Matching Assessment Activity
This activity is designed to help you as the carer or applicant articulate what type of placement you feel may be best ‘fit’ for you and your family. Please take the time to answer the questions carefully and these will then lead you to a number of case scenarios to consider relating to the ‘type’ of placement you wish to consider. Answers to the case scenario questions will be sent to your assessor to assist with completing your Initial or Renewal/Review assessment. The exercise may take up to approximately 30 minutes.
Your Details
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Type of Placements
Please read the following descriptions and tick any boxes which you feel will apply (you can tick more than one):
This typically is a full-time primary placement without any prior warning and can occur within 24 hours; more often with as little as 1-2 hours notice. This is usually due to a child being removed from a harmful situation or a placement has ended unexpectedly and a new one is needed imminently. It can be for any time limit; as short as 24 hours, to a week, to two months, all the way up to 2 years (or longer if the child’s orders change & carers are agreeable to keeping the child or young person in placement long term).
This can be both planned or unplanned. Typically, SBCs (otherwise known as respite carers) can offer one-off or regular respite sessions for children in primary placements who’s carers need a break, are unwell or have on events/travel for which the foster child cannot attend. Sometimes it can also be to build a child’s ‘village’ and ensure continuity of care if/when primary placements end. SBC can be for one night however most often is two to three nights over a weekend (Friday after school until Sunday evening or even drop off at school on Monday morning). However, SBC can be much longer - school holidays for two weeks or more; weeks when children are on exclusion from school and primary carers aren’t available during the day to care for them; primary carers have overseas or interstate holidays and the f/c cannot attend (ie birth parents do not give permission, or carers cant afford to take them, or they don’t have passports for the child). Some respite placements become primary placements when the primary placement ends and the child is placed in ‘respite’ until an alternative primary placement is found; if nothing suitable is found, the respite placement becomes the new primary placement.
This type of full-time primary placement may start as an Emergency, Short Break or simply as a new placement. ‘Short Term’ usually refers to 12-24 months however there is no hard or fast rule. Usually the placement is a with a child or young person whose case plan is reunification; ie the child is on a Short Term Child Protection Order (of up to 24 months) although it is not always the case.
The placement requires carers who can support family contact and all things related to reunification. They need that careful balance of building attachment and connection with a child with the very clear view they will (likely) be returning home or to kin in the future. However, the case plan may change for the child; they may have their order transferred to be a Long Term Guardianship to the Chief Executive (LTG-CE) and that means the carers need to consider whether they will remain the child’s carers and become their ‘forever family’….which may not be what they originally wanted.
This typically is a full-time primary placement that may have commenced as emergency, respite/short break or short-term and has become a long-term placement as the child is on a Long-Term Guardianship to the Chief Executive order (LTG-CE). This may have commenced when short-term carers decided to transition the child to a long-term placement once the LTG-CE was approved.
This means the child, whatever age they commence with the placement, is to remain with the carers until the age of 18 and beyond. They are what we consider the child’s ‘forever family’.
Emergency Placement
If applicants/carers are interested in providing Emergency care placements, you need to carefully consider:
Short-break care (respite)
If applicants/carers are interested in providing Short Break Care placements, you need to carefully consider:
Short term placements
If applicants/carers are interested in providing Short Term placements, you need to carefully consider:
Long-term care
If applicants/carers are interested in providing Long Term placements, you need to carefully consider:
Case Studies
You will now be asked a series of case scenarios specific to the ‘type’ of placement you have identified. Select one scenario and provide a step-by-step response of what you would do to manage the situation:
Emergency placement case scenarios
On your way home after work on a Friday afternoon, you get the call asking if you will take three children who have been removed just today from their parents due to significant neglect. They have limited clothing, shoes, personal items and will need pyjamas, toothbrushes etc upon arrival. How will you get ready for their arrival, which will be in about 1 hour?
Both of your kids are school age. You have your child’s soccer training on after school tomorrow and your daughter has an assignment due tomorrow which she needs help on tonight. You and your partner both have work tomorrow. Yet you’ve had a call about a baby who has recently been removed from her mother; he’s 4 days old and needs an emergency placement. Child Safety will bring with them any equipment they can source, such as a portable cot, car seat etc however it will be limited. Are you able to provide a placement, if yes, how will you support your family and manage your work commitments?
You have had a baby in your care since he was removed from his mother 13 months ago. He arrived when he was 4 days old and at the time, you had no idea how long he would be with you. You have seen him say his first word, take his first steps and he’s an important member in your family. His aunt has just been approved to be his long-term guardian and carer, however she lives interstate. You knew this might happen however it wasn’t ‘real’ until you received the call stating, ‘The Aunt is coming this weekend to take him home with her’. How do you prepare a) yourself for this event, b) your family/children for the loss of this relationship and c) how do you prepare the toddler?
Short-break care (respite care) case scenarios
You have a new child coming to respite this weekend. You know a little about them from their carer or CSO, but it’s still limited. They arrive and almost instantly they do not speak to you, won’t eat and do not want to do anything bar lie in their room. How do you support this child to be part of your family/household?
You have a regular respite set up, whereby you care for an 8 yr old every fortnight. It seems to be going well until the primary carer starts sending the child with his Nintendo DS. He says the carers let him ‘play all day’ and so he arrives with the expectation he gets to play on his DS all day at your place. How do you manage this situation?
Short term placements case scenarios
You’ve had a child in your care now for 18 months. The past 18 months has involved lots of ‘up and down’ with family contact; sometimes it’s been regular, consistent and fairly positive, other times almost non-existent. You have just been informed the child’s case plan is going to change and the Dept is going for long-term guardianship. How do you feel about the change in plan and what do you want to do about the placement (ie keep the young person long-term or support their transition to another placement)?
You decide to remain a short-term carer as you feel, for a range of reasons (could be health, age, capacity, employment changes etc) that you’re best to stay in that type of role rather than become a ‘forever family’ for this child. How will you support the foster child to move to another placement?
You decide to remain the carers for this child, as you’ve built a strong attachment and they are very much a part of your family. When hearing the LT order has been approved, the child begins to act out, becomes increasingly defiant, aggressive and starts to really ‘push’ you away. What is happening for the child do you think and how might you be able to support the child through this?
You have had a child for 18 months and while the plan has been reunification, you’ve not really seen the parents prove, in your eyes, that they can take on the care of their child again. They do not turn up to contact, and when they do, it doesn’t go well. You’re under the impression the child will remain in care, with you, and you’re prepared to become a long-term carer for the child. The Dept decides to return the child home and you have two weeks to prepare them, and commence the transition immediately (ie visits at the family home increase to overnights). How do you manage this and how do you prepare the child for this apparently sudden change?
Long-term placement case scenarios
You have had a child in your care for 4 months on a short-term order who has now transferred to a LTG-CE. Family contact will now be monthly for 3 hours on a Saturday, instead of weekly for one hour. The child is upset at not being allowed to see their mum and dad weekly (despite them not attending often) and begins to act out, abscond, show physical and verbal aggression towards you, stating, “You are not my Mum and Dad!” How do you manage this for the child?
You have had a child in your care for well over 6 years. They have recently turned 13 and are now abrupt, rude, sullen in their engagement with you and others in the home and their behaviours start to deteriorate – you find them stealing from you, hurting your children (who are basically their siblings and have only ever known the f/c as part of the family), swearing, truant from school and refusing to follow household rules. You are at your wit’s end. How long will you sustain this sort of placement, and how will you manage it? When is the ‘line in the sand’ ie when will you choose to end the placement?
The child has been in your care for approximately four years. Recently her mum has informed the Dept she identifies as Aboriginal. As you are not Indigenous, the Dept determine this placement is not culturally appropriate and begin looking for more suitable homes for the child (who is 6). How do you feel and how do you manage this situation?
Thank you for taking the time to complete this Types of Placement assessment tool. This helps your assessor gain a deeper understanding of your household and its needs and how best to ‘match’ you with children and/or young people in care.
If you have any questions that have arisen due to this tool, please feel free to talk this through with your assessor during your next interview.