you are able to track down your foster family and I wish you all the best,
Jess
Comment by Jess — October 22, 2008 #
Hey Jess, thanx for the blog return!!! I have no problem with you editing the names of the family members, I know howthis privacy thing works, and it’s a great policy!!! I also wanted to thank you for the info on the DHS website, I’m going to try and see if I can find them!!! I can’t call them because I’m so far away (I’m about 12 hours time difference), but I’ll take your advise and hopefully I find them!!! Thanx again Jess!!!
Kev!!!
Comment by Kevin Adgey — October 30, 2008 #
Hi all my name is Nicole, I work for an Agency in Qld placing children with Foster Carers, I currently am handleing several cases with one in particular that i’m finding very frusterating. The case dynamics are consisting of kinship carers who currently carer for their two young grandchildren, the frusterating part is that they also have two young grandchildren in care in Vic that they wanting to care for however they have not been able to make any headway with the Vic Dept of child Safety, they are being told that they can only have contact with the child if the current foster carer will allow this, i find this statement to be very disturbing. Qld’s laws stated that if there is a kinship carer interstate and the case has no chance of reunification Qld Child Safety will work with the kinship carer and look at placement with the kinship carer. I would be interested in the Vic Child Safety Practice Manual so that i am able to research the legislation further and assist the carers to at least be able to have phone contact with the possible face to face contact. Any leads that anyone might have would be great.
Thanks in advance,
Nic
Comment by Nicole — February 8, 2009 #
Hi Nicole,
The legislation in Victoria is governed under the Children and Young Persons Act Victoria and the government department responsible for Child Protection is the Department of Human Services (DHS). Perhaps these terms will asssist your search.
Comment by Jess — February 9, 2009 #