New Carer Council to amplify voice of South Australia’s foster and kinship carers

New Carer Council to provide advice to the Minister for Child Protection

Connecting Foster & Kinship Carers SA will administer the new Carer Council at the invitation of the Minister for Child Protection, The Honorable Katrine Hildyard. To read the media release – please click here.

The Carer Council was a key recommendation from Dr Fiona Arney’s Independent Inquiry into Foster and Kinship Care, and will provide a dedicated platform for the Carer voice to be heard by State government on issues crucial to improving the child protection system and the rights of Carers.

The Carer Council will consist of 12 current, approved Carers appointed by the Minister for Child Protection, at her absolute discretion. We have been advised that to ensure true representation, kinship and foster carers from both metropolitan and regional areas, along with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Carers, will be appointed to the Council. The Council will meet at least four times annually to discuss key issues, to be determined by the Council, and will report directly to the Minister.

We are thrilled to take carriage of this rare opportunity to mobilise the Carer voice with a view to improve policy, practice and legislation. Although the exact details of our role in administering the Carer Council and the processes to be adopted to bring it together are still being refined, it is intended that we will assist in the administration of recruiting carers and then to arrange and facilitate the meeting of the Carer Council. In order to do that, it is necessary for us to recruit a Coordinator for the Carer Council.

Recruitment of a Coordinator for the Carer Council will take place shortly. We will continue to update the Membership with details as they come to hand.

In the meantime, enquiries may be directed to: carercouncil@cfc-sa.org.au. Whilst the enquiries email will be monitored, we ask for your patience in dealing with each of the enquiries as we undertake recruitment and until the details are determined.

Best wishes,

Fiona Endacott
Chief Executive Officer