Get on with it: Central Coast foster carers desperately needed
A DOOR slams in the night. Emily is just six years old, but she is already prepared for what will come next. She feels her body tense and her heart rate rise. This story will leave you in doubt about whey we need more foster carers.
A DOOR slams in the night. Emily is just six years old, but she is already prepared for what will come next. She feels her body tense and her heart rate rise.
Another door slams. She can hear her mother distinctly now. Screaming, crying.
Then the sound of flesh striking flesh, and screams turn to groans.
Fighting her instinct to hide, Emily approaches the bedroom door and is confronted by the image of her mother, bloodied and heaving on the floor. She rushes to place herself between her mother and boyfriend, arms raised. “Just leave her alo…”
She is punched, almost casually, in the side. The strength of the blow lifts her from her feet and throws her into the wall. She feels her breath leave her body as three of her delicate ribs snap inside her.
By now the police have responded to the neighbour’s calls for help, entering a house that is well known to them. As officers give first aid to her barely conscious mother, Emily is taken away by a child protection worker.
While this account is fictionalised, it is based on the real experience of children entering the Statutory Out of Home Care system. A system which is bursting at the seams in NSW.
And behind our idyllic surroundings, our beautiful coastline, hinterlands and waterways, there are many children on the Central Coast who are living this hell.
The Central Coast has a population of around 337,000 and with 74,500 people under the age of 18.
In 2017, the NSW Department of Family and Community Services recorded almost 5000 instances of children and young people being subject to significant risk of harm on the Central Coast, a figure almost 25 per cent higher than the state average.
Across the region there are almost 1300 children and young people in Out of Home Care – foster care, group homes or supported care with kin or relatives . This is also far above the state average.
That means if you have a child, or niece or nephew or grandchild who are school age, chances are they share a classroom or a desk at school with a child in this situation.
It’s a problem with a string of social factors contributing to the numbers of children and young people entering care - most commonly domestic violence and abuse and neglect.
The impact is often lifelong. These children and young people are more likely to end up in the youth justice system and have far poorer education and health outcomes. They will likely enter a cycle of social disadvantage that is difficult to escape, with potential impacts on their own children.
We need to turn this around.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
What can we do? Fostering is a practical way we can support children and young people who need a temporary or full-time home while their family is supported to make the necessary changes for their safe return home.
At any given time, there are dozens of children on the Central Coast who require foster care. At times these children are housed in hotel accommodation with support workers because of a shortage of foster carers.
Anyone can change a life and make a difference. If you’d like to find out more about fostering, please call CatholicCare Fostercare on 4320 7700, email fostercare@catholiccaredbb.org.au or visit catholiccaredbb.org.au/fostercare.
ABOUT THE AUTHOUR
Sean Cashin is senior manager operational support with CatholicCare in the Diocese of Broken Bay, a region spreading from Northern Sydney to the top of the Central Coast.
Mr Cashin’s career in social services began on the frontline where he supported at risk youth and children brought into state care through circumstances where they were unable to remain in their family homes.
It was in these formative roles early in his career that Mr Cashin began to understand the unimaginable challenges facing our community’s often ‘forgotten children’.
After a decade working for non-government organisations to support the reunification of foster children with their families, Mr Cashin took a career sabbatical to work in the financial services sector.
This experience afforded him the opportunity to identify ways the ‘business’ of social services could be more effectively managed to ensure vital, and limited, government resources could be better allocated to the needs of children in out of home care. Mr Cashin, now a father himself, returned to the social services sector with a renewed dedication, and the benefit of his experience to take on executive roles that would not only support children in out of home care - but would also support foster carers and support workers entrusted with the responsibility of looking after our community’s most vulnerable children.
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