I’m standing here today in my role as Chair, but I’m also a foster carer myself. It’s an honour to be in a room full of so many foster carers who truly understand what it means to care. To show up. To hold space. To make time, even when time is the one thing you’re running short of.
This Foster Care Week, we’re celebrating with the theme: “Time to Care.” And no one embodies that more than you. You make time to help a child feel safe. You make time to attend case meetings, co-ordinate family visits, juggle countless medical appointments, comfort tears at 2am, attend school meetings… And show up - again and again - even when it feels like the system around you can fall short.
You make the time, no matter how hard, because it matters because that’s who we are as carers. But let’s be honest. Caring should never come at the cost of your own wellbeing, your financial security, or your voice being heard.
That is why the Foster Care Association of Victoria exists. To back you. To advocate for you. To make sure decision-makers understand what it’s really like at the kitchen table of a foster carer. Every year at FCAV, we assist hundreds of carers helping to navigate investigations, supporting mental health and burnout, pushing for better financial support, and advocating for systemic changes that reflect a carer’s lived experience each and every day.
While today is about celebration…and it certainly is!….it’s also a call to action. A reminder that now, more than ever, it’s Time to Care. And for the whole system to listen carefully to what is truly needed to support and retain our precious foster carers.
Our kids deserve safety, stability, and a sense of belonging. They have a right to connection, with their families, with their culture, with education, and every available support for a real chance to thrive. As carers, we facilitate these outcomes for kids, and advocate for their needs to be met every day. We are driven by the needs of the child. It’s why we do what we do.
But to meet those needs, carers must be respected, properly supported, and financially resourced. You cannot be expected to deliver therapeutic care, navigate a fragmented system, and advocate for children’s rights, without the necessary backing.
And that’s why I’m so proud to be part of FCAV. Because that backing is what FCAV is fighting for - every single day.
We’ve continued to push hard for an increase to the care allowance which remains the lowest in the nation and has remained stagnant for nearly a decade. This is not about grand reform, it’s about righting a wrong. A fair and up-to-date care allowance is not a luxury - it’s a necessity. It’s a basic step towards supporting the children in care, and respecting the carers who open their homes to them. It’s a step towards adequate funding for kids in care. It’s a step towards saying to volunteer carers: We don’t expect you to subsidise the state’s responsibility.
It’s a step, and it’s long overdue. We’ve also worked with government, departments, agencies, and Treasury to secure funded improvements to carer support.
We welcome:
The introduction of new therapeutic support packages for some carers —
and we’ll continue to push for rollout to every carer.
The development of new Carer Support Hubs, soon to be introduced.
The Education Supports for Children in Care pilot
And the announcement of free public transport for children under 18.
But more can and must be done. We’ve stood beside carers navigating overwhelming child protection processes, and continued our advocacy for independent legal advice. We’ve delivered training and wellbeing services. We’ve strengthened carer participation in policy forums, including the Minister’s Roundtable. We’ve amplified stories that too often go unheard - through our Care Allowance Campaign and Carer Voices project.
We’ve led conversations with sector partners and government about what meaningful reform should look like. And while there has been progress, we remain tuned to the work that still needs to come.
Looking ahead - our goals are clear:
We will continue to fight for financial equity for carers across Victoria to meet the true cost of caring.
We will press for better recognition, stronger support, and greater respect for your expertise.
We will continue to grow the services you rely on.
We will continue to advocate for culturally safe care - for First Nations children to be supported by kin and community.
We will continue to advocate for carer voices to remain central to reform. Your care is not just a contribution. It is essential. It is life-changing and it deserves to be respected at every level of this system.
Children belong in families, not facilities - and foster care, you as foster carers, are the safeguard against a return to institutional care. The social benefit alone should be enough to make foster care a priority for governments.
But if it’s not enough, there’s the economic benefit. According the Cube Group report commissioned by the Centre for Excellence, it is estimated that in 2020-21 alone, Victoria’s foster carers provided $80 million in economic benefit to this state; and a further $453 million in avoided costs of placing children in alternative forms of care.
That’s a significant economic benefit…and that’s before you take into consideration the benefits from improved health, safety and wellbeing outcomes for children in home based care.
As carers, particularly in foster care week, we often hear that we are valued. And that word - value - it matters. To value is to recognise worth. To value is to respect. To value is to back up words with action. And yet, too often, carers are praised in speeches but left unsupported in practice.
That is why this theme speaks so powerfully. Time to care means more than the care that carers give. It means it is time for our community, our services, and our governments to care in return. Time to care for our carers. Time for decision-makers to care enough to make our vulnerable kids a priority. Time to move beyond saying carers are valued - and to start showing it.
Being a foster carer is one of the most incredible, rewarding, challenging, painful, joyous, inspiring, meaningful things that I have ever done. I’m proud to be a foster carer. And I’m proud to be part of this community. But if we want more people to join us in it, we need to work together for a fairer and more sustainable care network for our kids and carers.
So today, as we celebrate the extraordinary impact of carers, let us also carry forward a clear message: It’s time. Time to care. Time to truly value carers because to invest in care, you need to invest in those who provide it.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for all you do.
Natalie Pryor, President of the Board of Directors of the FCAV
