Media Release
Minister for Child Safety and Minister for Women
The Honourable Margaret Keech
09/05/2008
Real carers really needed: Queensland’s most extensive foster carer campaign begins.
Wanted: Caring, compassionate people able to provide homes, love and support to vulnerable Queensland children.
The Bligh Government is urgently seeking more foster families to care for vulnerable children and young people who are unable to live at home because of abuse or neglect.
Child Safety Minister Margaret Keech said the call for carers was part of Queensland’s most extensive foster and kinship carer recruitment campaign, which starts with statewide television advertising on Sunday.
Mrs Keech said the Bligh Government had committed more than $15 million over five years to recruit, train and increase support for carers.
The money will go towards streamlining the approval process, reducing red tape and improving support networks and services for carers.
It will also fund a three-month campaign of television, radio, web, newspaper and magazine advertising, along with ads on national Indigenous radio and television targeting Indigenous carers for Indigenous children.
“It’s a shocking fact that there are currently around 6,500 children and young people in Queensland who are unable to live with their families because one or both of their parents abuse or neglect them,” she said.
“As families around the state prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend, I ask — do you have room in your home and heart for a young person in need?
“We desperately need more families willing to provide these children and young people with safe and loving homes.
“Please seriously consider becoming a foster or kinship carer.”
Mrs Keech said foster carers were everyday people who made an extraordinary difference in the lives of children and young people who have suffered abuse or neglect.
“Carers can come from all walks of life, be young or old, and live in the city or the bush,” she said.
“However they all have one thing in common – a steadfast commitment to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children and young people.”
Mrs Keech said individuals, couples and families were needed to care for children and young people across the state.
“We need more people to care for babies, children, adolescents, sibling groups and children with challenging behaviours,” she said.
“We also need more support carers – people who provide essential support to approved foster carers when they need a break from caring, time to deal with personal matters, or recover from illness.”
There are currently more than 3,300 foster and kinship carers in Queensland, including around 590 in Brisbane.
The foster and kinship carer campaign aims to recruit an additional 500 carers throughout the state.
For more information on becoming a foster or kinship carer, call 1300 550 877 or visit www.childsafety.qld.gov.au.
ENDS Media Contact: Jo Crompton 3224 7081 / Matthew Hyde 3235 9236
Captain Bligh has called Queenslanders to take up the oars of rowing our kids in need to safety. To echo the call to safety action; do you have room in your home and heart for a young person in need? Queensland children need protection. If child protection is every body’s responsibility, can you assist child protection by becoming a foster carer, a respite carer or a kinship carer?
“It’s a shocking fact that there are currently around 6,500 children and young people in Queensland who are unable to live with their families because one or both of their parents abuse or neglect them,” she said.”
Mrs Keech is sadly out of touch with the real world. Not all children who are in care are abused or neglected by one or both of their parents. Anyone who follows this belief is needs to take off the blinkers and see that although there is a real need for Child Safety Dept, in quite a few cases, they DO get it wrong and parents/children are subjected to their ‘we are right, you are wrong’ attitude.
Hey Nunyaa,
sounds like you’ve got an interesting story there. So many people have bad experiences with the Child Protection Dept but they lose their voice through fear of speaking out against statutory decisions.
Just as there may be some children/parents removed when there is no substantiated abuse, there are also children left at home when dreadful abuse is going on but cannot be substantiated.
Child Protection decisions are based on the balance of probabilities whereas in a court of law the decisions are based on proof.
I do a fair bit of work with foster carers (and I understand all their gripes because I also have been a long term carer) and I know the shortage of carers available. Regardless of the validity of structured decision making at the departmental hands, we’ve still got kids staying in motels with youth workers. Something has got to change.
Oh I know that kids have been left to stay in motels with workers and all hell broke loose in one particular case that I am thinking of, and this was in Cairns.
I feel for the carers of any child taken into care. Quite often they are not aware of the circumstances as to why the child is in care and it makes it difficult task for them.
I think that we need more managers and staff who ARE approachable like Ralph Laksa the manager of another office who you would be aware of. The public does not have a good perception of Child Safety and its kind of sad as with anything mistakes are made but it deeply affects the lives of children and parents in a way that takes ages to recover from when wrong decisions are made.