Berry Street Web Docs Foster Care Info Pack | Page 8

How would Berry Street support me as a
foster carer?
Berry Street recognises that our carers need appropriate
support in order to be able to provide the best care possible for
the foster children in their home. Our foster care staff are always
accessible for foster carers. This support ranges from regular
meetings and home visits to a 24/7 on-call service for emergency
situations. Berry Street also provides training opportunities, peer
support, carer events and ongoing information and resources.
The Secure Base Model
Foster care at Berry Street is based
on a therapeutic model of care called
the Secure Base Model. This provides
a positive framework for therapeutic
caregiving that helps infants, children
and young people to move towards greater security and which
builds resilience. It focuses on the interactions that occur
between carers and children on a day-to-day, minute-by-minute
basis in the family environment. But it also considers how those
relationships can enable the child to develop competence in the
outside world of school, peer group and community.
The Secure Base Model identifies five inter-related dimensions
of high quality foster care as follows:
• Availability — helping children and young people to trust.
• Sensitivity — helping children and young people to manage
feelings and behaviour.
• Acceptance — building the self-esteem of children and
young people.
• Co-operation — helping children and young people to
feel effective.
• Family membership — helping young people to belong,
both to their foster family and also to make sense of their
relationship to their birth family.
Financial support
Foster carers receive a tax-free reimbursement from the
Department of Health & Human Services towards the day to day
costs of caring for a child. The age and needs of the child reflects
the care allowance carers receive.
Additional payments may also be available to carers through
Centrelink. There are times carers may incur out of pocket
expenses however Berry Street endeavours to minimise this
impact where possible.
“
Foster caring is challenging, but wonderfully
rewarding. To see a young child grow into a
happy and healthy young person is the best
reward of all.
”