29 October 2004
Shortage of Foster Carers in Auckland
Foster carers are in desperately short supply in the Auckland region according to Barnardos Foster Care Service.
“We have 58 foster carers at present,” says Barnardos Foster Care Senior Social Worker, Sarah Alden, “but could do with
at least another 20 to meet the increased demand for care. In particular we need foster carers able and willing to look
after adolescents and/or infants and young children for short to long-term stays.”
Barnardos is a leading and experienced provider of foster care for families and respite care for children when their
own families are dealing with crisis. Most children are referred by the Child, Youth and Family Service, with some from
community organisations and occasionally self-referrals.
“In recent years there has been increased pressure on the service,” says Sarah, “partly because many children are
staying in foster care for longer periods of time – years rather than months. The increased number of two-income
households also means there are fewer numbers of people available to foster younger children, particularly
pre-schoolers.”
“Foster caring can be very rewarding. You get to see children, who may have come into your care physically and/or
emotionally damaged, begin to unfold like a flower and develop their own little personalities. Then you know you have
made a difference.”
“For many of the children we foster, this is a first opportunity to experience the security and consistency that is
normal in well functioning families. Regular meals, clothes, attendance at school and a toothbrush of your own, things
we so often take for granted.” says Sarah.
Barnardos Foster Care Service has very strict selection and recruitment standards for foster families, and provides a
high level of on-going support to ensure that children benefit as much as possible from their time in care.
Sarah heads a team of six in the Auckland-based Foster Care Service team.
Marie talks about being a foster carer
We are a foster family. My husband and I, with our nine-year old, care for children of all ages – day old babies upwards
(excluding teenagers – we leave that to those that have been there, done that!). Both genders (but we prefer girls).
Sibling groups (wow, we take more than one kid at a time).
Short term, respite, medium term and long term, we take them all. It’s a major miracle that our lives ever went down
this path. Bad press, misinformation on fostering and my own strong personal agenda always put me off ever considering
fostering as an option. In fact, whenever anyone did suggest it to me my standard answer was always ‘I couldn’t foster,
I wouldn’t want to give them back!’ Five years and many children later, I can say that I love fostering (about 90% of
the time) and that some kids are easier to give back than others! It’s all my friends’ fault really. An experienced
foster family, with 20 years under their belt and so many kids they’ve lost count, talked us into, through and out the
other side of the process.
They recommended Barnardos (the very best thing they could have done) and are still a much needed and appreciated part
of our support group today – giving much needed advice as we go.
Thanks to them our once tidy house is filled with toys and baby bottles again, tents made with bed blankets over the
furniture, washing, washing and more washing, high chairs and walkmans, nappies and makeup. Our house resounds with
laughter and crying, loud music and kids dancing, with the sound of miss nine-year-old reading to the little kids, and
the next minute fighting with them. Lucky girl gets to experience siblings for a while, but also gets to be an only
child again. We experience a greater sense of family and the satisfaction of seeing kids gradually get settled and smile
and laugh again.
And we get to listen as they tell you things little ones should never have to tell you. Sometimes we are frustrated with
the system and at other times overwhelmed with how well it works and mostly we are saddened that we are ever needed in
the first place. But because we are needed, we seek to give each child ‘love with boundaries’, hugs and time out, fun
and food, home and happiness for as long as they stay.
We couldn’t do it without our faith in God, our family and friends and the support of Barnardos. Barnardos supply the
kids and sometimes the clothes, the encouragement and benefit of their greater wisdom and experience. Barnardos are at
the end of the phone anytime and in our homes as often as needed. They supply extra information and training, picnics
and birthday presents.
They are the good guys. It’s a great life and we’re not ready to quit yet.
[An 11-year-old girl wrote this (school) speech about being a foster child. She was asked to present it to the
assembled school and is happy for it to be published.]
“This is who I am. This is OK!” Who do you live with? Maybe you live with your Mum and Dad or maybe you live with only
one of your parents or perhaps you are living with people who you are not even related to? Perhaps you’re like me – ‘a
foster kid’. Being in a foster family means that I’m being brought up by people who are not my own parents or family.
There are reasons why children like me are in foster families. Children might be taken away from their parents because
of emotional/mental or physical abuse. Some children are badly influenced by their parents using coarse language, drugs,
smoking, stealing and hitting and are eventually taken away from their parents. New Zealand does not want these children
copying their parents’ poor habits and choices, so it is decided for them that they should be placed into foster care.
The people who make these choices are the police, and Government services such as Child, Youth and Family. You can be
placed into foster care at any age, but once you turn 17 you legally get to make these life choices yourself. Being a
foster kid is often really tough. Most children feel unloved and unwanted by their own parents and this can be hard to
deal with.
Most children will go to counselling and get to talk about how they feel about their parents. Everyday life can be
tough. Sometimes foster kids don’t handle things well such as being told ‘no’ or being told off for something so small
and silly they react badly. It can be tough trying to feel like you fit in, because there are a few people who tease and
bully you because of something that’s not your fault.
So if you ever think about teasing someone that’s a foster kid or different in any way, stop and think, we’re all kids
with a lot of the same problems in life such as friends, school, boyfriends or girlfriends. And besides, how many
children are special enough to be chosen by complete strangers to be their child. I’m lucky, I was!
ENDS