It can be an extremely frightening experience for children and young people when they are removed from the home they have always known. For siblings, being separated from their brothers and sisters can exacerbate that trauma further.

We do our best to ensure siblings stay together where possible and are not placed into different foster homes. But the only way we can do this is if we have foster carers who can help us keep them together.

• Siblings who stay together can maintain their close bond and attachment, helping ease them through the transition into their new home.
• Your role is to provide a safe and loving home to two or more children from the same family.
• A range of support groups and ongoing training opportunities are available.
• You can choose to provide a variety of different care types for siblings, including emergency, respite, short- or long-term care.

Contact us to talk with a member of your local team about fostering siblings.

Benefits of Fostering Siblings

While the thought of being a foster carer to siblings may be a little overwhelming, it is also incredibly beneficial, for both carers and children:

• Keeping families together – The experience of being removed from the family home is traumatic enough. If we can keep brothers and sisters together and offer them some much-needed familiarity and security, it may help them settle into their foster care placement more quickly and easily.
• Highly rewarding – Fostering siblings can be a very fulfilling experience. By helping us keep siblings together you can make an enormous difference in the lives of vulnerable young people.
• Space in the home – Depending on the ages and gender of the children, siblings from the same family can sometimes share a bedroom. This means you don’t necessarily need to have a large family home to support more than one child.

Sibling Placement and Support Service

Anglicare Victoria have a new placement program for short term foster care of sibling groups in the southern Melbourne area.

The Sibling Placement and Support Service (SPSS) aims to keep siblings together until they are able to return to their parents or be placed in longer-term care. Children and young people are supported to stay connected to their community and culture and given support to access services that meet any additional needs, such as medical care or therapy.

SPSS carers provide respite and short-term care for up to four weeks. They are paid a standby allowance to be available for placements, in addition to the carer allowance that is paid for each child placed with them. Carers receive support from a highly skilled and trained therapeutic specialist to help them foster the bond between siblings and provide a stable environment for their wellbeing.

If you are interested in participating in the SPSS program, please contact us using the form below.