Permanent care in Victoria

Hi there,

My husband and I are about to start the PC process starting with our info session in March and training in May 2012.

I'd love to hear from anyone that's been through the process or going through it currently.

How long did it take from info session to approval?

How long did it take for placement ( I know this one is variable )?

Any tips or hints?

Do you have the same case worker for the duration of the time?

We are also looking at possibly doing respite weekend foster care while we go through the pc process but to too sure if this is a) allowed and )b a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to approval for pc.

Thanks for listening, Fi mack

Hi Fi Mack
As you have read from my previous post I have been through this process recently. From the day we submitted our original application to when we got the official approval was 11 months. We were approved in August and are still awaiting a placement. How long it takes depends on a lot of factors. Are you prepared to take siblings? They try to keep kids together if possible so carers who are prepared to take a sibling group will be offered the placement first. Are you willing to take an older child? Babies don’t come up very often so if your holding out for a baby you could be waiting for a while. We have also been approved for weekend respite a few weeks ago. We like you decided to do this while we were waiting for a long term placement.
Can I recommend that you check out this website www.carersforcarers.net. It is an Australian forum for foster carers and I have found it really helpful. All the people on this site are a wealth of information in relation to foster care and how the system works. It can take a few days to get your access to the forum approved but it is a great site.
Good luck on your journey. All I can say is be patient. It takes ages and is very frustrating but it will be worth it when you get your placement.

Thanks so much again Lolly.

I'm going to check out that website now.

I've now checked with both the Permanent care and the foster care agencies and they are both ok for us to. Go through the foster care process and the pc process at the same time. They just want to be sure that we are only wanting to do weekend respite foster care which is exactly what we plan on doing.

If the wait is a while we figure we may aswell help out in the mean time...
We are happy to takeon siblings...in fact would love that but we are looking at 5 and under age group so I know this may slow things down.

lolly, I do hope placement comes quickly for you.

Keep us posted

Xx Fi mack