Marymead's Permanency Program

Foster Care | Restoration Support | Adoption and Guardianship

When children and young people need interim support or cannot live with their birth family, foster carers offer a safe and nurturing home. At Marymead, we work with committed carers who offer a range of supports to assist a child or young person to return to their birth parents or where this is not possible, provide them with a permanent home.

What is the Permanency Program?
The Permanency Program includes foster care, restoration support, adoption and guardianship - all with the common goal of creating permanency for the child or young person.

We work with children and young people in out-of-home care, their families and carers to ensure that every child and young person has a safe, loving & permanent home. This includes supporting the child or young person to find permanency within their birth family through preservation or restoration, or where this is not possible supporting the child or young person to find a permanent home with their carer through adoption, guardianship or long-term foster care.

Foster Care
Foster Care is the placement of a child or young person with a carefully selected family for a planned period of time. All placements are matched to meet the needs of the child or young person and the carer/s. The time spent in foster care can vary from one day to a number of years depending on each child’s circumstances. The different types of care include respite care, short-term/emergency care and medium to long-term care.

RESPITE CARE
Respite care provides regular time out for struggling families or other carers. Where possible, respite carers look after the same child or sibling group on a regular or occasional basis, dependent on the needs of the child.

SHORT-TERM/EMERGENCY CARE
Short-term/emergency care provides both emergency and planned short-term care ranging anywhere from one day to six months. These placements usually arise following a crisis.

MEDIUM TO LONG-TERM
These placements will range anywhere from several months to permanent care until the child reaches 18 years of age.

Restoration Support
Keeping children and families together, where safe, is always preferable. Carers supporting restoration look after a child or young person while their birth parents receive support to improve and stabilise their home life, making it safe for their child or young person to be restored back to them.

Adoption and Guardianship
Where it is deemed not suitable for the child or young person to return to their birth parents, we support the child to find permanency through adoption or guardianship. Adoption and guardianship transfers the parental rights and responsibilities from community services to their adoptive parent or guardian.  We believe that every child and young person deserves to be in a permanent, loving, nurturing and safe home and adoption and guardianship provides this opportunity.

Long-Term Foster Care
Long-term foster care is considered when restoration, adoption or guardianship is not the most suitable long-term option for a child or young person.