UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED

UNCLASSIFIED
Over the course of 2013 the Community Services Directorate (CSD) has been consulting with a range of stakeholders, including carers, and undertaking research in order to develop the Out of Home
Care Strategy 2015-2020.
Carers, both foster carers and kinship carers, comprise a key stakeholder group for the Out of Home
Care Strategy. Carers are the backbone of the out of home care system and the difficulty experienced in attracting and retaining carers was a key driver, amongst several other issues, for development of the Strategy. Consequently it was extremely important to seek the views of carers to inform strategy development.
CSD sought carer views through a number of avenues including:

In July-August 2013 CSD conducted a survey of kinship carers and a survey of foster carers;

Ministerial Carer Roundtables held on 12 March 2013 and 23 August 2013 to which all carers were invited;

Kinship and foster carers were involved in a co-design project facilitated by ThinkPlace consultants:

Carers were encouraged to develop written submissions to the Issues Paper released in
August 2013 and the Discussion Paper released in November 2013.
A report of the findings of the ThinkPlace project has been released on the CSD website, as have submissions from organisations and individuals in response to the Issues and Discussion Papers released in 2013.
This Discussion Paper brings together findings from carer consultations, the carer surveys and administrative data to profile ACT carers and highlight issues for consideration in development of the Out of Home Care Strategy 2015-2020. The paper also suggests some potential ways forward to address issues raised by carers. Information about the design and conduct of the foster carer and kinship carer surveys and quantitative data obtained through the surveys is reported in Attachment
A. It is important to note that the low response rate to the kinship carer survey suggests that the results may not accurately represent kinship carer demographics and their views which limits its usefulness.
There are some demographic differences between kinship carers and foster carers.
Foster carers tend to be younger than kinship carers, with almost half of the foster carers responding to the survey being aged below 45.
UNCLASSIFIED
2

UNCLASSIFIED
Kinship carers range widely in age with Directorate data reporting an age range of between 23 and
87 with an average age of 50 years. Significantly, 60% of kinship carers are grandparents, the majority (43%) are a maternal grandparent. The majority of kinship carers (62%) are female.
Forty-four kinship carers are aged between 66 and 87, suggesting that many of the children they care for will experience disruption of their placement due to the ageing of their carer, prior to reaching maturity.
Most ACT foster carers are well educated. Fifty-seven percent of foster carers hold a Bachelor or higher degree. This compares favourably with the Australian population aged 17-64, only 25% of which hold a degree. Forty six percent of kinship carers who responded to the survey report holding a Bachelor or higher degree. While CSD does not routinely collect and report this information in the aggregate for kinship carers, anecdotal evidence suggests that better educated kin carers responded at higher numbers to the survey, skewing results. It is likely that the actual proportion of kinship carers holding degree qualifications is lower.
Ten percent of foster carers are reliant upon a government pension or benefit for their main source of income. Only slightly more kinship carer respondents are reliant on a government pension or benefit at 12.2% however a further 19.5% rely on superannuation and fewer are working for wages or salaries (58.5% compared to 77%). All in all, almost a third of kinship carer respondents were on retirement incomes or a government pension or benefit, reflecting the group’s older age profile, and that is likely to be even higher across the total kinship care population.
The majority of both foster carers (74%) and kinship carers are either married or partnered (60%).
Of the 71 single kinship carer households, 67 are single female carers.
Carers are largely drawn from the mainstream Australian population. Care and Protection Services has struggled to attract adequate numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers to care for the 140 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care.
Only three foster care respondents (of 101) reported identifying as Aboriginal Australians in the foster carer survey. Three kinship care respondents (of 41) identified in the kinship carer survey however administrative data reveals that 9% of kinship carers, 26 persons, are Indigenous. These carers care for a total of 48 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Only a handful of carers in each group reported being born in non-English speaking countries, primarily European countries.
In summary, the picture that emerges from the foster carer survey is of a group of predominantly middle aged, well educated, socially concerned citizens, many of whom are drawn from the helping or other people-oriented occupations. ACT carers are highly committed. Unlike some jurisdictions where a proportion of carers are single parents seeking to remain at home with their own children or to supplement their incomes, ACT carers are not fostering for the money or to avoid Centrelink participation requirements, with many juggling full or part time work and/or study in addition to
UNCLASSIFIED
3

UNCLASSIFIED family and carer responsibilities. Most are caring for only one or two children, underlining the difficulty of obtaining placements for large sibling groups.
The picture of kinship carers which emerges from this survey is one primarily of grandmothers and secondarily aunts caring for one or two relative children. Looked at as a group, these carers are older and less likely to be in the paid workforce and a greater proportion are Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people. Almost a quarter of kinship carers reside outside the ACT, but of those who reside in the ACT, 70% reside in either Belconnen or Tuggeranong.
It is proving difficult around the nation to recruit adequate numbers of foster carers. The recruitment of carers in the ACT poses particular challenges because of population demographics.
Most families are small and the ACT has the highest level of workforce participation in Australia for both males and females.
One hint about possible recruiting grounds is provided in the foster carer survey results. Half of all the foster carer respondents (44 of 88) who nominated their field of study had studied social work, psychology, nursing, education, child care, policing and the like, suggesting that these courses or occupations are fertile potential recruiting grounds for foster carers.
Foster carer respondents to the survey were asked about their motivation to become a carer. They were able to indicate multiple motivations in response to the question “What motivated you to become a carer?” and it is not possible to discern the relative strength of drivers. Clearly helping others, particularly children, is a key motivator for the large majority of respondents. The desire to create or extend a family is also another important factor at 31% of respondents, with 17.2% specifically identifying infertility as a factor. Only 7% identified that “the subsidy helps me financially” is a motivation.
Experience in the ACT suggests that the best way to recruit foster carers is through other foster carers. Fortunately, 79% of foster carers report encouraging others to become a foster carer.
For kinship carers, the basis of recruitment is entirely different. The majority of kinship carers are close relatives of the child or young person, identified by Care and Protection Services as a suitable potential carer either at the time of the child’s entry to care or subsequently.
Anecdotally, kinship carers often report that they felt that they had little choice but to accept kinship care responsibilities when they were proposed by Care and Protection Services. Just over a quarter of kinship carer respondents to the kinship survey marked “feeling obligated” as a motivation, however an alternative choice of “Family ties and obligations” also attracted 75.6% of respondents.
These findings suggest there is perhaps little sense of choice for many kinship carers.
UNCLASSIFIED
4

UNCLASSIFIED
A third of foster carers have been caring for between four and a half and nine years. Almost another third have only been carers for two or fewer years, with 14% in their first year. Four carers have cared for over two decades. Only 7% of foster carer survey respondents indicated an intention to cease caring within twelve months with the very great majority indicating no intention to cease in the carer role or alternatively an intention to see out current children to maturity.
As outlined above, a significant number of kinship carers will age out of the carer role in coming years. This presents significant challenges for CSD.
The role of foster or kinship carer is an extraordinarily difficult one. As a society we ask carers to do a very difficult job which involves welcoming children into their home, loving them and investing in them, but then being prepared if required to let them go with good grace. The concept of
“Emotional Labour” has become a focus of research in recent years in relation to frontline service delivery personnel such as paramedics and social workers. Being a foster or kinship carer also involves engaging in what is often arduous emotional labour.
Letting go of a beloved child is difficult under any circumstances but can be particularly difficult for carers when they doubt the wisdom, for example, of returning a child to a home where earlier they had suffered abuse. In addition to the sense of grief and loss that can be experienced when children move, carers can feel very powerless in these circumstances. The carer is generally the person with most contact with the child or young person and usually has responsibility for implementation of many aspects of the care plan, yet the carer is a volunteer surrounded by professionals who have the power to decide a child’s future.
We also ask carers to open their homes and lives to scrutiny by government and foster care agencies. This is necessary to assure the safety of the children and young people we place with them but is not an experience that most people would welcome.
In addition, caring for a child who has been abused and neglected can present many day to day challenges, not least of which is the burden of meeting with caseworkers and the foster care agency, taking children to appointments and to contact visits.
A further challenge is that permission from the authorities must be obtained for a variety of activities such as interstate and overseas holidays adding administrative burden and complexity to running a household.
Foster carers may chafe under these burdens, but for kinship carers who did not seek the role but had it thrust upon them, it can be particularly challenging. The difficulties are also exacerbated for kinship carers where there is grief or a sense of guilt attaching to the circumstances that brought the child into care and if there is ongoing conflict with the child’s birth parents.
UNCLASSIFIED
5

UNCLASSIFIED
What is the reported experience of foster and kinship caring in the ACT? Are carers’ hopes for the role and needs for support being met?
Much of the commentary from carers reveals just how simultaneously demanding and rewarding the carer role can be. Being a carer was described during consultations and through the survey as the hardest yet most rewarding activity many carers have ever undertaken.
Foster carers report very variable experiences of Care and Protection Services and foster care agencies, with respondents reporting excellent levels of responsiveness from both case workers and foster care support workers through a range of mixed experiences depending upon the skill, experience and personality of workers to others reporting a series of unsatisfactory interactions with both non government and government services.
A very clear message from the survey is that foster carers find the three way relationship between themselves, the foster care agencies and Care and Protection Services very frustrating. The need for timelier decision making is another frequently expressed concern with foster carers recognising that the three way relationship creates delays and conflicts of opinion and that high worker caseloads also contribute to delays in responding to requests for assistance and in decision making. By way of contrast, kinship carer survey respondents reported more positively on the support they received from their single service provider, Care and Protection Services.
Carers struggle with others holding the power of life changing decisions and with a perceived lack of recognition within the care team. Some carers feel that they know the child best yet their views are not accorded appropriate weight. Carers also routinely raise lack of information sharing as a problem, including case history and health information.
The value of a warm, personal relationship with a foster care support worker or case worker cannot be understated. The lack of continuity of caseworker or foster care support worker is another matter of significant concern to carers. It underlines in their eyes the need for accurate, comprehensive case information to be recorded and for new workers to familiarise themselves with case records prior to a first meeting.
In relation to training, foster carers are generally satisfied or very satisfied with the training they have received. Of a number of possible areas for additional training those that rated highest pertained to responding to the behaviour and needs of their child – “Specialist advice on my child or young person’s needs” ranked highest at 65.9% of respondents, “Response to trauma in children and young people” second at 63.4% and “Behaviour management” and “Encouraging protective behaviours” equal third at 59.8%.
Only 30% of kinship carers report ever having received any training.
UNCLASSIFIED
6

UNCLASSIFIED
Our consultations over the past twelve months suggest that ACT foster carers want:

To make a difference in a child’s life.

Greater recognition, respect and consideration, including acknowledgement by the care team that the carer has the central relationship with the child.

An end to three way conflicts between carers, foster care agencies and Care and Protection
Services.

Assistance in the form of training and expert individualised coaching and mentoring to help them deal with their child’s distress and acting out behaviours.

More flexible use of discretionary funding, for example, some carers would prefer in-home help rather than respite.

Opportunity to meet with Care and Protection Services and agency workers outside normal business hours given many carers are also in paid employment.

Easier, quicker opportunities to secure permanency of the relationship where that is appropriate.

Better information about children they are asked to take, including health information.

To not have to be perfect parents and to know that they can ask for and receive help when they need it.

To be reimbursed for costs incurred in looking after a child.

To be treated fairly and equitably.
The consultations over the past twelve months suggest that kinship carers want:

Better information about the challenges of being a kinship carer and Care and Protection
Services’ expectations of kinship carers so they can make an informed decision about whether to take on this responsibility.

Better information about the child and the likely impact of caring for the particular child upon their own family.

Acknowledgment that usually they understand the complex family situation and know the child better than any other member of the care team.
UNCLASSIFIED
7

UNCLASSIFIED

To not have to be perfect parents and to know that they can ask for and receive help when they need it.

Assistance in the form of training and expert individualised coaching and mentoring to help them deal with their child’s distress and acting out behaviours.

To be reimbursed for costs incurred in looking after the child.

Better and more timely information about entitlements.

Acknowledgment of the many extra demands upon their time and flexible financial and other practical assistance to help them meet their caring responsibilities.

Opportunity to meet with Care and Protection Services and agency workers outside normal business hours given many carers are also in paid employment.

Easier, quicker opportunities to secure permanency.
While many of the kin carers and foster carers’ desires are shared, there are some differences arising from the different routes into the carer role and different support arrangements.
Other important themes that were communicated through the surveys and consultations included:

Addressing the barriers to working people serving as foster carers;

Improving record keeping and the CPS information management system;

Increasing the accountability of CPS and agency staff for mistakes or insensitive behaviour.
A range of carer concerns and desires have been outlined above. In summary, the concerns of carers can be grouped into a number of themes. These are discussed below, along with directions proposed to address concerns.
1.
The need to reduce the complexity of the current system including simplifying the three way relationship between Care and Protection Services, agencies and carers which currently often results in delays in decision making and frustrations for carers
All parties, including foster carers, CSD staff, children and young people and the foster care agencies find the complexity of the current system difficult. With so many parties involved, including birth parents and relatives as well, the potential for misunderstandings and delays and for arrangements to go wrong is high.
The Strategy proposes to reduce system complexity by outsourcing case management of children and young people on orders to 18 to non government out of home care providers and to delegate
UNCLASSIFIED
8

UNCLASSIFIED
Parental Responsibility to the agency so that they have real autonomy in managing the child’s case.
Children and young people on orders to 18 comprise around two-thirds of the care population. The
Strategy’s priority to exit children and young people from care into Enduring Parental Responsibility orders and adoption also simplifies arrangements for children and young people and their carers.
(For children on initial or short term orders, Care and Protection Services will continue to provide case management services and where children are in foster care placements, carers will need to continue to deal with agency workers and the CPS case manager.)
2.
Acknowledgement that the carer has the central relationship with the child and this needs to be recognised by the Care Team
CSD proposes through the Strategy to refresh its relationship with carers in a variety of ways, underlining that carers are the backbone of the out of home care system. Carers have told us that they require:

A consistent experience of recognition and respect for their volunteer contribution to caring for the ACT’s most vulnerable children and young people;

Orientation, training and up to date information resources to support them to access entitlements and exercise their responsibilities;

Acknowledgement by other care team members that they often know the child or young person best and can provide important insights into their needs;

Support to juggle the day to day responsibilities of being a carer and at times of stress in particular;

Specialist therapeutic supports to address children’s trauma histories and resulting emotional and behavioural difficulties; and

To be able to seek help without judgement.
Many elements of the proposed Strategy will assist carers including the comprehensive assessment of all children and young people in care and the development of therapeutic plans; additional investment in specialist therapy and behaviour management programs; and training for carers.
CSD proposes to reinforce the importance of the carer role in policies and procedures and training materials and to establish a Carers’ Charter of Rights. CSD has strengthened complaints handling and decision review processes over recent years and proposes to establish an independent carer advocacy service to strengthen support for carers who wish to take issue with agency or CSD decisions.
UNCLASSIFIED
9

UNCLASSIFIED
3.
Better and more timely information when a child first comes into care and throughout the placement
There has been extensive feedback from carers that they lack information about a child or young person at the time of placement. Sometimes this is inevitable as a result of emergency action on a previously unknown child; however, in many cases, children are known to CSD and if the Strategy is adopted, this will increasingly be the case as children and their families will have been involved with placement prevention services prior to entering out of home care.
CSD is currently developing a Child Health Passport that will travel with the child in care and address the key issue of important health information in daily life. CSD is also proposing to incorporate into policy and procedures an initial information sharing and role clarification meeting involving carer, agency worker and case manager and, where possible and appropriate, a meeting with the carer and birth parent. Both meetings will enable the carer to ask questions about the child. The second meeting will also provide reassurance to the birth parent/s about the care provided to their child.
Feedback from birth parents obtained through the co-design project suggests that the opportunity to meet their child’s carer is important to many parents.
4.
Help with managing children with challenging or worrying behaviours including timely access to assessments and specialist interventions for the child and assistance for them as the child’s carer in the form of targeted training, coaching, and therapy services
A number of carers report that they have experienced difficulty in getting assistance with the assessment and treatment of the child they care for, either for developmental delays or emotional and behavioural problems. All children and young people entering care receive a health screen and some receive other assessments, but the Out of Home Care Strategy proposes to go further and ensure all children in care receive a comprehensive assessment upon entry and at regular intervals, generally annually. This will ensure problems are identified early and appropriate interventions put in place as soon as possible. It will also ensure that if children are eligible for NDIS packages, their eligibility is established early.
Additional therapy services are in development currently, including a Trauma Recovery Service for children in care which was funded in the 2013 Budget and commences on 1 July 2014. Further parenting programs, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, are proposed to support both birth parents and carers in managing attachment and behavioural issues.
All carers will also be offered training in trauma informed care.
5.
If a child can’t go home to their birth parents, the ability to be assessed as permanent carers and to have security around that child’s placement as quickly as possible
While some foster carers are only available for shorter periods of care many are currently, or are prepared to be, long term or permanent carers. Love for a foster child and the desire to create a
UNCLASSIFIED
10

UNCLASSIFIED family through fostering are important motivators. Almost 70% of foster carers would consider accepting Enduring Parental Responsibility for a child.
Carers have expressed frustration with the legislative requirement that a child be in a stable placement for two years before they can be assessed for Enduring Parental Responsibility and some have complained about delays in commencing assessments. The Strategy prioritises exiting children from the care system into permanent alternative families wherever possible through adoption or
Enduring Parental Responsibility orders. It proposes to shorten initial orders for very young children from two years to one year. It also proposes to shorten the required demonstration of stability period from two years to one year in a stable placement and to direct additional resources to securing permanency for children and young people.
6.
The need to increase the availability of respite, or alternatively, other services which would reduce pressure on the carer and facilitate them spending quality time with the child
Financial analysis undertaken to support the Strategy reveals that while agencies are contracted to provide 36 days of respite leave for each placement, this is rarely delivered. Analysis conducted for the Strategy revealed that 62% of carers did not receive any formal respite care over the course of the year. In redevelopment of existing service models as part of creating a continuum of care, further consideration is required of how best to ensure respite.
Many carers do not seek respite care as they do not wish their child to go to what will be, in some cases, strangers – respite carers unknown to the child or carer. During the course of consultations a number of carers stated that they would prefer assistance with cleaning or gardening to reduce pressures upon them and to enable them to spend quality time with the child. The Strategy proposes to provide support for placements in a flexible manner negotiated with carers and recorded in the child’s care plan. The proposal to transfer case management and Parental
Responsibility to agencies will also allow speedier decision making about informal respite opportunities through events such as day trips and sleepovers with friends.
7.
The difficulties of combining paid employment and the carer role
While most ACT foster carers are not caring in order to supplement household income, some carers have highlighted the financial costs of being a carer, particularly where a carer is unable to engage in paid work due to the intensity of the child’s needs.
The uncertainty of placement length is another relevant factor with some carers reporting having to decline placement offers because of this factor. Many public service agencies in Canberra have a foster care leave entitlement in their enterprise agreements, however these pertain to longer term planned placements. Carers, quite reasonably, are not prepared to give up family income on short notice in order to stay home with a child needing lots of attention who may not even be with them in a few months time. The need for more flexible employment arrangements featured frequently in survey responses, however it is difficult to envisage any universal solutions to this problem.
UNCLASSIFIED
11

UNCLASSIFIED
For the highest needs children and young people, professional (salaried) foster care may provide a future solution if the industrial relations barriers can be resolved. For the great majority of volunteer carers, finding a comfortable work/life/caring balance is likely to continue to be challenging.
One of the ways carers have suggested that agencies and CPS can assist is by being more flexible in meeting with carers outside standard working hours; and another is through ensuring that consideration is given to the needs and pressures upon carer households in arranging contact visits with birth families and other appointments. A lot is expected of carers.
It is proposed to specify the need for responsive and flexible work arrangements in tender specifications when CSD goes to tender for out of home care services. CSD staff can already access flexible work hours.
8.
The need for increased whole of government engagement in supporting vulnerable children including those in care
A number of carers have commented upon difficulties they have experienced in engaging other service providers in supporting the child or young person they are caring for.
As part of developing the Strategy, CSD has been meeting with other relevant ACT Government
Directorates to strengthen supporting arrangements across government for the care system. At the same time, the Education and Training Directorate has introduced several initiatives which should assist children and young people more broadly and vulnerable children in particular. They include the Engaging Schools Framework and the Targeted Support Teams in each of the four education networks. Carers can also talk with their child’s school about putting an Individual Learning Plan in place to address particular learning needs of the student. A consultant, Ms Sandra Lambert, former
CEO of the Community Services Directorate, has also been engaged by ETD to drive increased collaboration between the two agencies and in particular schools and child protection services.
More information about the initiative to address learning needs can be found at http://www.det.act.gov.au/about_us/minister/taskforce_on_students_with_learning_difficulties
Other relevant work including the mapping of all therapeutic and mental health services for children and young people across government and non government providers in the course of planning for the Trauma Recovery Service has also helped to bring clarity to how services can best complement one another in supporting the therapeutic needs of young clients.
9.
Greater and transparency and accountability from both Care and Protection Services and agencies
CSD has developed several initiatives designed to address these concerns in recent years. They include:
UNCLASSIFIED
12

UNCLASSIFIED

Developing an Integrated Management System which refreshes all policies and procedures and makes them accessible in an electronic format. The IMS is still in development but will be completed during 2014. It will provide greater guidance to staff and increase consistency in decision making. Policies will also be made available on the CSD website so that all participants and stakeholders are clear about how we operate.

CSD has also moved to strengthen contract management in relation to the non government out of home care providers, including commissioning independent, external audits during
2012-2013.

The Executive Director of the Office for Children, Youth and Family Support established a
Complaints Unit within her Office and a Decision Review Panel to which she can refer significant matters for independent review and the provision of advice to her.
The Strategy proposes to complement these arrangements by establishing an independent carer advocacy service attached to a community organisation which does not participate in the out of home care sector.
The proposed new policy directions in out of home care, if adopted, will result in significant changes to the form of current out of home care services. In summary, for all carers they will mean:

Greater recognition of the carer’s key role in the Care Team reflected in training and policies and procedures, including adoption of a Carers’ Charter of Rights;

Parental Responsibility to transfer to out of home care agencies once a child is on long term orders, reducing delays in decision making and potential for conflicts of opinion between carers, Care and Protection Services and the foster care agency;

Speedier access to permanency where the care plan is for a child to remain with them long term;

Comprehensive therapeutic assessments of every child and young person as they enter care and at regular intervals and a therapeutic plan to address the identified needs of the child;

Better information about children carers are asked to take, including health information;

Continuing access to carer subsidy where assessed as appropriate for care leavers aged 18-
21 and continuing access to therapeutic supports;

Access to training on trauma-informed care;

Improved access to specialist advice and services such as the Trauma Recovery Service and
Parent Child Interactive Therapy services;
UNCLASSIFIED
13

UNCLASSIFIED

An independent carer advocacy and support service;

Improved compliance by providers in relation to ensuring there is a current care plan signed by all relevant parties, annual review reports, up to date child health information and the like, as a consequence of smaller caseloads in the non government sector, the introduction of an accreditation and monitoring scheme and performance based contracting.
 Renewal of carer approvals at regular intervals, probably tied to renewals of the Working
With Vulnerable People Checks every three years, to ensure that children and young people are cared for by people and in circumstances that continue to meet suitability requirements.

Introduction of a general carer subsidy supplemented by flexible, child focused payments that step up and down according to child need.

In addition, for kinship carers, it is expected to mean a more equitable allocation of available resources across all carers and children and young people in care as a consequence of outsourcing the support of kinship carers and case management and Parental Responsibility for the children and young people they care for, once the Court has decided they will not be returning home.
Being a carer is challenging. CSD is aiming through the proposed Out of Home Care Strategy to make things less challenging for carers. Your views about the proposed policy directions are sought as the
Directorate finalises a Strategy for government consideration, but also into the future as we work together to implement changes designed to deliver better outcomes for children and young people in care.
UNCLASSIFIED
14