Gold Coast foster carer says Department of Communities at crisis point

A Gold Coast man and his partner who opened up their home to five foster children claims the Department of Communities is at ‘crisis point.’

SITTING atop a hill at Pacific Pines is a home filled with love.

There’s joy in the household of five boys and two parents, the kind of joy only a second chance can bring.

This isn’t your “average’’ family environment. They’ve been brought together through a range of complicated issues and tragedies, but the boys are loved and cared for and that’s what matters.

SURVIVAL OF A RESI-KID ON THE COAST

Foster carer Jim White. Picture: Jerad Williams

Jim White, or “Uncle Jim’’ as the boys call him, and his partner have opened up their home as foster carers to three brothers and another two brothers aged 10 to 18, to keep them together, to give them love and a family environment they would not have been afforded if they ended up in the residential care system.

The Bulletin revealed last week the residential care system is flawed, with exorbitant funding for kids living in the resie-care system and one organisation receiving upwards of $1.4 million a year to look after one Logan girl.

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That’s more than 26 times the amount Mr White receives to care for five growing boys, to pay for schooling, sports and food, and to give them the life they deserve.

Mr White says the system is at a ‘crisis point’. Picture: Jerad Williams

Mr White has been a foster carer for a decade and has been looking after the three brothers for eight years, while the other two brothers have been with him for nearly three.

Now he has taken the extraordinary step of speaking out about the department he claims is in crisis.

“I’ll start by saying, this is the best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Mr White said.

“I couldn’t imagine those boys not being in my life.

“But there are more foster carers leaving the system than there are ones coming in. It’s at a crisis point.

“I think that’s why the Department of Communities are placing children in these community homes. They don’t have the foster carers to place them with.

An agency representing one child receives 26 times more money than all of Mr White’s foster children combined. Picture: Jerad Williams

“These kids come into care due to abuse, neglect, domestic violence, addictions, mental health issues, a whole range of things. Then they’re being further abused by the Department of Communities because their placements aren’t being properly resourced – that’s my issue.”

He said while residential care homes received hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of dollars in funding, foster carers received meagre allowances by comparison.

“We’re being told at the moment that there is $1000 per child to support them per annum.

“There’s a foster carers’ allowance (about $200 per child, per week), but that doesn’t cover things like medical costs, dental, sport, family contact visits, things like that. The things kids should have growing up, the things they have a right to.”

Mr White said foster carers needed to be properly supported, otherwise further shortages were likely.

“If you have an accident on the highway and you’re taken to the hospital, you’re treated until you’re better. The hospital doesn’t say ‘you’re half fixed, away you go’. You’re treated until you’re better.

“These children come into care damaged and they’re allowed to just languish in the system, because none of their needs are being met.”

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Mr White praised Department of Community staff, whom he says are working on a thin budget as is.

“It’s not the staff, they’re in the same situation … their hands are tied, they can’t function properly. The whole thing needs to be focused on the children.”

Mr White said the department need to talk to carers and the kids in care to fix the issues.

“I want the department to talk to kids and carers about policy and procedure, rather than being talked at.

“Policy and procedure should be directed and influenced by people who live and breathe the highs and lows experienced caring for these children on a daily basis, rather than public servants.

“Maybe the minister could establish and meet with regional committees as a means of being more consultative. The whole thing needs to be revamped and relooked at.”