Foster Care Victoria

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh appeared on the ABC’s Life Matters the other day discussing a new scheme to jail parents who leave children unsupervised to do things such as gambling, drinking or shopping.

While most of us would agree that leaving young children unsupervised for long periods of time for any reason is unwise and potentially life-threatening to these children, it seems like a huge jump from there to incarcerating their absent parents. Let’s think about our goals here for a minute - surely the primary problem here is that young children are being left without a caregiver for long periods of time? This being the case, incarcerating their primary caregiver, therefore making them unable to provide care for their child at all, seems like a rather self-defeating measure.

We must also take into account the huge cost of such an exercise as well as the potential strain on the already struggling foster care system. By putting in to place such a scheme we would also be knowingly placing some of the most vulnerable members of society in a criminogenic environment, which is in itself a major concern.

Surely the sensible thing to do is provide education and support to assist parents in understanding the needs of their children. Sanctions may be appropriate for repeat offenders, but let them be productive - compulsory attendance at parenting programs or a supervision order. More primary caregivers in prison is not going to solve anyone’s problems, least of all those of the child.

The audio can be found here, and a related article from the ABC website can be found here.

Kinship care is when a child is placed under the care of a family member, often a grandparent, Aunt or Uncle, and as The Age has reported today, its on the rise.

Kinship care is often seen as preferable to a foster care placement outside the child’s family where it is appropriate and available. But the telling part of this article is the quote from Cathy Humphreys, a Melbourne University professor in child and family welfare, “It [Kinship Care] can be very good or it can be very difficult, so each situation has to be looked at differently. It’s not one size fits all.”

*This photo belongs to the Herald Sun

Yesterday’s article, Hard Times Foster and Carer Crisisin the Herald Sun has sparked quite a response with many calls to the Centre for Excellence from people wanting to find out more which is fantastic news.

Although the online comments appear to show a) a misunderstanding in the community about foster care and how the system works, and b) some disgruntled past and potential carers frustrated at a lack of support and resources.

To the latter category of people, I hear you and I agree, though I think we should all raise our hats to both DHS workers and foster care workers alike for their perseverance in a thankless, stressful, under-paid, under-staffed, under-funded and under-resourced job. While I am sorry to hear of negative experiences of foster care all I can say is that we are all doing the best we can.

To the former category, removal of children is never an easy decision and is always a last resort. This issue is completely separate Apology made on February 13th which acknowledged the injustice of forced removal based on race, rather than on the safety and best interests of the child. Foster care is the temporary care of a child where the hope is always on reunification with the birth family. Foster carers are not expected to be perfect but it is a responsibility of those in the field to make sure that a child is safe from harm and provided with adequate care.

Although foster care is a challenging role at times, as Kylie will attest, it is also an immensely rewarding one.

Anyone interested should consider coming along to an information evening, check the events listing for details.

CREATE Foundation has released a report calling for supports for children with experience of State care, including foster care, to be extended past the current cut off of 18. The story was reported by ABC this morning.

Although there are carers who continue to offer their home to children past their 18th birthday, there are many, many cases where young people are left to their own devices to navigate difficult housing situations, fiances, employment, education and other major accomplishments in life. Reimbursements for carers cease, as well as funding for case workers and other agency supports.

The carers and worker in the Adolescent Community Placement program (ACP) are well aware of the challenges facing young people after their 18th birthday and in the years leading up place emphases on imparting independent life-skills on those in their care. Nevertheless, its a massive and often solitary leap.

According to the report:

A year after leaving care, half of the young people have had a period of homelessness. Almost half will be unemployed, nearly a third of women will have become pregnant, half would have considered or attempted suicide, and almost half will have committed a crime.

The story is not new though, The Age reported this story back in 2005, and it was also echoed in SBS’s Insight program.

With the release of the Youth Homelessness report there have been quite a few discussions and debates across the media in relation to tackling this issue.

Also, The Oasis, a documentary on this subject will be shown on ABC tomorrow night looks to be very interesting and although it won’t look at foster care specifically, many of the issues that put families and individuals at risk of child protection concerns also increase risks of homelessness. The accompanying website is also worth exploration.

While on the subject of national issues, perhaps this report is opportunistic in it’s timing with the 2020 Summit including a forum on “Strengthening Communities, Supporting Families and Social Inclusion”.

Our post about the issue of mandatory reporting of abuse for religious leaders attracted quite a lot of attention. Interestingly this article in Maroondah’s Leader also takes up the debate again, looking at responses from churches.

A Catholic priest said he though the church should question the church’s stance, adding “I believe it’s up to the conscience to report it to the police”.

Is it enough- or even fair- to ask religious leaders to make that call?    

A rather downbeat article which shares the findings of research into abuse in care from the 1940s onwards - here .

There may be a change in guidelines for child-safe car travel.  Full details here.

The Australian Childhood Foundation has is calling for religious leaders to have the same obligations in mandatory reporting of abuse as teachers, doctors and nurses.

AChF provide many supports including therepy to children who have suffer trauma and abuse. They work very closely with foster care organisations, especially through a number of the thereputic programs for foster children with specific or high needs.  

This article appeared in the local Leader Newspaper last week and brings to light a disturbing case where a man made a confession to a priest that he sexually abused his daughter. The priest did not report the confession and the abuse continued.

Maroondah Leader has asked for reader feedback on “Do you think church leaders should have to report child abuse confessed to them?”… surely this is a no-brainer.   

An article in the Herald Sun today raises questions about parents who put their children through painful cosmetic surgery. To see what you think about the issue, read the full article here.