2024 Foster and Kinship Care Conference
Length of training: 7 hours
The Triple R training is about the Roles, Rights and Responsibilities of carers. The training looks at key pieces of legislation and documents that speak to these important factors and more importantly what they mean for carers in providing day to day care for children and young people.
Some of the key areas we explore are:
- The 2020 updated Statement of Commitment for Qld Carers
- The Human Rights Act 2019
- The Statement of Standards
- The Charter of Rights for children and young people
- The Principles of Child Protection Act 1999
In all of the above we explore what they mean in terms of highlighting the rights, roles and responsibilities of carers and how all of these documents can be used as advocacy tools in support of carer families and of course the children and young people they provide care for.
Length of training: 5 hours
Achieving Permanency is a training that seeks to inform Foster and Kinship Care agency staff and carers about how permanency is achieved for children and young people in care. The training explores the core components to permanency as being legal, physical and relational and the continuum of permanency options, recognising that permanency does not just mean long term orders under the Act, but rather goes right from reunification through to options of LTG to Other and the newly introduced Permanent Care Orders.
This training will inform attendees of all the changes to the Child Protection Act that relate to achieving permanency for children, from changes and inclusions of new Principles to the Act, to enhancements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Placement Principles and the introduction of core principles relating to decision making for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
The training also explores considerations in the assessment and recommendation of orders, newly legislated concurrent planning, the difference between Long Term Orders and what this means in day to day care of children and obligations of Safety and Support Networks to children and young people subject to different orders.
This training will provide a comprehensive understanding not only in respect to the changes to the Act, but what this means in the world of caring.
Length of training: 3 hours
This workshop will explore the topic of Information sharing. Specifically three areas will be covered:
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What happens if a child in your care is absent or missing
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What does confidentiality mean when providing day to day care
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Social Media - the dos and do nots
This Information session will explore with participants what the provisions of the act regarding Confidentiality means in terms of providing day to day care for carers. Surveys continue to provide us information that carers are not receiving the information they need in order to provide safe and appropriate care to children in care and other children they may be caring for. So what information should you be getting access to and how can you advocate for this information - who should you then be able to share this information with.
This session will also explore the complicated world of Social Media and provide some very clear guidelines from Child Safety as to what you can and cannot do as a carer in relation to Social media when caring for a child in care
Length of training: 4 hours
Contact training explores with carers the following areas:
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Roles and responsibilities of carers regarding contact
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How the care team can contribute to positive family contact
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What children and young people want
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Grief and Loss for children and carers
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Beliefs/values and attitudes
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Parenting in the context of the Child Protection System
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How to effectively provide feedback to the care Team.
The overall aim of this training is to provide educational around contact so that carers are better equipped to provide relevant and crucial feedback to Child Safety around a child or young person’s contact experience that will assist Child Safety in ongoing case plan decisions around contact and reunification. Carers will come away with an actual tool developed by FCQ in consultation with Child Safety to assist in feedback.
Length of training: 3 hours
Reunification is the ultimate goal for most children and young people in out of home care. A successful reunification will see children return to their family of origin in a home environment that has been assessed as being no longer harmful. This training provides participants with an overview of Reunification and includes
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Exploring parenting in the context of the Child Protection System
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Assessing and planning reunification – what are the considerations from the key players i.e. Child Safety and the Children’s Court
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What makes a good reunification
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Building resilience in children and young people
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What carers should do if they have worries
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Grief and loss for carer families – how to manage this
Carers should come away from this training with a thorough understanding of how decisions are made for children to be reunified in the context of a very broad Child Protection System.
Length of training: 3 hours
This training explores the processes undertaken when a Standard of Care or Harm report is raised for a child in Out of Home care who is placed with a carer
The following areas are covered:
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History relating to how matters use to be dealt with and information around why and how this has changed
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Detail on the three pathways Child Safety have available to them to address Standard of Care and Harm report matters
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Step by step guide as to how these three pathways should be enacted in practice
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Emphasis on how we work through matters in a way that is not punitive and blame driven
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Discussion relating to Care Teams and the role of care team members in Standard of Care and Harm report matters.
This training is suitable for Child Safety, Fostering and Kinship Care staff and carers as it works through procedures however highlights the importance of how practice determines success of procedures.
Length of training: 3 hours
This training provides participants with an overview of what financial entitlements carers can access. Specifically the training covers:
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Fortnightly Caring Allowance
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Child Related Costs
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Special Carer payments
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Dual Respite
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High Support Needs Allowance
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Complex Support Needs Allowance
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Centrelink benefits and entitlements
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Foster & Kinship Carer Card
Everyone comes away from this training having learnt something !!
Length of training: 4 .5 hours
There are some decisions which Child Safety make, that effect foster and kinship carers, which they can have appealed through QCAT. This training seeks to outline for carers exactly what these are and how they can go about appealing a decision recognised as reviewable within QCAT.
This training provides participants with an overview of QCAT and how this relates to carers and covers the following:
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What is QCAT, who are they and who are they responsible to
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What appealable rights do carers have through QCAT
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How do carers make an application to QCAT
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Once an application is made – what is the process
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Who will assist carers through this process
This training also explores the Court Reforms which took effect in Qld on 1st July 2016. The training assists carers in understanding:
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Who the key players in Children’s Court
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The role of these key players
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Carers role in Children’s Court
This training session is information rich and will assist carers to understand both QCAT and Children’s Court
Length of training: 3 hours
This training will enable carers to:
- Develop an understanding of the purpose of transition from care planning
- Identify and consider the needs of young people transitioning to adulthood, including developmental needs and life skills
- Identify ways that carers can support young people to transition from care to adulthood.
- Current Queensland policy and legislation will be examined. Practical supports will be explored.
- Carers will be offered a safe and supportive forum to discuss their thoughts/ideas/feelings about young people leaving their care.