Latest News

Changes to learning and development opportunities for carersRead more...

Fostering Connections and the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare has worked with the sector including with the Foster Care Association of Victoria to devise this comprehensive toolkit for carers who are meeting the complex care needs of our children and young people in unprecendented circumstances.Read more...

The Department of Education has worked with state schools to make available a limited school holiday program for students who are children of essential services workers or who are vulnerable. They may include:Read more...

Emergency and material reliefRead more...

 Welcome to the last edition of the paper based FCAV newsletter. In one sense, it is the end of an era to cease production of this publication as a mailout to your letterbox. However, it has become a prohibitive cost for the organisation and we hope you’ll agree, sending you all the same quality news, updates, legislation changes, events and training and carer giveaways in our new E-news format will be a more carbon friendly approach. You will receive this every 2 months to the email address you’ve supplied to FCAV.Read more...

The COVID 19 outbreak has lead to a level of heightened vigilance in the community which, for carers, involves the extra responsibility of caring for children and young people as a foster carer.Read more...

Following our extensive and forthright advocacy across the sector about the failure to identify and register births of some children in care in a timely manner, the DHHS will be actively looking into and addressing the cases identified by FCAV where a birth registration has not been gained. In addition to taking action on the identified cases, we have met with the DHHS and advocated more broadly for widespread improvements to occur with Births, Deaths and Marriages to improve and streamline the birth registration process.  The DHHS has agreed to promote with staff the importance of registering births and to consider the systemic barriers that may delay or prevent birth registration. This is a major achievement to address systemic failure from the State for both the children and carers in exercising their human right to an identity. The FCAV welcomes the Department’s willingness to work with the FCAV to address carer’s concerns about this issue.If you are, despite working with your agency and the child’s case manager, facing barriers and lengthy delays in gaining a birth registration please get in touch with the FCAV with the following details so that your case can be follow up: • Name• Date of birth• Location• Court order (if known)• Agency (if relevant)Please email Rowan Pulford with an inquiry: r.pulford@fcav.org.au including the above information for the child/ren or young people in your care or ring Rowan on 03 9416 4292 (Wednesday or Thursday) if you wish to discuss your case further.Read more...

This International Women’s Day, 8 March 2020, the Foster Care Association of Victoria (FCAV) highlights the sacrifices women who provide foster care are making on behalf of the state to meet the needs of our children and young people in care.Read more...

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Access Keys^TM are a FREE resource developed by AccessAbilityAustralia.Read more...

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Thank you to all carers who responded to our Facebook call out asking for examples of children in care who do not have a registered birth. The number of unregistered births identified through this process was significant and has been used as a basis for advocacy within the sector as examples of a broader systemic issue (please note that no personal information has been disclosed as part of this process).Read more...