CEO Samantha Hauge's speech delivered at the FCAV Carer Celebration for Foster Care Week 2024.
"Welcome carers and friends from around Melbourne and Victoria to another Carer Celebration for Foster care Week. I take this time each year to sincerely thank our amazing carers and to acknowledge your selflessness and dedication in the vital role you play providing stability, support and care to vulnerable children.
The FCAV, as your peak body, has been proud to offer supports and services to assist you in your caring role and has worked hard to further the interests of our members over the year. In August of this year, we jointly hosted the National Kinship, Permanent and Foster Care Conference, a three day event that hosted speakers from around Australia and the world. I know many of you here today attended the conference and gained invaluable insights from many of the presentations.
The FCAV ‘s advocacy has seen progress on several issues for carers. I am pleased to report that the Department’s Care Support Help Desk—a key FCAV initiative that supports carers to obtain essential documents such as Medicare numbers, birth certificates and immunisation documentation, amongst other supports - has been so successful that it is now a permanent service offering. We fought and lobbied so hard with the Minister and Department for the establishment of such a service and the Help Desk statistics show the rewards of that advocacy. Since its inception in October 2022, the Help Desk has:
Supported 4,660 children and young people
Received 9,822 calls
Submitted 2,990 birth certificate applications
Submitted 3,200 Medicare applications
This is an outstanding success story, and we are pleased to report that the Help Desk has been funded on an ongoing basis.
Our own Carer Assistance Program is another success story. A free, FCAV in-house counselling service that started as a COVID funded initiative, has this year received ongoing and increased funding to become a permanent and full-time service offering. Carers are now able to receive free and timely counselling sessions with FCAV staff who are highly experienced, trained, and knowledgeable about the unique therapeutic support required in the home-based care context.
These are important wins in what has been a very difficult financial environment for the whole sector.
However, the issue that is the basis for one of the most important and ongoing advocacy programs, the Care Allowance campaign, is unfortunately still unfinished business…
Victoria has the lowest level one Care Allowance in Australia - lower than every other state or territory. A carer across the border in NSW receives an extra $190 per fortnight than you do here in Victoria towards the care of a 7 year old child. Carers in the ACT receive an extra $250 towards those costs.
And to rub salt into the wound, our care allowance has only been indexed by 2-2.5% for many years when household inflation has been running at 6-7%. Consequently, it has fallen significantly in real value, with no increase since 2016 when it was only increased by $20. That was 8 years ago!
As we honour the invaluable contributions carers make to our society and economy and acknowledge the many incredible joys of being a foster carer, we really must also confront this troubling reality. We hear from carers that the disparity is creating enormous hardship for many. The allowance carers receive barely meets the basic needs of the children it is meant to support and falls way short of providing all the necessary resources to fully foster a nurturing and supportive environment for vulnerable children.
Foster carers are expected to provide food, recreation, health, clothing, education, and emotional support to the children in their care. However, the financial support they receive is inadequate. This means foster carers must dip into their own pockets, often straining their personal finances, to ensure that the children receive the care they deserve.
The current allowance is insufficient to meet the holistic needs of children in care. Children in care have inherently experienced trauma and instability. They deserve more than just the minimum; they need therapeutic support, extracurricular activities, and opportunities for personal growth.
As part of its efforts to better understand its members demographics, motivations and issues, the FCAV recently commissioned a carer census where we heard directly from over 750 carers. Through the census, we heard that carers are definitely motivated and rewarded by the act of caring itself.
However, the census data also revealed that the inadequate care allowance and inadequate funding for children and young people’s expenses, are one of the top most challenging aspect of the role.
This situation creates a paradox where foster carers are expected to provide comprehensive care and support without the necessary resources.
Moreover, this inadequacy dissuades potential foster carers from stepping forward. Don’t get me wrong, there are so many wonderful and rewarding benefits of being a foster carer, as I all too well know being both a foster and permanent carer myself, but the financial strain and the emotional toll of caring for vulnerable children without adequate support can be overwhelming.
We risk losing compassionate and capable individuals who could provide loving homes to these children if it were not for the financial constraints. The foster care system must be designed to attract and retain dedicated carers to reap the wonderful benefits of caring, not deter them.
To address this, we must advocate for a substantial increase in the foster care allowance to at least bring it on par with neighbouring states – imagine the difference $250 a fortnight makes to a care placement in the ACT! It is imperative that our allowance is increased to go some way towards reflecting and contributing to the true cost of raising a child. By doing so, we can ensure that foster carers are not burdened by financial stress and can focus on providing the stable, nurturing environment that these children desperately need.
We also have a big problem in Victoria with foster carer recruitment and retention. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released the official figures for 2022/23 which show that in Victoria, we lost 551 foster care households and had only 246 carer households commence foster caring. That’s more than double the numbers exiting than commencing!
We know the grim reality, that if kinship care is not a possibility and without enough foster care placements, many children end up in residential care. Aside from the poor life trajectory for children placed in residential care, the average cost of residential care per child, per year is between $500,000 to $700,000. And what is the total of your care allowance payment per year? $11,500 a year for a child 0-7 years on level one, and level one is the most common placement allowance level granted.
We must invest in comprehensive support systems for foster carers. Our carer census included capacity for carers to more fully articulate their own experiences, motivations and needs.
It was wonderful to hear from carers that they found fostering to be a rewarding experience and expressed a deep commitment to making a positive difference in the lives of the children they care for.
However, there were many challenges expressed by carers (aside from financial constraints) including:
Carers often struggle with insufficient support from agencies, particularly in managing challenging behaviours and meeting general care needs.
Many carers feel excluded from decision-making processes due to poor communication and frequent delays in receiving necessary resources or guidance.
Many carers identified they experience a loss of income due to reduced work hours or job loss related to their caregiving responsibilities.
Emotional and mental health challenges were highlighted for carers, particularly with managing complex behaviours and dealing with trauma, or just trying to juggle their caring role with work and personal life.
Lack of respite care availability featured as causing strain.
Many carers reported that they felt undervalued by the system.
What is evident, is that there is a strong desire among foster carers for systemic reform. Carers are advocating for a comprehensive review of the foster care system, focusing on prioritising children’s needs, better supporting carers, and ensuring the system genuinely acts in the best interests of the children.
By supporting foster carers holistically, we empower them to better support the children in their care and properly resourcing the Victorian foster care system is a great investment.
A recently released economic study commissioned by the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare in 2022, tells us that foster carers provide $80 million dollars through 2.9 million hours in active care giving. And there is a further $453 million provided in the avoided costs of alternative forms of care such as residential care. So, the total economic benefit of foster care to the Victorian economy is over $500 million annually. Said another way, $4 of economic benefit is generated for every $1 invested. This makes foster care a great investment. It stands to reason that further investment would pay dividends in the form of healthier, happier children who are better equipped to overcome their past traumas and thrive in their future endeavours.
In conclusion, let our valued carers be the mouth pieces for a system that encourages potential carers to come forward to provide the nurture and care that our children require and that carers rate so highly as the reward of their caring role. Let them do so without worrying about finances and administrative burdens. Let us advocate for a system that truly nurtures and supports both the children, and the people who care for them. By increasing the foster care allowance and investing in robust support and administrative systems, we can create a brighter, more hopeful future for all involved."
Samantha Hauge, CEO of the FCAV
