FAQs

‘Out-of-home care’ refers to services that support children and young people who are in court-ordered
(‘statutory’) care. The court jurisdiction is the NSW Children’s Court, and the key legislation is the
Children and Young Persons Care and Protection Act (1998). A common model of out-of-home care, or
OOHC, is foster care. Foster care placements are needed when children and young people are unable
to live with their own parents or families.Most children and young people enter statutory OOHC care because they are at risk of harm or neglect or because their parent or carer needs periodic relief. Children placed in care benefit from the safe physical care environment as well as from the warmth and emotional connections they develop with their carers. Foster carers take on the day to day parenting responsibilities and aim to provide a safe, nurturing and secure family environment for children and young people needing care. Foster carers can provide short or long term care.There are a number of agencies which are accredited to provide out-of-home care, including government and non-government services.

Out of Home Care (OOHC) Adoption is sometimes an option available for children who are placed in foster
care on a permanent basis and who have a final court order placing them under the Parental Responsibility of the Minister until 18 years of age. The child has usually been removed from their parents’ care due to care and protection issues, and through adoption the child’s foster carers become the legally-responsible parents. Adoption is not suitable for all children in long term foster care, and cannot occur whilst a child is in temporary foster care or if a matter is still before the Children’s Court. For children who are adopted from OOHC, parental rights and legal responsibilities are transferred from the Minister to the adoptive parents. Adoption confers all the rights and responsibilities of parenthood, and carers are aware that if they become the child’s adoptive parent, they will be in every way responsible for the child throughout their childhood. They understand the child will have the same status in the family as any of their other children, and will be entitled to the benefits of full family membership throughout their life. Carers often see adoption as a way of making a lifelong emotional and practical commitment to a child.

Adoption is a legal process which permanently transfers all legal rights and responsibilities of being a parent
from a child’s birth parents to the adoptive parents. A child may require adoption through a local adoption
agency in NSW when the biological parent determines, after a careful process, that they are not able to adequately provide for the child’s care. The child may be placed in pre-adoptive foster care while the parent makes their decision.

In order to become a foster carer or an adoptive parent you will be required to attend information sessions
and a training course. Training aims to equip applicants with some specific skills and knowledge, and to help you make an informed decision about whether foster care and/or adoption is right for you. Each agency conducts preparation seminars and training courses which cover topics such as the role of the birth family, supporting identity and contact, understanding and responding to behaviour, grief and loss, and agency expectations, policies and procedures. Training usually requires a commitment of several full days or evening sessions.

If you are interested in becoming a foster carer for children in need of short term or long term care,
your authorisation would be with one agency.If you are interested in becoming an adoptive parent, you can lodge an Expression of Interest and attend preparation seminars for both Local and Intercountry Adoption programs. However, you may only lodge an application and be approved for either Local or Intercountry, and with one agency only.People applying for adoption can also explore different types of fostering. A decision to proceed with an additional application will be based on your personal circumstances and the discretion of the agencies involved.

Ongoing contact with members of a child’s birth family members recognises that a permanent biological
tie and/or significant emotional tie exists with the child. Contact visits may provide a child with opportunities for a sense of connection to those in their birth family, knowledge of ‘who’s who’, and where they fit in their family of origin. For some children, contact provides some continuity of relationships with family of origin, and a realistic understanding of why their parents could not look after them. This knowledge and familiarity with people from the child’s family of origin can help to contribute to the child’s sense of personal identity.

Adoptive and birth families are forever connected by an adoption. Openness in adoption refers to maintaining and celebrating the child’s connections with all the important people in their life, birth and adoptive family. Openness also refers to open communication between the child, their adoptive parents and other significant people in the child’s life regarding the child’s birth family and history in an honest,
respectful and benevolent manner.Open adoption can enable birth and adoptive parents to communicate with one another directly rather than through an intermediary. Ongoing contact with birth family allows children to ask questions and make sense of their history as they get older and open communication surrounding all the circumstances of a child’s entry into out of home care and subsequent adoption and history contributes to the child developing a strong sense of self and identity.Prior to an Adoption Order being made by the NSW Supreme Court, an Adoption Plan is developed between birth and adoptive parents, as well as other significant people in the child’s life. This document is a legally binding agreement which outlines how and when contact between the parties will occur.
Contact can occur in a variety of ways (face to face visits, phone calls, letters, photograph exchanges,
Skype etc.) and frequency of contact is negotiated between the parties.

When a child is adopted from another country the adoptive parents have a responsibility to recognise
and promote the child’s cultural history wherever possible. This involves educating the child about
the history and culture of their country of origin and can include developing ties with culturally
appropriate groups in the local community as well as visiting the child’s country of birth.As in all cases of adoption, openness also refers to honest and open communication with adopted children
regarding the circumstances of their adoption and ensuring that children feel comfortable to ask questions.
Open communication allows children to develop a meaningful understanding around the circumstances of their
adoption and alleviates questions and uncertainty about their status.

Children need an opportunity to develop a meaningful and positive understanding of the cultural heritage of their family of origin. This requires access to information, experiences and relationships that can support this cultural identity.For this reason, as far as possible, children are placed with a carer of the same cultural, linguistic or religious background. Sometimes, however, this is not possible and children can be placed with a carer from a different cultural background.Carers need to be able to describe their own attitudes, beliefs and interactions with members of culturally diverse communities. They also need to demonstrate an understanding of the role that race, language, ethnicity and religion may play in shaping the cultural identity of the children in their care.

For children in short term foster care, the viability of restoration to birth family or other family
members is always explored and assessed in the first instance. This is completed prior to a final
decision being made by the Children’s Court.There is a great need for people who are able to care for children and young people during periods when it is uncertain where the child or young person will be placed in the long term.Even when a child is placed in long term care, a birth family member has the right to seek a variation of a final order, based on later evidence presented to the court of significant changes in the birth family’s circumstances. Any placement change would need to be considered by the Children’s Court to be in the best interests of the child. However, the overarching goal is always permanency and stability for children in long term care. Adoption changes the child’s legal status and is a final and permanent order.
There are no provisions to overturn such an order. This applies to Local, Intercountry and Out
of Home Care Adoptions. NB: An application can be made for the Discharge of an Adoption Order,
however this will only be granted in exceptional circumstances (such as the adoption order, or
any consent to adoption, being obtained by fraud, duress or other improper means).

Yes. These include Aboriginal Placement Principles, which ensure that wherever possible,
Aboriginal children are placed with kin; if not, with Aboriginal carers and their support agencies.

In order to become a carer or adoptive parent, every applicant must undergo a thorough assessment
and screening process to determine their capacity to meet the needs of a child in care. This is
important due to the particular needs of children entering care and to ensure as little disruption
as possible for children requiring placement.It is important to determine whether carers and adoptive families not only have the ability to care for and parent a child but also to provide for a child’s emotional, social and identity needs.
The assessment will explore you and your family’s strengths, capacity, support and resourcefulness,
taking into account your own personal experiences and how you have managed these experiences.If the agency considers that, through your assessment interviews, you have not demonstrated the
skills to care for a child who is not your own, your application can be declined.

As an authorised foster carer your waiting time for a placement will depend on the type of care
you have been authorised to provide. Permanent placements are made following a thorough matching
process based on the needs of the child and the capacity of your family to meet those needs.
Typically short term and crisis placements have a shorter waiting period due to the nature of the
placement.All authorised foster carers complete an annual carer review with the agency.For both Local and Intercountry adoption, your approval as a prospective adoptive parent awaiting placement is valid for four (4) years. Your approval will ordinarily cover the number and age of children that can be adopted by you as well as the cultural, social and medical backgrounds of children that you would be best placed with.In Local Adoption, birth parents help select the adoptive parents for their child. You will be selected when the child’s needs and birth parent’s wishes match the type of placement you are approved for.