Kinship Carers

[Sparrow]

Hey ladies, just wondering if any of you know anything about the way QLD deals with Kinship carers.

I have a friend from work who has two lovely grandsons (8 years and 6 months) Their mother is a drug addict and has no contact so the boys are now children of the state.

Both W and her husband have blue cards and have been trying for a year to get the older boy into their care, and since they found out that the baby was born an addict. The oldest boy has been going downhilll since beingput into foster care.

She has been told that if she lived closer to brisbane (we're in cairns) she would be able to have them but this process is being dragged out and I can tell its taking a toll on her.

Is there any way to speed this up? She'd like to know if taking DoCs to family court would work?

Any suggestions?

TIA

[Smalliegirl]

Couldn't read and not reply. Not sure if this will help.

[Ants12]

Im not quite sure about Kinship caring but I am a foster carer in cairns and I thought that they would always try to put the children with suitable relatives before even considering foster caring. There are alot of children that go back to their families for holidays that are in foster care as they always try to keep that connection. Maybe try an agency that deals with all of this (there are alot of them out there) and see if they have any advice of what they can do and where to next.

[Sparrow]

Thank you for your help girls. Turns out that the last case worker the boys had was useless and lost her job a couple of weeks ago. She has just met the new one who read through the file and commented on how badly it was handled. The new case worker has promised to get the ball rolling and the boys should be with their Nanny by the end of the year

I'll keep you posted.

[Nomadess]

I was wondering! that's GREAT news. thanks for updating us