National Foster and Kinship Care conference
As the peak body representing foster and kinship carers in South Australia, its important for us to attend events like the National Foster and Kinship Care conference. Events like this remind us of the strength, resilience and expertise across our sector – and the importance of coming together to learn, share and advocate for the changes carers and children urgently need.
Held in Sydney last week under the theme ‘Empowering Carers to Transform Lives’, the program delivered valuable insights into trauma, neurodivergence, therapeutic care, carer wellbeing, cultural identity, teen development and advocacy. Of course, these issues are all central to supporting children and young people in family-based care.
Carer Council Project Lead Lauren Deer (Gibbs) was particularly inspired by Sarah Naish(UK) – a foster carer, adoptive parent and CEO of the The Centre of Excellence in Child Trauma. Sarah’s session on compassion fatigue highlighted the importance of carer wellbeing, peer support and flexible in-home supports – aligning closely with our own advocacy on mental health. Carers were also encouraged to access the range of resources available through her organisation.
Other keynote speakers also delivered powerful presentations:
📢 Dr Brenda Heyworth, author of It’s a Jungle, providing tools for supporting children with big behaviours.
📢 Ursula Elisara whose New Zealand foster agency is grounded in the TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Intervention) model, offering fascinating insights into healing-focused practice.
We were pleased to hear from Hon Katrine Hildyard MP, Minister for Child Protection, who outlined current reforms and joined SA carers for a pop-up forum. This was an important opportunity for carers to speak directly to the Minister about systemic issues.
The conference also provided space to connect with carers and stakeholders from across the country, on shared challenges.
A key focus was carer superannuation, supported by the National Foster & Kinship Care Collective, who launched the National Carer Superannuation Survey during the event. The Collective also continued its advocacy around Services Australia processes, including the need for benefits to be accessible to carers without means testing.
📝 We invite all carers to have your say on carer superannuation by completing the survey launched at the conference, National Carer Superannuation Survey 2025
📸 1 – Lauren Deer, Carer Council Project Lead and Rebecca Smith, Research intern
📸 2 – Tonette McGrath, Carers for Kids NSW advocacy service team, Lauren Deer, Megan Chapman, Carers for Kids NSW Carer Events and Resources Officer