This Foster & Kinship Care Week, ACWA joins our sector colleagues in celebrating the incredible contribution of foster and kinship carers across NSW who open their homes and hearts to children and young people in need of love, safety and stability.

At the same time, we know that it’s increasingly hard to find people with the time, space and capacity to step into the foster caring role. This trend is set to continue and it’s clear that we need to think very differently about how we care for children and young people who cannot live safely at home.

Today, we’re pleased to release two papers that explore the feasibility of continuing to rely on a steady supply of foster carers, and highlight a range of possible alternative approaches.

Drawing on data and insights provided to us in a report by The Demographics Group, our paper, NSW Foster Carer Demographic Outlook: Impacts on the availability of foster carers, highlights critical demographic trends that point to a shrinking pool of potential foster carers over the next ten years.

The Future of Foster Care in NSW, co-authored by Lumenia, proposes twelve steps to reforming foster care in NSW so that we can achieve the best possible outcomes for children and families. This includes bolstering relative and kinship carer support so that children can stay with family and community, and modernising the foster care model to meet the changing fabric of Australian society.

It’s not only critical that we do much more to value and support our existing carers, but also we must recognise that society has shifted, and the out-of-home care system needs to shift with it if we truly want the best outcomes for children and young people.