Prospective & New Families

Foster Care

Temporary care provided by trained, assessed and accredited foster carers when children cannot live with their birth family due to concerns of abuse and/or neglect.  The aim is for children to be reunified with their birth parents after a child is placed in foster care. In some cases, if reunification is not possible, the foster carer/s may be assessed to become the child’s permanent care parent/s.

Kinship Care

Care is provided by relatives or a member of a child’s social network when the child cannot live with their birth parents. This may be non-statutory, statutory or legalised with a Permanent Care Order.

Permanent Care

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Child Protection makes decisions about the safety of children who experience significant child abuse and/or neglect concerns. Sometimes this means a decision is made for children to permanently remain out of the care of their birth parents and that an alternative permanent family should be found. This may be with relatives or with other members of the community assessed as able to give the child or young person a stable nurturing home in which they can thrive and will be formalised by a court order that applies until they are 18 years old. 

Care of Aboriginal children

In accordance with the Aboriginal placement principles, Aboriginal children must be placed with their extended family. If this is not possible, the child may be placed within the Aboriginal community within close proximity to the child’s natural family. If there is no Aboriginal placement available, the child may be placed with a non-Aboriginal family on the assurance that the child’s culture, identity and contact with the Aboriginal community are maintained.

Adoption

Adoption occurs when a court order is made to permanently transfer parental rights and responsibilities from their birth parents to adoptive parents.

Open adoption is considered best practice, where possible. Open adoption recognises there is often a benefit for children when both their families (birth and adoptive) remain in contact with each other after an adoption order has been made.

Local adoption refers to adoption of children born in Australia.

Intercountry adoption occurs when an Australian citizen or permanent resident residing in Australia adopts a child from another country through the authorities in their Australian state or territory. 

Read more about adoption in Australia.

Permanent Care

The number of children who permanently cannot live with their birth parents due to significant, enduring concerns of child abuse and neglect continues to grow. Each year around 400 permanent care orders are granted in Victoria. Families may be formed through permanent care via a number of pathways including kinship care, foster care and a direct permanent care placement.

If you are interested in becoming a permanent care family in Victoria, you can find information about the process here. 

Learn more about permanent care policy, practice and guidelines by understanding the updated permanent care manual here.

If you would like to contact your local permanent care team, their contact details can be found here.

Depending on where you live, permanent care teams are managed either by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) or a community service organisation.

Kinship Care

Kinship care is the care provided by relatives or a member of a child's social network when a child cannot live with their parents. It is the preferred method of care. See more information here.

Kinship Care Victoria is the peak body to support Kinship Carers. See their website here.

Adoption

The number of children being placed with families via the intercountry adoption program continues to decline, and the number of local adoptions in Victoria and across Australia remain low. Each year there are more families interested in adoption than there are children who require a family.

If you are interested in becoming an local or intercountry adoptive family, you can find more information here.

Other states and territories

Not from Victoria? Find information about permanency and adoption in other states and territories in Australia.

Whats the difference between these types of care and forming a family?

Read this overview in tabular form of the differences between these types of care, summarised from our 2021 Research Report here.

Read the full research report on permanence and stability here.