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Our first priority is to work towards keeping families safely together. We want to support families with the services they need so that children and young people can stay safely at home, or return home after a break.
Where this is not possible, the permanent placement principles will guide how we provide children and young people with a safe and stable home.
Under the Permanency Support Program, which started 1 October 2017, a child or young person will have a case plan with a goal to have a safe and permanent home within 2 years of entering care. The preferred order for the permanent placement of a child or young person is:
The permanent placement principles provide a guide for casework and decisions by the Children’s Court. The department must demonstrate to the court that it has considered each of the placement options.
The Permanency Support Program info sheets for children and young people may help in explaining this to the child or young person being placed in out-of-home care.
Aboriginal children and young people are much better off if they are living in a permanent, safe home with relatives or kin, in community and on Country. That's why keeping Aboriginal families together safely is a priority.
The Aboriginal placement principles focus on keeping Aboriginal children and young people within their families and communities.
The general order of placing Aboriginal children and young people is within their:
This approach of family preservation and restoration (PDF, 204.5 KB) is supported by New South Wales child protection laws.
Family preservation involves working with parents as early as possible and providing them with intensive support to help keep children and young people at home safely.
Restoration is reuniting a child or young person with their parents or kin whenever it is safe to do so. It is the preferred permanency option if a child or young person is placed in out-of-home care while their family is supported to strengthen their parenting.
More information about Family preservation and restoration
Under a guardianship order, a child or young person is not in foster care or out-of-home care but in the independent care of their guardian. A guardian can be a relative or kinship carer, a family friend or an authorised carer who has an established and positive relationship with the child or young person.
If a child or young person is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, or from a different cultural background to their guardian, they will still maintain connections with their culture and community. They will have a cultural support plan that identifies their cultural needs. Guardians follow this plan and encourage and facilitate the child or young person to participate in cultural activities and events.
When a child or young person cannot return to the care of their parents, and a guardianship order is not appropriate, open adoption should be considered before placing a child into foster care.
Adoption is not usually considered suitable for Aboriginal children, however legislation allows for the adoption of Aboriginal children as a final preference after parental responsibility to the Minister. Importantly, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principles still apply.
We're changing child protection in NSW.
Vulnerable children and young people deserve better.
There are over 8,000 more children and young people in care compared to 2006.
With changes in legislation and practice we need people who can support children and families
by caring for children while parents get help to change.
We need people to be parents for life, through guardianship or open adoption, and people
who are willing to provide short-term care for children.
5.4% of all children and young people in NSW are Aboriginal,
but they represent 37.3% of those in out-of-home care. And this trend is continuing.
Our goal is for children to find permanency with their families or through guardianship and open adoption.
That’s why we’re introducing the Permanency Support Program from 1 October 2017.
It brings together work we were already doing to fund NGOs based on performance and outcomes, and efforts within our own agency to ensure everything supports permanency.
It will also prepare government and NGO practitioners to deliver needs-based supports through
Their Futures Matter - the NSW Government’s response to the Independent Review of Out-of-Home Care.
The new program consists of four main parts:
We’re enhancing permanency and early intervention principles in casework.
In the new system, a child or young person will have a case plan with a goal for permanency within two years of entering care.
We’ll seek fewer court orders for parental responsibility that last until a child turns 18. Instead, we’ll look at other options for shorter-term orders, to support the permanency goal in each case plan.
We’ll create 50 new Permanency Coordinator roles across NSW to help government and NGO caseworkers plan for and achieve these goals.
It will be a more flexible system, with case plans that include different packages based on an individual’s needs, and not their placement.
We’re working intensively to support birth parents, families and kin.
With the right help, guidance and support services, people can change.
We’re creating an additional 900 places for children in intensive family preservation and restoration services this year – and half will be for Aboriginal families.
Together with the NGO sector, we’ll launch a strategy to better recruit, support and retain people who want to be guardians or adopt children, as well as people who want to support children to return home when their parents have achieved change.
We also need people for short-term care, emergency care, or just to give other carers and family a break.
This means expanding the pool beyond our traditional ideas of family.
We’re introducing Intensive Therapeutic Care to replace residential care.
Many young people in care have had traumatic experiences.
So we’re keeping a strong focus on recovery from trauma through an Intensive Therapeutic
Care system for young people over 12 who’ve been assessed as requiring intensive therapy.
This new approach will reduce the length of time young people spend in intensive out-of-home care services by providing clear pathways to permanency.
Our goals are ambitious but realistic if we all work together to give every child and young person a safe, loving and permanent home in which they can thrive.
To learn more and find answers to your questions, visit facs.nsw.gov.au/psp
28 May 2024