Key information
- There are various resources to help you respond to the diverse wellbeing and cultural needs of the children and young people in your care and support them to heal and thrive.
- All children and young people have rights and it’s important that children and the adults that care for them know these rights.
- The Who can say OK in Tasmania? Reference Guide for Carers provides information about decisions you can make for children and young people in your care, and which decisions must be made by the Child Safety Service.
- It’s also important to check in with other children in your home before, during and after another child has come into your home, to ensure they feel heard and supported to adapt to the changes too.
Creating a safe, caring space where the child or young person in your care can grow, gain confidence and thrive is an important aspect of being a carer.
The wellbeing needs of children and young people in your care may be diverse and change over time. The below resources are available to help you support the individual needs of children and young people in your care.
Upholding the rights of children and young people
Children and young people have a right to:
- be loved
- be safe
- be healthy
- be learning
- have the things they need
- be connected to their culture and identity.
This includes supporting children and young people to participate, share their views, and empowering them to feel heard and included.
To learn more about children’s rights and how to respect and uphold these, take a look at the resources below:
- Your rights as a child or young person in care
- Participation and Empowerment
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Children’s Rights and Safety Courses | University of Tasmania
Who can say Ok in Tasmania? Quick Reference Guide
We heard from children and young people that long approval processes can make them feel uncertain, frustrated, different to others, and sometimes to miss out. The topics covered in this Guide are based on key frustrations we heard from children and young people and aims to provide carers with information about decisions they can make for the children and young people in their care.
Some of the topics included in the Guide are:
- use of babysitters
- personal documents and money
- NDIS
- smoking and vaping
- medical and dental appointments and emergency care
- school-based activities and excursions
- sleepovers
- travel and holidays
- haircuts and piercings.
Supporting diversity and culture
As a carer, you play an important role in supporting the diversity, identity and culture of the children in your care.
Some supporting resources are available below:
Trauma-informed care
Understanding the deep impacts of trauma on the brain, body, mind, spirit and relationships of children and young people in Care, will help you in responding to their individual wellbeing needs.
Culture and spirituality
Cultural awareness is about taking time to reflect on and understand how race, ethnicity and culture may influence our attitudes, beliefs and practices as carers.
You and the children and young people in your care may, at times, experience discrimination or unfair treatment. Understanding how these experiences can affect a child, and supporting them to build ways of coping, can play an important role in helping them feel safe, understood and supported.
- Maintaining ties to culture while in foster care | NSW Government
- Multicultural Australia | It’s Who We Are
- Supporting cultural needs: Working with culturally and linguistically diverse children in out-of-home care | Australian Institute of Family Studies
- Navigating cultural differences when working with culturally diverse families
- Culturally responsive understandings for promoting children’s health and wellbeing across diverse communities (part one) – Emerging Minds
- Culturally and linguistically diverse children – Carer guide | Life Without Barriers.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children
By upholding the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people, they are able to be raised in safe, supportive and culturally connected environments.
- Caring for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children | Fostering Connections
- ATSI kinship & foster carers: services | Raising Children Network
- Child’s_Voice_Booklet – Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency
- WAYIPUNGA – Koorie Youth Council
- Child Placement Principle | National Framework | SNAICC
- UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples | OHCHR.
Disability and neurodiversity
For some children and young people with a disability or neurodiversity, the way they experience, understand, learn and communicate will naturally vary. Embracing, accepting and supporting children and young people with disability or neurodiversity is important for their wellbeing and sense of self and identity.
- National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
- Specific supports for children and young people | Disability Commissioner Tasmania
- Early childhood intervention services and supports | Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
- Specialist services to support students with disability
- Services & support for families of children with disability
- National Assistance Card | Personalised Disability Card Australia
- Belongside Families | For Families Raising Children With Disability
- Child with disability – Carers Tasmania
- Supporting neurodivergent children and young people | Australian Institute of Family Studies
- Neurodiversity, neurodivergence & children | Raising Children Network
- Hidden disabilities.
LGBTIQA+
All children and young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (or questioning), asexual, and other gender and sexually diverse (LGBTIQA+) people deserve to feel respected, seen, heard and valued.
Other useful resources
These additional resources are intended to help your child or young person where they may be experiencing feelings of anxiety, depression or working through feelings of grief and loss.
- Supporting children and young people through grief – Learning Through Loss
- 24/7 Support for Anxiety, Depression and Suicide Prevention. – Beyond Blue
- Headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation
- Home – Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.
Checking in with your children
Looking after another child can affect your own children, whether they are your biological children, stepchildren or other foster children. It’s important to check in and talk with your children, especially in the beginning as they adapt to having additional children at home.
They may feel they’re not getting enough of your attention or that another child is getting special treatment. They may be unhappy about having to share their things. Sometimes you may feel like you’ve made things hard for your own children. Yet many children of carers later speak about the joys of sharing their home with other children and even become carers themselves.
Talking to your children about how they’re feeling before, during and after a placement helps to identify concerns, fears or signs of conflict. Explain what motivates you to care for other children and talk to them about the special role they have in the lives of other children in your home. Listen to what is and isn’t working and discuss ways of doing things differently.