The True Cost of Foster & Kinship Caring in South Australia
A report entitled ‘The True Cost of Foster & Kinship Caring in South Australia’ has found that carers in the State don’t believe they’re receiving adequate funding to cover the costs of children in care.
The report, prepared by Bachelor of Social Sciences under-graduate Emma Feagan for her final course assessment, and commissioned by peak body Connecting Foster & Kinship Carers SA (CF&KC-SA) via an internship, is based on a survey of 194 carers who have 333 children in their care. The carers had been a foster or kinship parent for between five and nine years and eight per cent of those surveyed were Aboriginal.
Other key findings of the report are that carers have been “paying out of their own pockets for decades”, and that base payment rates and special needs loadings have “not been sufficiently justified” by the Department for Child Protection.
Click here to read the media release