Who to contact

As the child in your care may have multiple and complex needs, you may require support from a number of different agencies and services.

• Your foster and kinship care service
• Your child safety service centre
• Queensland Foster and Kinship Care
• Foster and kinship carer support line
• Child Safety After Hours Service Centre
• Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak
• Office of the Public Guardian
• Other support

Your foster and kinship care service

We fund non-government foster and kinship care services for the management of quality foster and kinship care placements. These foster and kinship care services are responsible for your ongoing training and development as a carer, as well as providing you with support and supervision.

If you are supported by a care service, you are assigned a dedicated support worker who will visit you regularly and support you by phone. They may attend placement meetings with you, and will assist you to work as part of the child’s safety and support network, alongside the Child Safety Officer (CSO) and others who have a role in implementing the child’s case plan.

If you are a foster carer, your learning and development needs will be discussed with you by your care service support worker, and recorded in your Foster Care Agreement. If you are a kinship carer, your learning and support needs will be recorded in the Placement Agreement, as they will be specific to the child or children you are caring for.

If you are a foster or kinship carer caring for a child with a complex or extreme level of support needs, you may receive more intensive support from your care service.

Your care service is there to support you in your role as a carer, and your learning and development needs. Many agencies also provide an on-call service for after-hours phone support and advice.

Your child safety service centre

Child Safety is responsible for addressing the child’s needs for safety, belonging and wellbeing. This means that children in care will have an allocated CSO who will develop and regularly review a case plan for the child. This is the lead plan for the child and outlines the overall goal for our work with the child and the family, and what support is required to ensure the child’s needs are met.

Child Safety will have a minimum of one face-to-face contact per month with the child. This is important for building positive and trusting relationships with the child. It also allows the CSO to seek their views and wishes about matters affecting them.

Contact your local child safety service centre.

Queensland Foster and Kinship Care

Queensland Foster and Kinship Care (QFKC) is a non-government association providing advice, support and advocacy to all foster and kinship carers in Queensland. While carers receive their day-to-day support through their care service, QFKC can be accessed to assist in more complex matters and can also provide advice that assists carers in interpreting policy, procedure and legislation into everyday care.

Carers can also be members of QFKC and receive the bi-monthly ‘QFKC Reporter’, which provides up-to-date information to carers about relevant matters in the sector. Carers do not have to be a member of QFKC however to receive a service from QFKC.

The Queensland Foster and Kinship Care Support Team is a service provided by QFKC. Specially trained foster or kinship carers volunteer to provide support, advice and advocacy on behalf of other foster and kinship carers in their local communities.

Queensland Foster and Kinship Care Support Team representatives are allocated to regions and you are able to contact any rep in your region to receive support. Queensland Foster and Kinship Care Support Team reps also run a very informative Facebook group where you can access policy, procedure and legislation, or send them a direct message.

For more information, call Queensland Foster and Kinship Care on (07) 3256 6166, or access the latest information relating to the carer community posted on QFKC's Facebook page.

Foster and kinship carer support line

In response to COVID-19, the Foster and kinship carer support line - provided by the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre - has been enhanced, with additional staff recruited and support extended to include business hours.

The team includes experienced foster and kinship care workers who value and appreciate the voluntary and challenging role that foster and kinship carers undertake in providing care and safety to the most vulnerable children in Queensland. The workers have many years of experience working with foster and kinship carers and specialist knowledge to support them during this difficult time.

Call 1300 729 309 (24 hours, 7 days a week).

The support line provides support to foster and kinship carers, including:

• clear information in relation to COVID-19 related matters
• direct phone support to carers who call the line
• crisis response and support
• proactive support to carer households and to new Provisionally Approved Carers.

To make a proactive referral to the Foster and kinship carer support line, call the above number or send a referral.

Child safety after hours service centre

The child safety after hours service centre provides after-hours support, 7 days a week, for situations requiring an immediate response. As a carer, you may need to call the child safety after hours service centre if, for example, a child in your care:

• goes missing or has been detained by the police after hours
• requires general anaesthetic during a medical or dental procedure
• needs urgent medical attention that requires parental consent (where the parent is the child’s guardian).

Please phone the child safety after hours service centre on 1300 681 513 (dedicated foster and kinship carer line).

Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak

The Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP) is funded by the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services and is made up of 21 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled member organisations.

QATSICPP promotes and advocates the rights, safety and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people and their families through effective partnerships and strategic collaborations.

QATSICPP provides leadership in advocacy and the development of policies, strategies and programs to resource, support and strengthen the capacity and capability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled child protection agencies.

You can contact QATSICPP on (07) 3102 4119.

Office of the Public Guardian

The purpose of the Office of the Public Guardian for children and young people is to advocate for the human rights of their clients. You can contact them on 1800 661 533 or (07) 3225 8325, SMS on 0418 740 186 or email publicguardian@publicguardian.qld.gov.au

Other support

• Parentline can provide advice and counselling about any issue that affects you as a parent. Call 1300 301 300 from 8am to 10pm, 7 days a week for the cost of a local call (mobile phone charges apply).
• Triple P-Positive Parenting Program is a world-renowned program that helps make raising children and teenagers easier.