Child and family

• Support for children and families
  • Support for parents and families
  • Independent person
    • Information for children and young people
    • Information for families
    • Information for independent persons
• Protecting children
  • About child protection
    • Reporting and referring concerns
    • Child protection legislation
    • Mandatory reporting
    • Children and young people's rights
    • Parents' rights
    • Roles and responsibilities
    • National approach to child protection
  • What is child abuse?
    • Signs of child abuse and neglect
    • Why does child abuse happen?
    • Effects of harm
    • Child sexual abuse
  • How to prevent abuse
    • Protecting children from harm
    • Prevention and early intervention
  • Reporting child abuse
    • If you suspect harm
    • What happens when we are contacted?
    • What happens when a report is made?
    • Reporting child abuse in other states
  • Responding to child abuse
    • Moving a child to a safe place
    • Investigation and assessment
      • Unborn children
      • Assessment orders
    • Care Agreements
    • What you can expect
  • Ongoing intervention
    • Case planning
      • Service referrals
    • Support Service case
    • Intervention with Parental Agreement
    • Child Protection Order
    • Family group meetings
    • Court processes
    • Youth justice
    • Contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Handbook
• Foster and kinship care
  • Carer training
    • Foster carer training
      • Foreword
      • Procedures and guidelines
      • Frequently asked questions
      • Orientation
      • Learning outcomes
      • Pre-service training
      • Water safety for carers
      • Learning journal
      • Standard training
      • Caring for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
      • Advanced training
        • Attachment
        • Whose problem is this?
        • Foster Parent College
        • Independence and connections
        • I'm an individual...
        • Infectious diseases
        • Ready, set, fly! A parent's guide to teaching life skills
        • Loss and grief for children in care
        • Participation
        • Positive and Protective series
        • Reality fostering
        • Strategies for Managing Abuse Related Trauma (SMART)
        • Whose job is this?
      • Recognition of prior learning (RPL)
      • Acknowledgements
  • Rights and responsibilities
    • Standards of care
    • Statement of commitment
    • Charter of rights for a child in care
    • United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
    • Child Placement Principle
  • Regulation of care
    • Concerns about the standards of care
    • Community Visitors and Child Advocates
  • Contacts
    • Community foster care agency contacts
      • Brisbane Region
      • Central Queensland Region
      • Far North Queensland Region
      • North Coast Region
      • North Queensland Region
      • South East Region
      • South West Region
    • Indigenous foster care agency contacts
    • Peak body and advocacy group contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Information for existing carers
    • Information for prospective carers
    • Recruitment of foster carers
    • Children and Young People's Participation Strategy
• Adoption
  • Resources and publications
• Child and family reform
  • Sharing responsibility for children's safety and wellbeing
  • Supporting families earlier
  • Working better with families in contact with the child protection system
  • Meeting the needs and requirements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities
    • Empowering Families Innovation Fund
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Service Reform Project
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Wellbeing Services
    • Family Participation Program
    • Indigenous career progression - cadetships and scholarships
    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child protection sector and service development
  • Improving care and post-care for children and young people
  • Delivering quality services to children and families through a capable, motivated workforce and client-focused organisations
    • Quality Improvement Program
  • Building an accountable, transparent and cost-effective system
  • Child protection legislation reform
  • History of child protection legislation reforms
  • Specialist Services
  • Using technology for business transformation
• Queensland Government Response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
  • Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Taskforce
    • Taskforce members
  • National Redress Scheme in Queensland
• NDIS transition and implementation
  • Information for young people with disability in care
  • Information for foster and kinship carers of children with disability
  • NDIS information for parents and families of children in care
  • NDIS information for Family Support Providers
  • NDIS information for Residential Care services
• Our performance
  • Summary statistics
    • Child protection orders
    • Protective orders
  • Family Support and Child Protection System Framework
  • Family Support Services
  • Intake phase
    • Child concern reports
    • Notifications
  • Investigation and assessment phase
    • Assessment orders
    • Investigation and assessment
    • Substantiations
  • Ongoing intervention phase
    • Intervention with parental agreement
    • Short-term child protection orders
    • Living away from home
    • Carer families
  • Ongoing intervention phase (Permanency planning)
    • Legal Permanency - Long-term child protection orders
    • Exiting out-of-home care
  • Improved safety
    • Re-entry
    • Standard of care reviews and harm reports
  • High quality services and improved wellbeing
    • Case plans
    • Child health passports
    • Physical Permanency: Stability and permanency of placements
    • Transition to adulthood
    • Relational Permanency – Placement with siblings
    • Cultural support plan
  • Representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
    • Our Way Strategy and Action Plan
    • Placement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
  • Family and household characteristics
  • Demographics
  • System and Practice Reviews - Child deaths
  • Regional data
    • Central Queensland region
    • Moreton region
    • Northern region
    • South East region
    • South West region
  • Adoptions
  • Glossary of terms
  • Table notes
  • Contacts
  • Resources and publications
    • Child protection partnerships reports
• Child Safety Practice Manual
• Child and family resources
  • Protecting children: an inquiry into abuse of children in foster care
  • Managing child safety information
  • Assessment of the OneSchool Referral Process
  • Evaluation of the Child Protection Joint Response Team Trial

You are here:

1. Home
2. Child and family
   • About us
   • Contact us
   • News
   • Our stories
   • Violence prevention
   • Women
   • Youth
3. Our performance
   • Adoption
   • Child and family reform
   • Child and family resources
   • Child Safety Practice Manual
   • Foster and kinship care
   • NDIS transition and implementation
   • Protecting children
   • Queensland Government Response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
   • Support for children and families
4. Ongoing intervention phase
   • Adoptions
   • Contacts
   • Demographics
   • Family and household characteristics
   • Family Support and Child Protection System Framework
   • Family Support Services
   • Glossary of terms
   • High quality services and improved wellbeing
   • Improved safety
   • Intake phase
   • Investigation and assessment phase
   • Ongoing intervention phase (Permanency planning)
   • Regional data
   • Representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
   • Resources and publications
   • Summary statistics
   • System and Practice Reviews - Child deaths
   • Table notes
5. Carer families

Graphs

Number of approved carer families, by carer type and Indigenous status, Queensland, as at 30 June 2019

Tables

Table notes

What role do carers have?

Approved carers play a key role in the child protection system, providing care for children when separation from their family is required to ensure their safety.

The approval of carers is prescribed by the Child Protection Act 1999 and the Child Protection Regulation 2011. There are three types of approved carers:

• foster carers - approved to care for any child or young person in the custody or guardianship of the chief executive (Director-General) of the department
• kinship carers - approved to care for a specific child or children who are members of their extended family or community, or with whom they have a pre-existing significant relationship
• provisionally approved carers - applicants wishing to become approved as kinship or foster carers who initially receive a provisional certificate of approval. An applicant will only be issued with a provisional certificate when they have been provisionally assessed as suitable to care for a particular child.

Why this topic is important

In Queensland, there is a critical need for more foster and kinship carers to allow the department and community fostering agencies to better match the needs of children with suitable carers.

An increased pool of foster carers will ensure more long-term, successful and rewarding placements for children who are unable to live with their own families.

If you are interested in becoming a foster or kinship carer, please call 1300 550 877 or complete an expression of interest.

Trends

As at 30 June 2019, there were 5,345 carer families (3,522 foster carers, 1,610 kinship carers and 213 provisionally approved carers). Overall, the number of carer families has increased, by 2.0 per cent since 30 June 2018 (5,241) and 6.6 per cent since 30 June 2015 (5,012).

Of the 5,345 carer families as at 30 June 2019, 17.4 per cent were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (930) and 82.6 per cent were non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (4,415).

The ratio of children and young people in home-based care to the number of carer families was 1.63 as at 30 June 2019.