Care Team Model Foster Care SA

You've heard the phrase "care team" used several times during the information sessions. It sounds collaborative — a group of people all working together in the child's best interests. And it is. But until you understand who's on that team, what authority each person holds, and what the model actually expects of you, the reality of your first care team meeting can be a surprise.

South Australia's care team model is a genuine strength of the system when it functions well. When it doesn't, carers often feel like they're attending meetings where decisions have already been made. The difference between those two experiences usually comes down to knowing how the model is designed to work.

What the Care Team Model Is

The care team model is South Australia's structured approach to coordinating the people responsible for a child in out-of-home care. Rather than the DCP managing the child in isolation — or the NGO and the DCP working in separate silos — the care team model is meant to bring all key parties together in a single decision-making forum.

The model reflects a shift in how South Australia thinks about child protection. The Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 (SA) moved the state away from a purely "protection" framework toward a "safety" model — one that recognises that a child's safety and wellbeing is best served when the people closest to them are working from shared information and shared goals. The care team is the practical expression of that principle.

Who Is on the Care Team

The composition of a care team varies by placement, but typically includes:

The DCP caseworker: The statutory authority on the team. The DCP caseworker holds guardianship responsibilities on behalf of the Chief Executive and is responsible for the child's Case Plan. They chair or co-chair most care team meetings.

The NGO support worker: Your primary contact from your registered agency — whether that's AnglicareSA, Lutheran Care, Uniting Communities, ac.care, Life Without Barriers, or another contracted provider. The NGO worker advocates for you as a carer, provides day-to-day support, and helps bridge communication between you and the DCP.

The foster carer (you): You are a core member of the care team, not a passive recipient of decisions. The care team model explicitly recognises that carers hold unique knowledge about the child — knowledge that the caseworker and support worker don't have because they're not in the home. Your observations, concerns, and insights are meant to inform the decisions the team makes.

The child (where appropriate): Depending on the child's age and capacity, they may participate in care team discussions, particularly around their own Case Plan. This is consistent with the Safety Act's emphasis on the child's voice in decisions affecting them.

Additional members: Depending on the child's circumstances, the care team may also include a schoolteacher or guidance counsellor, a therapist or psychologist, a family contact supervisor, or a cultural support worker (particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, where the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle requires cultural connections to be maintained).

What the Care Team Actually Does

Care teams meet at defined intervals — typically at Case Plan reviews, which must occur at least every six months under the Safety Act. They may also meet at significant points in the placement: when a placement is at risk, when a child's circumstances change significantly, or when a major decision needs to be made.

At a care team meeting, the team:

• Reviews how the current Case Plan is working
• Identifies any new concerns or changed circumstances
• Discusses the child's progress in education, health, and wellbeing
• Agrees on actions and who is responsible for each
• Considers the child's permanency — whether reunification with birth family is progressing, or whether a different long-term arrangement needs to be considered

The meeting is not a briefing where the DCP updates everyone on what it has decided. It is — in theory — a genuine deliberation. Whether that theory matches practice depends heavily on the individuals involved and how well you engage with the process.

Where Carers Often Struggle With the Care Team Model

Research into South Australian carer experiences consistently identifies the same friction point: the DCP's dual role. The DCP caseworker is simultaneously the manager of the birth family's case (investigating the circumstances that led to removal, assessing progress toward reunification) and the coordinator of the child's care. For carers, this creates a perception — sometimes accurate — that the caseworker's loyalties are divided.

Carers in regional areas face an additional challenge. A care team meeting that takes an hour in metropolitan Adelaide can require an entire day for a carer in the Far North or on the Eyre Peninsula, accounting for travel to and from the meeting location. This "distance penalty" is rarely communicated clearly during recruitment.

There's also the communication gap between the DCP and NGO workers. Because the two organisations are separate entities — the DCP is government, the NGO is contracted — information doesn't always flow efficiently between them. Carers sometimes find themselves acting as a conduit between the two, relaying information that should already be shared within the team.

How to Make the Care Team Model Work for You

Prepare before every meeting. Don't arrive at a care team meeting without notes. Keep a running log of the child's significant events — health appointments, school reports, notable behaviours after contact visits, anything that's relevant to how the placement is going. A factual record is far more persuasive than a general impression.

Ask for the agenda in advance. Care team meetings should have an agenda. If your agency or the DCP doesn't routinely send one, ask. Knowing what's on the table allows you to prepare specific observations and questions.

Raise concerns before they become crises. The care team model is most effective as a preventive tool. If you're struggling with a behaviour, worried about the child's mental health, or concerned about the frequency of contact visits, raise it at the next care team meeting — don't wait until you're at breaking point.

Put things in writing after the meeting. Follow up any significant agreements from a care team meeting with an email summary to your NGO support worker. Ask them to confirm your understanding of what was agreed. This creates accountability on all sides.

Know your right to participate. The Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 recognises carers as participants in decision-making, not observers. If you feel decisions are being made about the child without adequate consultation with you, that's something you can raise formally — with your agency, and if necessary with the Guardian for Children and Young People, which is an independent oversight body operating under South Australian legislation.

Understanding how the care team model is designed to function is one of the foundations of effective fostering in South Australia. The South Australia Foster Care Guide walks through the full structure of the SA system — from initial assessment through to active placement — including how the DCP, your NGO, and the care team model work together (and where they sometimes don't).

The Care Team Model in Practice

The care team model is genuinely valuable when everyone involved understands their role and engages honestly. As a carer, you bring something the system genuinely needs: direct, daily knowledge of the child. No amount of casework or policy analysis substitutes for the observations of the person who put the child to bed, noticed they flinched at a certain sound, or saw them smile for the first time in months.

Go into care team meetings with that in mind. You're not a bystander to the process — you're a core part of why it works.

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