Foster care is a deeply personal activity. DoCS, the agency you foster through and excellent organizations like the Foster Care Association (both federal and state) provide information and support. For many people that information and support is readily accessible and gives them what they need.
For single working foster parents and many others, mid week support meetings and training courses may not be an option. The good news is that technology can now provide the opportunity to take some of that interaction on-line.
Who are we?
We’ve been involved in foster care for over 40 years. Our family now includes the children and partners of foster children. We currently provide full time long term care.
We are independent. We have no affiliation with any agency, DoCS or support networks. Our aim is to facilitate conversations that provide you with helpful information free of bias.
So why have we set up this site?
- We are passionate about foster care and its importance to children. We believe that ensuring foster children’s safety, meeting their basic needs and affording them the same opportunities as other children, is valuable work. Foster care is something that each of us can do.
- Being involved in foster care has simply been the best thing we have ever done. Like much of life, you get back many times over what you put in. The chance to love, learn and grow with a child is one of life’s gifts and foster care is something we approach with humility and gratitude. Don’t get us wrong, it also tries our patience and requires enormous amounts of energy, but it’s worth it.
- We are committed to helping carers by sharing experiences among the carer community. We believe that the web gives us a wonderful opportunity to have these conversations in a way and at a time that works for carers. Life is about sharing what you’ve learned. We’ve learned lots over the years! As have lots of carers. Fostercarer.com.au gives us a chance to build on each others’ learnings and knowledge, and create a virtual community of support. Just imagine sharing all your frustrations, concerns and successes with someone who has been there and really knows what you’re talking about.
- We believe there is a useful conversation to be had between carers and agencies, independently of the children in your care. Agencies are called on to place children in a caring and safe environment where their family is unable to provide for them, and act as a conduit between government, the children and their families and foster carers. Agencies carry a lot of responsibility and are given a lot of authority. They can either be outstanding in their understanding and support, or add to the foster carer’s burden. We’ve experienced both ends of the scale. We believe that understanding carers’ experience with agencies and sharing that constructively with agencies to enhance the quality of those interactions can be of benefit to all concerned.
- We believe we can supplement existing support networks by pointing carers to useful training, legislative developments and policy changes, books, overseas resources and information. For any foster carer who is time-poor, this site and the web gives us the chance to access broader support networks together with tools, information and materials that carers can use when it’s most convenient to them.
- And finally, for those of us for whom the web is simply part of how we work and live, why not use it to connect with people. It’s a natural extension!
What’s our vision? - Thoughtful, constructive interaction
A site like this could contain pitfalls. We’ve thought of that. That’s why content in a number of areas will be moderated before it is published. It is important that we protect individuals involved. We want to encourage constructive feedback. If that feedback can be used to inform decisions and improve how things operate, we’ve helped. We do not intend to become a forum to denigrate anyone.
Our aim is to improve carer education and knowledge.
But we will promote frank and honest feedback, from all involved in foster care.
While fostercarer.com.au is primarily designed for foster carers, we hope it can also help others - from children in care, children of foster families, agency workers, social workers, policy makers and others who are associated with or who support those providing foster care. We aim to turn your feedback into a source of useful information for carers and those who wish to enter the foster carer world.
What kind of conversations might we have?
Here are some questions that have come up along our journey. Questions we wanted answers to from other carers or some independent experts.
• What are the options for access and who can be there to support me?
• How flexible can I expect the system to be?
• Who determines the routine? Should my social worker set the rules or is it by mutual agreement?
• What do I do if I don’t agree with the way things are going? Do I have a right of recourse or reply?
• How do I handle childcare?
• How do I sort out financial support?
• What happens if I can’t attend the agency provided support meetings?
• What happens when the best interests of my foster child seem at odds with those of the birth family or vice versa?
• How do you juggle the needs of DoCS and your social worker, while holding down a full time job?
• I feel administration weary, is that normal?
• Of course my social worker needs to check how things are going, but what is a normal level of interaction and oversight?
• Can my broader family and support network help out where needed and who do I need to inform?
• My foster child is starting school, how do I communicate their unique family relationships?
• Who needs to know about our foster care arrangements - the school, the dentist, my neighbour?
• What are the arrangements for taking holidays?
• How do I find out about my foster child’s history? Is there medical or other important information that I need to know and how do I get access to that?
• What’s the best approach when my foster child asks questions about their past?
• What records of my foster child’s time with me do I need to keep?
• What are the legal rules and guidelines that I need to know about?
• What are the changes that have impacted the foster care area, such as the amendments to the Adoption Act? What do they mean for my foster child?
• Where do I go for more information?
We hope that as the site - and community – matures, carers will use it to ask questions and seek feedback from others. Grand plan hey?
If the situation is so personal, how can this website help?
Of course there is a place for face to face support and counselling. In September 207, DoCS released a tender document for the provision of State-wide Peer Support and Network Services for NSW DoCS Foster Carers . In that document they talked a lot about the Carer Support Teams and Regional Foster Care Advisory Groups, and the importance of peer support.
Counselling and face to face interaction is an absolutely essential part of your network of support. This site does not aim to replace that. In fact we actively encourage you to build strong networks around you. The stronger and more supported you are, the better you will be for your foster child.
But from our experience distance can also be a good thing. Objective opinion has a valuable role to play and independent feedback and information can aid perspective, particularly when you are so close to an issue that it consumes your every waking moment.
Thoughtful discussion, research, reading and reflecting, in your own time, are important ways to help you develop your thoughts and approach, to build resolve and resilience, and to learn and grow.
We hope we can help.