Prepared by the Australian Foster Care Association

Project administrator and primary researcher:

Dr Ross Gurney
Better Enterprises Pty Ltd, Canberra

A safe family-like placement in which children can grow up is a cornerstone both of family support, and work with those children who are not able to grow up with their families of origin. To put a child with a ‘new’ family is a massive intervention in his or her life, and one which will have profound consequences for the child, the placement family and the family of origin.

Alan Currer,
Deputy Director of Child Care,
Barnardo’s

From my experience I find if I have a very good social worker whom I can trust, communicate well with, laugh with - be open with - it is support

Foster carer in survey

It is clear that foster carer parents look for and need support, and evidence suggests that foster carers are more effective in their demanding and sensitive roles when that level of support is present. Not only is the quality of parenting likely to be related to the level of support offered, there are good reasons for believing that abuse of children in foster care can be reduced and overall outcomes improved by ensuring quality support is given to foster carers. The safety of children in care, many of whom arrive with carers with a history of abuse, must be paramount.

In summary, the key findings of the report are that:

• The foster care system faces important challenges, with the bulk of children in the system being cared for by a relatively small number of carers and too few new carers;
• The nature of foster care has been changing, with a higher level of behaviour problems in children in care and the need for more sophisticated parenting;
• In this environment, there is a need to review recruitment processes, training and ongoing support, to ensure children are receiving good quality care;
• Collaborative approaches involving all levels of government and parts of the sector offer the potential for better outcomes for children;
• A significant proportion of foster carers would like greater support, particularly from State authorities;
• Greater support could also be provided through foster care associations;
• More broadly, foster carers feel that the low level of status and respect they feel is accorded them does not match the importance of the task they are undertaking in raising children.
• Processes to deal with allegations of abuse from foster children can be improved to provide greater support to carers without jeopardising the safety of children;
• In this context, it would be worth trialing approaches used in Alberta, Canada, in the Australian context.

It is difficult to be precise about the number of foster carers or foster care families in Australia. There is no central database, nor are there even standard databases of State/Territory foster care families. A compilation of Foster Carer Association estimates puts the total number of foster families at 8,340. Foster care is taken in this study to be a part of ‘substitute care’, which in turn is a part of the broader category of ‘out-of-home care’. Although kinship care can be treated as a separate area of child care, it has been treated in this study as generally a part of foster care.

Children may be placed in care for several reasons. There are also several kinds of out-of-home care, fostering being one of these. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publication Child Protection Australia 1999-00 (2001) reported that at 30 June 2000, there were 16,923 children in out-of-home care. Of these 16,923, 90% of the children were either in foster care or relative/kinship care.

A Community Services Commission report about children in care in New South Wales, reported that 408 or 16 per cent of foster children in NSW are Aboriginal.

The present study contains some original Australian research, limited literature review and reports of many discussions with foster carers, administrators, and workers. It defines the foster care sector as comprising seven stakeholder groups:

• Government administrators and workers;
• Non-government agency administrators and workers;
• Associations of foster carers, young people and others;
• Voluntary foster and kinship carers and their families;
• Infants, children and young people in care;
• Birth families of children in care;
• Extended families of children in care.

The judgements made and conclusions drawn, have been based on conceptual thinking; explicit comparison between provisions in different states and between Australia and overseas; and extensive discussions with people within the sector. Anecdotal information and simple observations have been confirmed by the results of a national survey of 812 foster carers drawn from all States/Territories in Australia.

The roots of foster care in Australia are to be found in nineteenth century ‘boarding out’ innovations that were tried in various states in order to give children in institutions an experience of ‘normal’ family life. The practice was found to be both beneficial for children and cost saving for governments. The phasing out of institutional care for children is a very recent change.

The most common types of foster care, though sometimes going under different names and being defined differently, are the following:

1. Respite care;
2. Short-term care;
3. Medium-term care;
4. Long-term/permanent care.

Foster care for children with special needs may occur in any of the above categories.

The survey conducted as part of the study has revealed that the largest, single proportion of foster carer respondents are engaged in long-term care, with roughly equally proportions of carers engaged in respite care, crisis/emergency care, and short-term or temporary care. Kinship care is undertaken by a quite small number of respondents, but this is seen as an artefact of the survey distribution methodology. The survey sample consisted of 39% non-government carers, and 53% government carers. A very small proportion (3%) said they were both.

The average length of time that respondent carers had been fostering was a little over 8 years. The number of children that respondent carers had fostered was 19,134 covering all categories of care. Making sense of the data to do with caring is not easy because of overlaps of categories. But a graphed representation of the number of children cared for by the number of carers reveals starkly that the bulk of foster care children and young people have been cared for by a relatively small number of foster carers (see Figure 5).

The foster care sector is presented and described in the study as a ‘system’ with inputs, outputs/outcomes and system components/processes. Some of the key stakeholders and their roles are described.

State Governments are responsible for investigating and assessing child abuse and neglect reports, and making court applications when an order is required to protect a child. They also fund family support services and supported placements services for children and young people aged 17 years and under who are placed away from their parents or family home for reasons of safety or family crisis.

State/Territory government departments typically appoint case managers for specific children in care. Child protection officers are also appointed by, usually different, government departments to handle particular issues related to child protection.

There is a mix of non-government agencies with an interest in foster care in Australia. Many have grown out of a Church-based welfare system but more community-based private services are joining their ranks.

In several states, agencies within one geographic area are being encouraged by government to make joint budget bids to provide an integrated service to the people of their community.

Foster carer associations exist in all States/Territories except the Northern Territory. They have as their primary interest the needs and concerns of foster carers. The associations have grown out of local networking by carers. The New South Wales and Western Australia associations have been established longer than others. They and the Queensland association are the only ones who have been successful in obtaining funding outside of membership subscriptions.

The Commonwealth Government has a broad and wide ranging interest in matters to do with children, especially to do with the protection of children. Australia, in the representative person of the Commonwealth Government was a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In very recent times, it has made a greater commitment to help support and strengthen families as a fundamental unit of society.

Despite the range of players involved in the foster care sector, there are important philosophical issues that need to be addressed. It is not long ago that the Community Services Commission (2000) stated:

— at this point in time, we still don't have a clear definition of what substitute care is, let alone a common understanding of its aim and desired outcomes (p. 124).

There is an underlying issue of what foster care principles and practices Australia, as a nation should implement. If, as in older styles of thinking, we are content with ‘warm-hearted and homely’ people to volunteer their services as foster carers, then this will lead to a particular emphasis in recruitment campaigns. But if, however, after serious analysis of the need, we believe that a more professional approach to fostering ought to be developed to ensure the needs of the children are met (as is the case with the United Kingdom Joint Working Party on Foster Care), then this may mean that very different emphases, different targeting and different recruitment campaigns should be pursued.

The foster care sector as a whole, would benefit from a nationally agreed position on foster care. A national approach on Foster Care would need to address the following issues:

1. The provision of quality foster care for children;
2. Differentiation between foster care for children in voluntary or short term placements and children in long term placements;
3. Indigenous and ethnic placement principles;
4. Recognition of kinship foster care;
5. The funding required for government and non-government agencies to provide a quality service for foster carers and the children they care for;
6. The roles of children and birth families in the provision of foster care;
7. The quality of the relationship between foster carers and workers.

That a National approach on foster care including Indigenous and kinship care be developed as a cooperative venture by the Commonwealth and State/Territory Governments and peak community organisations directly involved in foster care.

It is also important that this approach involve foster carers themselves in a more active way than at present.

The body of this report argues that foster care appears still to be permeated with outdated stereotypic notions, which are an obstacle to constructive development of the sector. To change attitudes in the community at large is a difficult assignment at any time and for anyone. Yet it seems that until some of these century-old views are replaced, we will not be delivering the standard of foster care that might be possible.

There is a pressing need for the various stakeholders within the sector to work more harmoniously and professionally together. Where this kind of team approach is to be found, then there is no question that the quality of care is markedly different and better.

Foster carers in Australia are volunteers. Along with other volunteers in the community, they contribute a significant amount of social welfare service to the country. In some respects, they are similar in profile to volunteers in general in the Australian community, but there are a number of ways in which they make an even greater contribution, in terms of the cost and time needed, than most other voluntary activities.

Most foster carers do not come into foster caring because of public recruitment campaigns, but by word of mouth or because of long-standing family involvement. The age profile of foster carers differs a little from the profile of volunteers in general, in that most foster carers come from an older age bracket, ie the 45 to 54 year age range. Survey results suggest that foster carers appear to be somewhat better qualified (formal education) than the general population.

They are drawn from all employment types, with the two largest employment ‘catchment’ types being Professionals, and Managers/administrators. A matter of concern is that 20 per cent of foster carer survey respondents were families where no breadwinner was employed. In part this group may be made up of retired people.

In common with foster carers overseas, Australian foster carers perceived themselves as having low status and little information or influence.

While most foster carers consider that the role they fulfil in providing a home to a child or young person not their own is a highly responsible and demanding one, the expectations and demands placed on them does not in their eyes match the status that should go with the role and responsibilities of foster carers. This conflict is one of the key issues for foster carers in Australia and may be an important reason why many foster carers cease being foster carers.

As a key part of this study, a national survey of foster carers was undertaken. Seven and a half thousand survey questionnaires were distributed to both government and non-government foster carers in every State/Territory. Data were collected and analysed from 812 respondents (representing a response rate of 10.8 per cent) and these data, covering a range of key issues, comprise the first national foster carer survey to be conducted in Australia.

The key issue that emerged from the survey was the view within the foster care sector of current levels of support. Papers and research reports from overseas and Australia both highlight the importance of support for foster carers. Inadequate support can result in placement breakdown, feelings of frustration and anger among foster carers, high displacement rates among children in care, and higher than necessary resignation rates among foster carers.

The survey results revealed that 84 per cent of foster carer respondents rated support as absolutely essential (54%) or very important (30%) with only 3 per cent claiming that they could manage without it.

Twenty one per cent (21%) of survey respondents indicated that they received more than enough support; fifty eight per cent (58%) said that they received enough or barely enough support to ‘get by on’; and eighteen percent (18%) indicated that they received nowhere near enough or no support at all.

Forty four per cent (44 %) rated the support they received as extremely good or very good, with a further 35% rating support as average. Sixteen per cent (16%) rated it as very poor or extremely poor.

Most support by far is received by foster carers from family and friends (55 per cent of respondents indicated that they received ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of support from family and friends). Non-government agencies were regarded as the next best source of support (32 per cent getting ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’). While forty six per cent of respondents (46%) indicated that they got ‘very little’ or ‘no support’ from the relevant State/Territory department, forty three percent (43%) indicated that they received at least a reasonable amount of support.

It is apparent from additional data that foster carers seek support from a wide range of other people in the community — much wider, we surmise, than ‘ordinary’ parents with a birth family.

In relation to after hours support, family and friends again were seen to provide the majority of support (76 per cent saying they received ‘extremely good’ or ‘very good’ after hours support) and fellow foster carers (65 per cent) and Agencies (64 per cent) being next. Associations were rated as providing ‘extremely good’ or ‘very good’ after hours support by 57 per cent. While forty four per cent (44%) of respondents said that their state/territory departments provided ‘very poor’ or ‘extremely poor’ after hours support, thirty four percent (34%) rated the support as average and twenty two per cent (22%) rated the after hours support as very good or extremely good.

The survey also provided respondents with an open-ended opportunity to identify the kind of support that they felt they should get, but did not get. The most frequently mentioned category was ‘Departmental provisions, interactions, access availability, openness and trust. Also rating highly was ‘improved response time from workers’ and ‘better information about children’. In terms of resourcing, frequently mentioned support needs were: ‘payment/reimbursement for real costs’, and ‘adequate subsidies/advice on same’. The need for respite for themselves was also frequently mentioned.

Other questions related to the availability of specific support. 33 per cent claimed not to have a printed manual or guidebook to help them, yet 85 per cent said having that kind of material available was either ‘very necessary’ or ‘extremely necessary’.

The survey data collected for this study is an important addition to our understanding of the foster care sector. However, more complete information would lead to a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of current policies and activities.

A possible mechanism for collecting this information statistics would be for States/Territories to furnish an annual return which would be aggregated for the purposes of reporting at a national level. The main categories of information that are needed are:

• The children in foster care;
• The children in kinship care;
• Foster carers including kinship carers;
• Indigenous and ethnic foster care;
• Issues including allegations against foster carers;
• Placement numbers, breakdowns, and matching statistics.

That the Commonwealth and States/Territories establish a policy on statistical recording of information pertinent to foster care, including the national collection of statistics related to allegations of abuse, and initiate a national collection process.

The foundation of any effective foster care service is based on the adequate recruitment, training and support of a good pool of foster carers representing most, if not all, sub-groups within society.

Recruitment is an issue that has to be addressed, and although it is a shared responsibility, the groundwork for creating a positive image for foster care could well be done by the Commonwealth as part of its Stronger Families and Communities agenda.

Initial training for foster carers is mandatory in all States/Territories and is typically of good quality. However, survey results suggest that it doesn’t always occur. A further issue is that there are no national standards and no nationally agreed curricula. Data from the carer survey also suggest that foster carers engaged by non-government agencies, receive better and more training than government carers.

In considering training arrangements for foster care, kinship care should also receive attention.

It was evident from the survey that while a wide range of written materials is available, a lot of it may not be as up-to-date or as conveniently presented as it could be. Handbooks and manuals are only as useful as the currency of the information they contain. At the same time, because foster carers are drawn from a wide cross-section of the community, the availability of training aids in many formats would help to reach those who most need assistance.

National accreditation of foster carers could serve a number of important purposes within the foster care sector. It would help to give carers some formal recognition. It would create a vehicle for national migration of carers and their automatic recognition in other jurisdictions. It would include the recognition of prior learning under the National Training Authorities vocational education system.

What is envisaged is a national system that stands independently of any existing State/Territory accreditation system, and that is allied to National Standards, national competencies and agreed training profiles. It should be at least on par with the highest level of State/Territory accreditation in existence now. It would be voluntary in the first instance, but would provide a level of training that carers anywhere in Australia might undertake. It would have status so that national accreditation as a carer would be recognised and accepted under any State/Territory or non-government administration. Such programs could be operated through mainstream training organisations or as a partnership between the TAFE system and foster care agencies.

There is a range of basic financial and material supports that foster carers look for. There is also a strong argument for payments and allowances to recognise the specialist skills of foster carers and the skills they are required to use in providing for children from difficult backgrounds, with challenging behaviours or special needs or disabilities. A variety of arrangements are in place in different states and territories.

There are also many areas where foster carers feel greater financial support would be warranted. These include:

• Needs for special clothing or additional clothing during periods of rapid growth;
• Costs for replacement school clothing;
• Special shoes;
• Wear and tear on the foster carer’s home, contents and vehicles, and repair or replacement of damaged property;
• Additional telephone costs associated with phone calls concerning specialist appointments, and contact with birth families;
• Costs of gifts to birth families;
• Indirect costs to foster carers, including:
  • forfeited wages of primary foster carer,

• loss of experience and career advancement,
• the emotional, social, and physical drain on foster families who are often caring for very demanding and challenging children,
• loss of no claim bonuses on insurance policies.

• Costs associated with access requirements:

• travel, accommodation, food, spending money for the child during access compensation for lost income whilst attending, supervising or transporting a child to access,
• variations from one access visit to the next (requiring separate identification and documentation before payment),
• suspension of payment when access visits that extend over night but are not of a significantly longer duration (carers still have to meet the ongoing costs),
• foster carers believe they are being used physically and emotionally, and financially penalised for having to put in even more effort on these occasions. Perhaps some form of a ‘foster carer retainer’ payment could be made on such occasions,

• Equity in travel allowances:

• Some carers are receiving a nominal or significantly reduced kilometric allowance for transporting a child in their own vehicle when compared to paid workers who receive standard public service rates or significantly higher rates than the foster carers,

• Respite care — the costs of which have to be met by foster carers themselves;
• CPI increases (It is very rare for the full CPI increase to be passed on to foster carers’ payments and allowances);
• Education expenses — especially when the cheapest available option is not in the best interests of the child;
• Legitimate items that are not covered by Medicare or health funds, gap expenses, and transport costs to and from appointments;
• Necessary vaccinations — covered by some States, not in others;
• Additional costs associated with rural and remote locations;
• Legal costs;
• Insurance cover against personal and property damage resulting from a foster child’s/young person’s behaviour;
• The needs of very high support children on a 24 hour 1:1 care basis;
• The placement and support of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other culturally discreet groups;

• The impact of a GST on foster care, particularly for lower income foster carers;
• Taxation of foster carer payments, subsidies, allowances and reimbursements;
• The costs of foster carer training.

Problems with receiving payment, variations in levels of discretionary payments, and variations in payments between government and non government agencies are also matters of concern.

Many of these issues are being taken up in a privately funded study aimed at identifying the real costs of looking after children in foster care and assessing the adequacy of the current age related subsidy payments to foster carers in Australia.

A range of issues need to be addressed including:

• Payment of full costs of care;
• Funding of costs involved with allegations including processes and payments of Commonwealth and State support;
• Payments related to ‘voluntary care’, particularly where the legal status of the child in care or the carers is uncertain;
• Insurance cover for foster carers;
• Removal of income and assets tests for foster carers in relation to allowances for foster children;
• Funding for professional care required by foster children, if necessary through private health care.

The survey also revealed that a major source of resentment and frustration among foster carers is the relationship between themselves and government workers. While some workers received high praise, the majority of foster carers are clearly critical of department workers.

Friction arises around the different cultures - workers typically treat their jobs as regular office hours work and are paid for it, while carers are not paid and do not have office hours — indeed many difficulties arise in fostering after hours when departmental assistance is not readily available. Another issue is that while most workers have a formal qualification, carers often feel they lack maturity and experience and are given authority over foster carers. A further issue is that few departmental workers receive any foster care-specific training.

These issues are not insurmountable and they point to the need for better communication between the different parts of the foster care sector.

The need for supported respite care for foster carers themselves is another stand out need highlighted by carers themselves. There is little doubt that as the level of need in children/young people grows, so the stress level and demands upon foster carers increases. Lack of respite leads to burn out for many carers, and there is already evidence that lack of supported respite has led some foster carers to cease fostering.

Little is known about the proportion of foster carers who leave fostering (especially in the short term) or their reasons for leaving. A Queensland study has looked at the reasons why a group of 45 Queensland carers ceased fostering in the years 1997-1999. Twenty-nine per cent of them left after less than one year and 55% left after one to five years. The reasons given for leaving were:

• 33% left because of lack of support from the Department;
• 33% left because of the impact of fostering on their own family;
• 24% indicated that the child's behaviour was a reason for their decision;
• 20% left because of disagreement with the Department; and
• 11 % ceased following an allegation of abuse being made about them.

The NSW Community Services Commission (2000b) reported that

Anecdotal reports indicate that there is a serious shortage of Indigenous foster carers and that this is in part the reason why the placement principle is not being followed to the extent that it should be.

There is a long-standing debate about whether fostering should become professional rather than continue as a voluntary service. Foster carers feel that the extent of their contribution is not adequately recognised. They argue, for example, that foster carers are the only members of the professional care team that:

• Do not receive a wage;
• Are potentially on call 24 hours a day, every day
• Are not entitled to receive sick leave;
• Do not receive holidays or holiday loadings;
• Are not considered for long service leave;
• Do not receive work benefits such as the use of free phone, computer, email etc.

Reasons for professionalism of caring arise out of the fact that the needs of children coming into care are becoming more difficult and more protracted. The skills required are therefore increasingly specialised.

A report to the NSW Child Protection Council about Systems abuse, cites Steinhauer (1991):

This issue will need a more thorough airing in the Australian context. Although Australia may not yet be ready for this debate, it is worthy of note that the UK Joint Working Party on Foster Care, in its Report and Recommendations has stated:

The function of placement is a pivotal one in foster care. It is in the interests of both the child/young person being ‘placed’ and of the foster family with whom the child/young person is placed, that the ‘match’ between child and family be as good as possible. Reports reaching the researchers, however, indicated that placement practices around Australia are less than ideal, and that one of the root causes is the shortage of suitable foster carers from which a ‘match’ can be made.

When there are insufficient foster carers,

• Matching effort may, of necessity, be minimal;
• Placement breakdown and the need for the child/young person to be moved to another family increase’;
• ‘Good’ foster carers get overloaded with more and longer placements; and
• Foster carers are unable to take much-needed breaks between placements.

Data from the present study’s survey showed that foster carers end up doing more caring of different types than they had in mind initially, and that the main increase is in the area of long-term care.

The UK Foster Care Working Party warned against what it believed was too hasty placements caused in part by mistakenly categorising too many cases as ‘emergency’. If a similar practice occurs in Australia, then the Working Party’s warning may fit here as well.

Several other support processes and mechanisms are discussed in the present report: support for first placements; support when a subsequent or additional placement is made; the provision of information with a child/young person at the time of placement; and meetings with workers and birth parents. In each of these areas there are special needs for foster carers. While some efforts are being made to address the need, the impression gained by the researchers was that in all areas there were issues that need to be addressed if a quality support system is to be in place.

Two kinds of abuse are addressed in this report:

• Abuse in foster care;
• Systems Abuse as it affects foster carers.

Limited data is available on the incidence of child abuse within foster care. However, on figures available for Qld, ACT, WA and NT, the proportions for foster and kinship families are considerably lower than for other kinds of family.

Overseas research about the incidence of abuse and neglect in foster homes, as compared with the general population is equivocal. Some data suggest that it is higher in foster families.

Within the foster care system, research suggests that delayed decision-making, issues of multiple social workers, multiple/disrupted placements and lack of information/preparation in relation to placements are major problems experienced within the Australian system and fall within accepted definitions of system abuse of children.

Recommendation 8

Allegations of abuse place all parties within the foster care system in a difficult position. Government departments must clearly protect children in foster care arrangements as in other situations. However, foster carers also often need support during the difficult processes that follow an allegation.

Twenty-three per cent of respondents to the carer survey reported that they had been subjected to such an allegation. A high proportion of allegations against foster carers are not substantiated. A common view among foster carers is that an allegation of abuse is an inevitable and regrettable probability. It is also widely accepted, in both Australia and overseas, that even an unsubstantiated allegation causes extensive embarrassment and trauma to a foster carer. There is also data available that shows that allegations of abuse are a prominent reason why foster carers leave fostering.

When allegations are made, family and friends of foster carers are perceived as offering the best support (85 per cent extremely good or very good) followed by fellow foster carers (74 per cent extremely good or very good) and then the associations (71 per cent extremely good or very good). On the other hand the department is seen as offering extremely good or very good support by only 23 per cent and 40 per cent of respondents rated the departments’ support as extremely poor.

Despite the difficult nature of the issues raised by allegations of abuse, much can be done to provide appropriate support to foster carers and overseas models point to promising options. Critically, children must be protected but carers must also be treated as innocent until allegations have been substantiated.

A special Carer Allegations Support Team (CAST) has been attempted in New South Wales, modelled in part on a similar support team in Alberta, Canada. At this stage, resources for the Team have been limited and it is not clear how successful the attempt has been.

Key areas for consideration include:

• Clarification of the distinction between standards of care breaches and abuse;
• Rights of carers under investigation;
• Independence of investigators;
• Rights of carers for review and appeal;
• Support and advocacy for carers under investigation;
• Availability of accurate and full information for carers;
• Agreed due process for the handling of allegations;
• Enforcement of due process;
• Legal issues;
• Confidentiality;
• Treatment of carers and records when allegations have not been substantiated.

Deliberate steps need also to be taken to address systems abuse of both children and carers through the establishment of standards and performance indicators, and through more specific programme management changes so that those who are vulnerable in the system no longer suffer at its hands. A national programme evaluation of foster care provision should be undertaken in the same way that other national service provisions are evaluated for budget purposes.

Standards have become accepted means of measuring performance and supporting good practice. They are also part of public accountability. However, the foster care sector has not generally been affected by the generation of appropriate standards. There are examples, however, of standards in the out-of-home area. Australian National Baseline Standards for Out-of-home Care (covering residential and foster care) were agreed upon and published in 1996 by the then Standing Committee of Community Services and Income Security Administrators (SCCSISA).

Coupled with standards there should be developed appropriate performance indicators. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Report on Government Services have made an important contribution in the work they have done to collect statistical data on this sector. It does, however, need to be expanded to cover those statistics referred to elsewhere in this present report and to bring reporting into line with reporting on other government services.

Performance standards for the sector as a whole could comprise:

1. Effectiveness indicators, such as:

• Overall outcomes;
• Access and equity;
• Appropriateness;
• Quality; and

1. Efficiency indicators (mostly the use by organisations of their resources to produce units of services).

Some work has been done on performance indicators and this is a good start. This is a particular role that the Commonwealth government and national foster care peak bodies could take, in order to bring more public accountability to the sector.

Innovative models for foster care have been developed in Alberta, Canada, and this represents an important source for review of the Australian foster care system. Key aspects include:

1. Their system of classifying foster children and foster homes, based on children’s needs, rather then a temporal system as in Australia;
2. The system and processes for handling allegations of abuse (the FAST system).

The classification system is described as …the process by which foster parents are classified into an established continuum of skill development from basic fostering to Para-professional skills. In the model, foster homes are classified as one of three types: approved, qualified, or advanced. The classification reflects the qualifications and level of skills of the foster family. As well, foster families under any classification and having the skills or ability and interest, can provide specialised foster care to a child.

The classification system also has implications for training and financial support. Skill fees are paid to compensate foster parents for their time and expertise. They are paid to foster parents on the basis of their training, experience and competency. The amount correlates directly with the classification of the foster family concerned:

The Alberta system is applied to both children/young people needing care and foster carers who are available to provide care. It has impact on training, accreditation, and financial assistance and, importantly, the matching process.

The other area of the Alberta foster care system from which Australian foster care can benefit is the way in which allegations of abuse are handled. The Alberta system is pervasive in the sense that it covers both attitudes to and procedures for dealing with allegations. The Alberta system recognises that foster carers are part of a professional team and need to be respected.

There are a number of areas where research would provide additional insight that could guide better practice in foster care in Australia. These include:

• Breakdown of foster family relationships;
• Abuse in foster care;
• Legal processes;
• The relationship between foster and kinship care and the juvenile justice system;
• The relationship between out-of-home care and the justice, mental health and long term social welfare support systems in later years;
• International advances in foster care;
• Core competencies required for successful foster caring;
• The contribution of volunteer foster carers to the Australia society;
• The case for a separate National Indigenous/Ethnic foster care policy and provision.

In many areas, the foster care sector in Australia is fragmented, unclear about its purpose, under-resourced, demoralised and discordant. These conclusions will not come as a surprise to those working in the sector. States are currently implementing or developing new legislation to address many of the issues mentioned. This period of change appears to be an ideal opportunity to work towards a more integrated national approach.

A concerted effort by a combination of those stakeholders will produce the best solution. A comprehensive approach is called for if the system is to fulfil its role effectively and efficiently.

The recommendations listed in this report require a cooperative national approach and may involve all levels of government working with community organisations.