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In February 2026, the NSW Government launched the Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) Strategy . This sets out key reform directions to build a world-class care system that supports children to thrive in supportive, stable environments and sees recovery and restoration for more children and families.
The NSW Out-of-Home Care Carer Strategy (2026-2031) has been developed to address Reform Direction Five: Recognising carers as key service partners. This strategy aims to respond to long-standing issues faced by authorised OOHC carers and reinforce the NSW Department of Communities and Justice’s commitment to stronger partnership. It is grounded in carers’ lived experience and shaped by their input through consultation.
The OOHC Carer Strategy includes five guiding principles for how the OOHC sector, including DCJ, will work with carers and eight focus areas for improvement over the next five years. The aim of the priority areas is to strengthen relationships, elevate carer voices and ensure carers feel valued, heard, included, and better supported so they can support children in OOHC to thrive.
The DCJ Carer Support Action Plan 2026-2028 is a clear, written document that sets out the steps we will take to achieve specific goals. The Action Plan explains:
The actions in this first DCJ Action Plan are based on what carers told us would make a difference, however, not everything carers told us about during consultation will be achieved in this first action plan. Some issues and potential actions raised by carers will need to be a focus in future action plans.
Towards the end of the two-year period DCJ will be consulting with carers about the second action plan direction and key activities. We know that sustained change takes time, and we want to make sure that carers lived experience, and voices continue to be heard and provide the action plan direction.
Over the coming months, all OOHC agencies in NSW will develop a Carer Support Action Plan to guide implementation.
A suite of resources will be available soon to assist agencies to create action plans.
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