Kinship Care Guidelines 1996
Home-based care in Victoria includes Foster Care, Adolescent Community Placements (ACP), Specialised Home-Based Care, Shared Family Care and Kinship Care. The non-government sector provides the majority of these services under contract, with H&CS operating a small number of Foster Care programs and ACP programs.
In recognition of the importance of continuity and family relationships to the child, a kinship placement is considered the first choice of placement within the continuum of home-based options. Home-based care services provide a range of placement options from emergency respite through to long term placements. It is targeted at children and young people at risk who are aged 0 to 18 years. Each program has specific eligibility criteria to determine the target group, for example, children with disabilities, adolescents. Currently there are approximately 2,000 children/ young people in home based care, of which 29 percent are placed in Kinship Care placements.
Data collected for the Kinship Care Project demonstrated that most children/young people placed in Kinship Care were placed with grandparents, aunts, friends or other people known to them. It was also found that the majority were on some form of legal order and that 38 percent of children/young people in Kinship Care were placed together with siblings.