Foster Care

Lutheran Care highly values the critical role of foster carers and the contributions that their friends and families make to the nurture of children and young people. We recognize that children belong and thrive in families and foster carers provide stable, supportive and nurturing homes to help children feel safe and secure while separated from their birth parents and siblings.

When children and young people are unable to live with their birth family or relatives, Lutheran Care Foster Care Services rely on foster carers to provide safe and caring homes for these children to live.

Carers are everyday members of the community who have a strong commitment to helping others, especially children. Unfortunately, our community needs more everyday people who are able to offer caring homes to children and young people who cannot live with their birth families. Foster carers help children feel safe and secure while separated from their birth parents.

When foster carers invite children or young people in need to be a part of their family, whether that’s for a short time or a long time, it has the potential to be life changing; for both the carers and the children. Fostering is both challenging and rewarding. Carers provide emotional support and care for a child’s day-to-day needs and support the child in their educational and recreational activities.

There are different types of Foster Care including Long Term, Short Term and Respite across both Generalist and Specialist programs.

Generalist Foster Care provides children of all ages and cultural backgrounds a therapeutic home while they are unable to live with their birth family. Specialist Foster Care is a unique service for children with profound trauma, high needs or disability. Children eligible for Specialist foster carers are generally over 5 years of age and require a high level of care to meet their needs.

Successful foster carers in both Generalist and Specialist Foster Care share many characteristics, however there is a unique eligibility criteria and skillset we are looking for in Specialist Foster Carers to meet the needs of children and young people in Specialist Care.

Children are at the centre of what we do, and we ‘the village for children and young people’ work together as a Care Team to meet the needs and serve the best interests of each individual child in care.

Foster Carers, Lutheran Care (LC) Support Workers and Social Workers who work on behalf of the Department for Child Protection (DCP) actively participate in the Care Team to ensure that any decision which is made on behalf of the child is in the best interests of the child.

LC Foster Carers work with the child’s allocated DCP Case Worker and their LC Support Worker as part of the Care Team to achieve the set goal or plan for the child.

Every foster carer at Lutheran Care is allocated a dedicated Foster Care Case Worker (also known as a Foster Care Support Worker) who supports them in their fostering journey.

Lutheran Care Support Workers journey with our foster carers to provide practical assistance, professional advocacy or a listening ear. Support workers can also advocate on behalf of the foster carer for training, resources or access to support services.

We provide a 24/7 telephone line dedicated to our foster carers, so there is always someone from Lutheran Care at the other end of the phone to provide support, advice or assistance whenever it’s needed.

Glossary of Common Foster Care Terms

Learning about foster care and how the child protection system works can be confusing. If you would like to understand more we encourage you to contact us and we can help answer any of your questions.

As a starting point, please feel free to read a few of the definitions below which may provide some clarification.

Carer

A person who has the responsibility of providing day-to-day care of a child or young person. It includes carers who are relatives (kinship carers), foster carers, residential care workers, childcare workers and youth workers.

Family Contact

It is important for all children in care to grow up with a strong and grounded sense of pride, identity and belonging. Contact between children and young people in care and their birth families promotes this, and can vary and look different in different circumstances. The frequency, length and form of contact is determined by the child’s DCP Social Worker.

Contact can be supervised in a controlled environment if there is risk of aggression or harm. Contact can also be informal gatherings, such as siblings attending a birthday party together.

Foster Carer

A foster carer is an approved and trained person (not being a guardian or relative of a child) who, with the assistance of a financial allowance, provides care and support for a child or young person in their home.

Out-Of-Home Care (OOHC)

OOHC is a broad term for different types of care for children who are under the Guardianship of the Minister and are unable to live with their parents. OOHC includes Foster Care, Kinship Care, Adoptions, Residential Care, and in South Australia, Specific Child Only (SCO) Care.

Lutheran Care is a South Australian OOHC service provider.

Reunification

The planned process of contact between children and their birth families, and engagement of support services to enable children and young people in care to safely return home and live with their birth family.

Reunification is a transition over a period of time.

Stakeholders

The primary stakeholders are children and young people in care, their birth families, carers, OOHC service providers, agency support workers and social workers. Other stakeholders within the child protection system may include education workers, psychologists, therapists, health workers and other advocates.