More foster families going through Transfer of Guardianship process to give children long-term stability
AFTER a rough start to life, little Taylor has found his “forever home”, as growing numbers of foster parents take on more responsibility for children like him.
- SA foster parents asked to take on guardianship roles
- Push to make guardianship of kids easier for foster parents
- Number of children sleeping in hotels top 200 for the first time
- More foster carers leaving system than recruited
AFTER a rough start to life, little Taylor has found his “forever home”.
The eight-year-old was taken into state care as a baby and placed in the Smith household before his first birthday.
Now, the energetic schoolboy is officially part of the family after foster parents Fleur and Paul Smith made a request to transfer Taylor into their guardianship.
“We wanted to be able to say to him ‘Sweetheart, you’re ours’,” Mrs Smith, 39, explained.
They are one of a growing number of foster families going through a process known as Transfer of Guardianship, which gives parents more legal rights than fostering but fewer than adoption.
Guardianship has been possible since 1993 but until a few years ago, there were only a handful of cases a year.
A concerted effort to identify eligible foster parents, who had cared for a child for at least two years, led to a sharp rise.
Last financial year 45 children were put under guardianship, up from 18 in 2016-17. Already this financial year 4 children have been transferred and a further 59 are being assessed or are covered by applications.
Guardianship gives parents more control over everyday decisions and removes the need for departmental staff to closely monitor the family.
Mrs Smith said it meant “not having to get permissions for general things like going to a sleep over or going on school camps (and) report cards coming directly to us” instead of the Child Protection Department.
“They’re all really significant things for family life,” she said.
In the past, it had taken months to gain permission to take Taylor on a family trip interstate, with brothers Caleb, 11, and Jacob, 10.
Under guardianship, the family was able to arrange an international holiday without much red tape.
“It just means you can do those things with them and for them without having to get approval or permission from a third person all the time,” Mrs Smith said.
“It means security that we won’t lose Taylor.”
The department continues to provide financial support and children can still have contact with their birth parents.
There are 1434 children living with foster families and 1664 living with relatives in state care.
Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson said guardianship was about “families choosing to give permanence to foster children … so young people can thrive and reach their full potential”.
The former Labor Government wrote to eligible foster families and established a central unit to co-ordinate the guardianship process.
Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland’s 2016 report warned that the waiting time to gain guardianship had blown out to two years and the option had been “seriously neglected” by authorities.
She recommended restricting the ability of birth parents to deny their child being shifted to guardianship.
For information about foster care visit childprotection.sa.gov.au