Moving from exclusive foster care to inclusive family support Making a difference early

Child Protection  notifications have more than doubled over the last eight years;  increasing numbers of child protection substantiations;  increasing numbers of children in out-of- home care; and  high numbers of Indigenous children subject to substantiations (DFaHCSIA 2008)

Care options  94.6% of children are in foster care or kinship care  Crisis in recruiting and retaining adequate numbers of foster/kinship carers  Not enough Indigenous carers

Complexities Before brekky John hit Joy, kicked a hole in his bedroom wall then throws me the note - teacher wants to see me. I drop off at school. Teacher busy. Will see me tomorrow morning about the fight. Get home to a message saying mum is visiting tomorrow arv. First I’d heard. Phoned department. Tried to change day or time so he doesn’t miss footy training –the love of his life. Shouldn’t have bothered! Started to tell them about the fight, John hitting and the hole in the wall – but worker had to go. Guess what this arv and tomorrow is going to be like?

Competing discourses  We are now foster carers but what we do is mothering (mothering/caring)  It’s more than safety – it’s nurturing after damage has been done. That’s why they are put with us (safety/nurturing wellbeing)  I don’t think there’s a lot of trust. I think we all hold our cards close to our chest. Workers only tell us what they think we need to know or what their limited understanding is of what is going on for the child. We often fly blind. Mind you I know the system and I find ways to find out more or to make it work for the kids which I am not not going to tell the department (trust, openness/honesty)

Competing Discourses  I’ve got their kids, I’ve got what they haven’t and that sets us up at odds..but we’re not the ones pulling the strings. That’s likely to be the new, young worker, who has no life experience and no kids. It’s got the ingredients of a recipe that we all know doesn’t work well, but we keep using it (good mother/bad mother/class, age)  We do it out for love – lucky for them cos money is treated like a dirty word; it’s taboo (pay/altruism)

Challenges  Just look at us (age)..there’s not the young ones coming through..  I ‘m at home.. But how many (women) can afford to do that now..  24/7, no pay, no support. See the queue?  These kids are getting tougher..  I do feel used and abused at times – I have the responsibility without any of the benefits..

Making a difference earlier  I am constantly amazed that they haven’t had help before this..  There are better ways – why wait to give them (children) to us after the damage is done  I would actually love to help these kids and families before it comes to care or when families are back together but it doesn’t work that way  Support for these young ones should start when they are bubs..it’s like everyone waits until it’s so bad it is a notification.

Need to do things differently  foster care doesn’t suit all of them, particularly teenagers. It sets everyone up for failure. It’s like they think a one size fits all and that’s so not right…I have ideas but it’s not like I will be listened to..  I’ve just had a (foster) bubs and ended up helping mum, just a kid herself really. Having had the baby taken off her she was scared and that just made things worse. I got on to Anne at the neighbourhood centre to help her. She shouldn’t have been notified but at least I got to help.

Is care always the answer?  The most commonly substantiated maltreatment types are now neglect and emotional abuse  Increasing number of families involved in child protection are facing long term (chronic) issues e.g. low income, sole parenthood substance/alcohol abuse and mental disability  Child protection is not an optimal response for those facing long term issues  Flexible responses and sustained support enabling families to better cope with the problems is required (FaHCSIA 2008 p.1,2)

What does evidence say?  There is evidence that while families are the most important influence in children’s lives good quality programs for children enhance development, mediate against risk, help with the development of peer relationships and provide a site for building parental supports and networks (NSW CCYP, QCCYPCG, NIFTeY 2006 p.10)

Family Support Earlier  Intervening early in the life course has the greatest potential to prevent or significantly emiliorate some of the health and wellbeing problems seen in adult life  There is evidence that vulnerable children can gain benefits from time spent with alternative, nurturing caregivers, and good quality child care has a positive effect on mother-child attachment  Investment in early years’ programs reaps substantial financial and social rewards  Early disadvantages accumulate and later remedial investments are often prohibitively costly (Heckman and Masterov 2004 p.34)

Child Care  I was told it was double dipping, they’d given me the children to care for but I was then asking to give them to someone else to care for them and and asking for money to do it..  I suggested child care cos I thought it would be a bit of respite for both of us (carer/child) but also because going back to mum was a work in progress so he could just continue when that happened and it would help the situation – apparently I was wrong on both counts

Family Support  It would be good if those who go out to investigate know a bit about services to support families. A lot just need practical support but the workers don’t know what support there is.  They don’t even get a proper understanding of the family’s situation – they only work from the safety angle  I could do more. For those of us who have been round for awhile we have a lot to offer, not just for the young ones, but the parents and the workers. We know the community, we know the system  At the moment it’s like the left hand acts without the right hand. No-one takes the time to find out the whole picture. Often the word partnership is used, but it’s not an partnership.