Post by flossyinoz on Jul 14, 2008 10:31:50 GMT 10
On the weekend I had the chance to talk to a friend's sister who works for Docs in NSW with the foster and permanent care program. From the sounds we Victorians live in the wrong state , Docs seems to have a lot of funds and NSW wants to streamline everything a lot more.
It took us some time to actually figure out the differences between NSW and Vic pc as she did not know anything about the Victorian system and vice versa.
The major difference seems to be that NSW permanent care runs under the foster care system and is long term foster care. The pc carers do not get a permanent care order (custody and guardianship) like in Victoria after about 2 years, but the guardianship/custody stays with the NSW ministry. But after a while of supervision Docs leaves the families run their own lives.
Now on first view this sounds worse than in Victoria, where the pc carents by decision of a state not federal court get custody and guardianship rights, but not full parental rights. But on second view there seem to be quite a few advantages of this system as the Docs can get passports without parental consent, can initiate name changes, pays for a lot of expensive treatments eg braces etc for the pc children and in cases has even paid for overseas trips. There was one case where an English carer needed to fly home to her sick father and Docs paid for the children to go with her. Also Docs pays for childcare while the pc parent works.
I know none of us are in for the money, the advantage I rather see is the passport, but if Vic was a bit more generous and the system a bit easier to understand and handle maybe more people in Vic would do it. the system is very confusing. You have parental rights but not all, an in between existence.
Apparently in NSW they are crying out for foster and pc carers and the approval seems to be less complicated than here, so let's all move to NSW!
Kind regards
Flossyinoz
It took us some time to actually figure out the differences between NSW and Vic pc as she did not know anything about the Victorian system and vice versa.
The major difference seems to be that NSW permanent care runs under the foster care system and is long term foster care. The pc carers do not get a permanent care order (custody and guardianship) like in Victoria after about 2 years, but the guardianship/custody stays with the NSW ministry. But after a while of supervision Docs leaves the families run their own lives.
Now on first view this sounds worse than in Victoria, where the pc carents by decision of a state not federal court get custody and guardianship rights, but not full parental rights. But on second view there seem to be quite a few advantages of this system as the Docs can get passports without parental consent, can initiate name changes, pays for a lot of expensive treatments eg braces etc for the pc children and in cases has even paid for overseas trips. There was one case where an English carer needed to fly home to her sick father and Docs paid for the children to go with her. Also Docs pays for childcare while the pc parent works.
I know none of us are in for the money, the advantage I rather see is the passport, but if Vic was a bit more generous and the system a bit easier to understand and handle maybe more people in Vic would do it. the system is very confusing. You have parental rights but not all, an in between existence.
Apparently in NSW they are crying out for foster and pc carers and the approval seems to be less complicated than here, so let's all move to NSW!
Kind regards
Flossyinoz