Permanent care

About permanent care

Permanent care is when a child, for whom a decision has been made that they are unable to live safely with their parents, is placed with approved permanent carers such as an existing kinship or foster carer, assessed as suitable to convert to permanent care, or with new permanent carers.

Children placed in permanent care come through Child Protection services. Unlike adoption, it is not a voluntary placement. The Department makes decisions about the safety of children, and for a few this sometimes means they are unable to return home to their birth parents or other relatives. In these cases the decision is made for permanent care.

Permanent care is different to foster care, which is a temporary arrangement that aims to reunite children with their birth parents.

Permanent carers manage all responsibilities for the child, including (but not limited to):

• ongoing contact with birth family
• the challenges of adolescent development
• any special medical or dental needs
• the need for counselling and therapeutic support
• educational difficulties
• meeting cultural requirements.

Legal rights

A permanent care order (PCO) is made by the Children’s Court, granting custody and guardianship to the permanent care family. Legally this means that as a permanent care parent you’ll be responsible for day-to-day care of the child and also long-term decisions about things like education, changes in residence, health and employment.

In all other ways it means you’ll be the child’s parents into the future, loving them, caring about them, giving them opportunities and, most of all, providing them with enduring relationships.

The PCO doesn’t automatically affect the child’s name, birth certificate or inheritance rights, although change of name is possible. The PCO expires when the child turns 18 years of age, but the close relationships established between permanent parents and children last a lifetime.

Contact with birth family

Children in permanent care are entitled to ongoing contact with their birth parents, and birth parents are entitled to contact and information exchange of photos and updates on the progress of their child.

In most cases children will have contact with members of their birth family after they join your family. This can seem challenging at first, but it is very important for the child that comes into your family. It is very important for all children to know and understand their origins, as this forms part of their identity.

Before the permanent care order is granted, contact arrangements are organised and supported by a worker from the Permanent Care team. At first, visits will be held in neutral places, usually for a couple of hours or so. Your worker will attend these visits with you and the child’s birth family to help build relationships between you all, until you and the birth family feel comfortable about managing the arrangements yourselves.

Permanent care for Aboriginal children

The Court cannot make a PCO in respect of an Aboriginal child, unless it has received a report from an Aboriginal agency that recommends the making of the order and that a cultural plan has been prepared for the child.

A permanent care placement for an Aboriginal child, if the child is to be placed with non-Aboriginal carers, can only be made if:

• there is no suitable placement that can be found with an Aboriginal person or persons
• the decision to seek the order has been made in consultation with the child, where appropriate
• the Secretary is satisfied that the order will accord with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.

Financial assistance for permanent carers

As a permanent care parent, you have will have financial responsibility for the child in permanent care, but you can also access financial assistance to help with some expenses.

The Victorian Government provides permanent carers with ongoing financial support up until a child turns 18 years of age with a care allowance. The fortnightly non-taxable allowance contributes to the costs of the child’s food, clothing and other expenses.

The Victorian and Commonwealth Government also offer a number of other financial supports that are available for certain permanent care children and situations, including for those families who are caring for a child with disability or a medical condition.

Visit the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing's website for more information:

• Permanent care
• Support for home based carers in Victoria.

Visit the Services Australia website for more information on the types of payments you might be eligible to receive from the Commonwealth Government.

Flexible funding for permanent carers

Flexible funding is designed to support the placement and is specific to the child to meet the extraordinary needs of children and young people subject to a PCO to help with costs not met by the care allowance, or other funding sources. The funding may cover partial, full, or ongoing costs and may be provided directly to a carer, a retailer, or service provider.

New permanent carers – talk to your Child Protection worker or case manager, as flexible funding may be endorsed as part of the child’s case plan when an application for a PCO is being made. Approved funding will be provided when the PCO is made. For further information talk to your Child Protection worker or case manager.

Existing permanent carers – can apply for flexible funding after a PCO is made and may make more than one application. Carers who received funding when the PCO was made can apply for this funding, as well as carers receiving the Victorian Department of Families, Fairness and Housing care allowance for permanent placements where the child is subject to a Family Court order.

Contact Permanent Care and Adoptive Families on (03) 9020 1833 or email info@pcafamilies.org.au.

Support services for permanent carers

Permanent Care and Adoptive Families (PCA Families)

PCA Families is a not-for-profit member representative organisation with lived experience foundations. Their purpose is to support permanent care, kinship care and adoptive families to help their children to thrive.

PCA Families delivers ongoing support and services to families informed by research and the lived experience of the families we represent.

Permanent care teams

Permanent care teams are specialist placement services with expertise in permanent family placement.

Permanent care teams recruit, educate, assess and approve permanent care applicants and are funded to provide support to permanent carers and children following the making of an order providing for the permanent care of a child.

Contact your Adoption and Permanent Care team for further information. This could be from an internal (department) permanent care team or externally funded permanent care team.

For more information visit Permanent care services contacts (DFFH).

Where to get help

Permanent care services

West:

• Western metropolitan suburbs Tel. (03) 9396 7400
• Geelong, Warrnambool, Portland, Hamilton Tel. (03) 5226 4540
• Ballarat, Horsham, Stawell and surrounding areas Tel. (03) 5337 3333

North:

• Northern metropolitan suburbs Tel. (03) 9479 0558
• Bendigo, Maryborough, Castlemaine, Echuca, Swan Hill, Mildura and surrounding areas Tel. (03) 5440 1100

East:

• Eastern metropolitan suburbs Tel. 1300 528 558
• Shepparton, Seymour, Benalla, Wangaratta, Wodonga and surrounding areas Tel. (03) 5832 1500

South:

• Southern and bayside metropolitan suburbs, Dandenong, Frankston, Mornington Peninsula and surrounding areas Tel. (03) 9521 5666
• Central and eastern Gippsland Tel. (03) 5133 9998

Statewide:

• Catholic Care Tel: (03) 9689 3888
• Aboriginal statewide permanent care: Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) Tel. (03) 8388 1855