Kinship Care Victoria: What Grandparents, Relatives, and Family Friends Need to Know

Most people who become kinship carers in Victoria didn't plan to. A daughter in crisis. A grandchild removed overnight. A call from Child Protection asking if you can take the children before the weekend is out. The decision to step up is rarely theoretical.

What follows — the paperwork, the assessments, the financial uncertainty, the legal complexity — often blindsides people who made a quick, instinctive decision to keep a child they love safe.

This guide is for the grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, and family friends who are already in this situation, or who are serious about entering it.

What Kinship Care Is (and Isn't)

Kinship care in Victoria refers to the care of a child by a relative or a significant person in the child's social network when the child cannot live with their parents. Victoria's Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (CYFA) places kinship care as the preferred placement option above general foster care. If a safe kinship carer is available when a child needs to be removed, Child Protection is legally required to consider that option first.

Kinship care is not the same as foster care — though the two overlap significantly and kinship carers are often assessed under the same framework. The key distinction is the pre-existing relationship between the carer and the child.

The Two Types of Victorian Kinship Care

Victoria draws a clear distinction between two categories of kinship care:

Statutory (Registered) Kinship Care

This applies when a child is on a court order — typically a Custody to Secretary Order or a Guardianship Order — and DFFH or an authorised CSO is managing the case. In this context:

• The kinship carer is assessed and registered (accredited) as a carer
• They receive the same fortnightly Care Allowance as foster carers (see rates below)
• A CSO support worker provides ongoing assistance
• The arrangement is formally supervised and subject to annual review
• The carer has responsibilities under the child's Care and Placement Plan

This is the pathway most kinship carers end up on when Child Protection is involved. It provides the most financial and practical support but also involves the most oversight.

Informal (Unregistered) Kinship Care

This applies when a family makes a private arrangement for a child's care without departmental involvement. No court order is in place. No formal assessment has been conducted.

Informal kinship care is common — grandparents caring for grandchildren, for example, without any statutory intervention. In these arrangements:

• There is no DFFH oversight and no formal support structure
• The carer does not receive the Care Allowance
• Carers may be eligible for Centrelink Family Tax Benefit if the arrangement is long-term
• There is no legal authority backing the carer's decisions about the child's education or medical care

Many families prefer informal arrangements because they avoid involving the government in what they see as a private family matter. The practical downside is financial — the lack of access to the Care Allowance can be significant, particularly for grandparents on fixed incomes.

Financial Support for Registered Kinship Carers

Registered kinship carers in Victoria receive the same Care Allowance as foster carers, based on the child's age and level of support required:

The Victorian Ombudsman investigated kinship care financial support in detail and found significant gaps — many kinship carers, particularly grandparents, were unaware of the allowances they were entitled to or faced barriers accessing them. The investigation led to improved guidance from DFFH, but the system still requires carers to advocate for themselves.

Additional supports for registered kinship carers include:

• Annual School Attendance Allowance (~$411–$617)
• New Placement Loading for initial costs when a child arrives
• Potential access to the Family Tax Benefit through Centrelink for long-term carers

Kinship Carers Victoria is the state's peak support organisation for kinship carers and provides detailed financial guidance through their factsheet series. Their support is free and specifically tailored to the kinship experience, which differs in important ways from general foster care.

The Kinship Assessment: What to Expect

If Child Protection places a child with a kinship carer in an emergency, the formal assessment of the carer typically happens after the placement has begun — sometimes weeks later. This is a significant difference from the general foster care process where assessment precedes placement.

The assessment for kinship carers mirrors the standard foster care assessment: background checks (Working with Children Check, National Police Check, DFFH Child Protection Record Check), a medical report, a home safety inspection, and in-depth interviews with an assessor. Every adult in the household is included.

The main practical challenge kinship carers face in this process is time pressure. You're often assessed while simultaneously caring for children who've arrived in traumatic circumstances, potentially while managing your own shock and grief about the situation your family member is in. Agencies are aware of this — but it's worth naming with your CSO worker so they can prioritise accordingly.

A criminal history or past Child Protection contact doesn't automatically disqualify a kinship carer. The assessment is holistic, and the pre-existing relationship between the carer and the child carries significant weight.

Kinship Care and Birth Family Contact

One of the defining features of kinship care is that the birth parents are almost always known to — and often related to — the carers. This creates dynamics that general foster care doesn't face:

• You may be caring for a child whose parent is your own adult child
• Maintaining contact with birth parents may mean managing difficult visits with family members at your own home
• You may have complicated feelings about the decisions that led to the child needing care
• Children in kinship care often have stronger, more frequent contact with their birth parents than children in general foster care

This isn't easier than general foster care — it's just differently complex. Many kinship carers describe the birth family relationship as the hardest part of the role. Support from a CSO, the FCAV, or Kinship Carers Victoria is valuable here.

VACCA and Aboriginal Kinship Care

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Victoria, the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP) mean the system is actively structured to place Aboriginal children with Aboriginal kin first.

Under Section 18 of the CYFA, DFFH must consult with VACCA's Lakidjeka ACSASS service before making significant decisions about any Aboriginal child in care. VACCA can also take on guardianship and case management for Aboriginal children through the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care (ACAC) program.

If you are an Aboriginal kinship carer or prospective carer, VACCA provides culturally specific support that is fundamentally different from the mainstream CSO pathway.

What Kinship Carers Often Say They Wish They'd Known

People who've been through the Victorian kinship care system raise a few consistent points:

Get legal advice early. Kinship carers sometimes find themselves in situations where they disagree with DFFH decisions about the child — contact arrangements, case planning goals, or placement changes. Understanding your legal rights under the CYFA before a conflict arises is much easier than trying to catch up mid-dispute. The FCAV can provide advocacy support, and Victoria Legal Aid offers advice on child protection matters.

You have the right to information. Registered kinship carers are entitled to information about the child's history that's relevant to providing care. If you're not receiving adequate information about a child's medical needs or trauma history, raise it formally with your CSO worker.

Respite matters. Kinship carers frequently underestimate how much they need breaks. The system provides for respite care, but kinship carers often feel guilty asking for it — particularly grandparents who see themselves as family rather than "carers." Using available respite isn't a failure; it's what makes long-term kinship care sustainable.

The Victoria Foster Care Guide covers the kinship care pathway in depth, including a checklist for the initial assessment, a guide to the Care Allowance claiming process, and what to do if you disagree with a DFFH decision about the child in your care.

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