CHILDREN in the Limestone Coast’s residential care facilities are having to move to Adelaide due to an shortage of volunteer foster carers in the Limestone Coast, Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson says.
Ms Sanderson met with service providers and department workers in Mount Gambier this week to discuss the urgent need for more foster carers in the region following the launch of a new interactive recruitment website.
She said foster carers were needed for 19 children who were currently in residential care facilities in the South East and urged interested individuals and families to consider fostering a child.
According to Ms Sanderson, increasing family-based care provides children and young people with a greater sense of stability and belonging.
“We know that being with a family is far better for the child,” she said.
“I have seen mothers and daughters that live together that have raised a foster child, there’s single people, you could be a working couple with and without children.
“Retired people who are looking at emergency care or respite care, grandparents that love children and have raised their own children but perhaps do not want the full-time carers but can certainly do a weekend, a month or a few weeks a year in school holidays.
“It makes such a big difference to that child.”
The State Government’s newly launched website features a questionnaire which provides prospective carers with information on whether they are eligible for foster or kinship caring.
Ms Sanderson said the fostercare.sa.gov.au site was designed to “debunk” some of the myths about suitability of becoming a foster carer.
She said the new website was one way the government was seeking to boost foster carer numbers and provide existing carers with additional support.
Earlier this year, the government extended carer payments to children aged 21 with Ms Sanderson saying the end of payments at 18 was out of date and inconsistent with current trends of young people choosing to stay at home.
“That was quite a traumatic experience for carers the funding cut out at 18 and not many children these days are really ready to go out on their own at 18,” she said.
“To have that option so that a child could stay with their foster or kinship family longer is one of the ways we are supporting foster carers.”
Service provider ac.care backed Ms Sanderson’s calls, with foster care program manager Dani Atkinson stating care provided in a child’s home region avoided further disruption in their life.
“Children are removed from their family by the Department for Child Protection for safety reasons, but sometimes also have to leave their home district, including their school, sports club, friends and extended family, if they cannot be placed in care locally,” she said.
“Losing these local connections can add to existing trauma in these children’s lives, especially when they are already going through a challenging time, so we do all we can to place children locally.”
People interested in caring can request more information about the formal application process and eligibility criteria, or make direct contact with a foster care agency in the region by calling 1300 2 FOSTER.
