WITH only 35 registered foster families in Orange, abused or neglected children are being sent to foster homes as far afield as Dubbo and Cowra because the Department of Community Services (DoCS) does not have enough local families willing to help children in need.

“While we always ensure that the children’s needs are met we know that it is in the child’s best interests for them to stay in their own local area close to their friends or in some cases their extended family,” said DoCS western region project manager for out of home care, Lisa Alonso Love.

“We need significantly more people who are willing to help including those able to offer short-term respite care.”

Apart from sending the children hundreds of kilometres from home, DoCS is sometimes forced to rely on the foster families that are already on their books to take in an extra child until a more suitable placement can be found.

According to Mrs Alonso Love DoCS is looking for people from all walks of life to foster children in need.

Apart from the traditional nuclear family, single people, young couples and grandparents are able to apply to be foster carers.

“We like to be able to choose from a good range of different types of people to see what’s going to work for each particular child,” said Mrs Alonso Love.

“It really does depend on the child but there are some children that need more support than others.”

Mrs Alonso Love urged interested people to call DoCS and “have a conversation about the possibility of fostering”.

“It can be an incredibly rewarding experience for people.”

In recognition of the fact foster parents do a “difficult and important job” DoCS has recently set up a team of caseworkers specifically dedicated to helping foster carers in their first 12 months in the role.

Foster carers also receive a fortnightly child care allowance which was recently increased.

It ranges from $400 to $600 per child per fortnight.

In keeping with recent changes to the legislation governing adoption and fostering there will be less red tape if foster parents decide to formally adopt a child who has been in their care.

As part of these changes adopting foster parents will be able to retain their foster care allowance and they will also be spared the $3000 application fees.

According to Premier Morris Iemma the government believed “financial constraints should not deter the many foster carers who are average working families”.