The Foster Care Association of Victoria (FCAV) acknowledges the Victorian Government’s objectives in the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Stability) Bill 2025 (the Bill). The Bill seeks to navigate a complex and sensitive balance: promoting timely permanence and stability for children in care while recognising the time some families need to access services and achieve reunification.
The FCAV welcomes the introduction of clearer, more transparent decision-making criteria for court-ordered extensions to child protection orders. Greater certainty in judicial decision making with more consistent statutory criteria has the potential to improve outcomes across cases, assist practitioners and provide children and carers with more predictable pathways.
However, the FCAV is concerned that the objectives of the Bill cannot be meaningfully realised unless there is substantial new investment from the Government to ensure timely access to critical support services is available to families. This encompasses:
Alcohol and drug treatment
Mental health care
Secure and sustainable housing
Family violence intervention and support
Culturally safe programs delivered by Aboriginal community-controlled organisations
These services are critical for families to address the issues that lead to child protection involvement, yet long wait times and limited availability routinely prevent parents, carers, and children from getting help when it is needed most. When support is inaccessible and families cannot meet case plan requirements, children remain in care for longer and their carers are left managing complex needs of children and young people without specialist assistance, resulting in outcomes that run counter to the intent of the Bill.
Without dedicated new funding to expand service capacity, reduce waiting times, and ensure equitable access across the state, the reforms proposed in this Bill risk becoming symbolic rather than transformative.
The Bill may have implications for foster care placements that extend over longer periods. The FCAV is aware that reunification work can be delayed due to bottlenecks in service access and therefore children may remain in temporary care arrangements for longer. This would increase the emotional and financial load on carers and heighten the risk of placement instability.
Longer placements without clear timelines can leave children, carers, and birth families in a prolonged state of uncertainty. This uncertainty can have lasting impacts on children’s sense of belonging and security, and it may erode carers’ ability to continue providing care amidst unclear or shifting timeframes. The system must ensure that children do not languish in the Child Protection system because of structural impediments that prevent service access.
Similarly, foster carers who provide the daily frontline support for children in care, continue to shoulder the responsibilities associated with extended placements without the stability, resources, or therapeutic supports required to sustain them. If the Bill results in longer foster care placements, it must be accompanied by increased investment in the volunteer carer workforce to ensure stable care options including:
Increased care allowances that cover the costs of care.
Ensure access and adequately fund the Client Support Funding Framework for health and education costs not covered by the care allowance.
Ensure increased and ongoing funding for specialised supports such as counselling.
Placement supports such as access to respite care and peer support networks.
Volunteer carers are essential for the stability of the system and consideration of carer wellbeing needs to be part of the implementation process.
The Bill proposes a five-year statutory review period. FCAV considers this timeframe too long given the scale and significance of the proposed reforms which fundamentally alter the objectives of the current legislation. Children and families cannot wait half a decade for evidence that these amendments are functioning as intended. Consequently, the FCAV recommends a shorter review period of two years to ensure emerging issues are identified and addressed early.
To strengthen accountability and ensure meaningful oversight, FCAV urges the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) to develop a robust assessment and monitoring framework aligned to the Bill’s objectives. This framework should include:
Clear measures of success including indicators for stability, reunification outcomes, placement safety, timeliness, carer support, and cultural connection.
Transparent public reporting enabling sector organisations, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, carers, and young people to understand the impact of reforms.
The FCAV supports legislative reform that genuinely improves the lives of children, young people, and carers. The Bill moves toward greater clarity in permanency decision-making, but its success depends on a well-resourced system that supports families, carers, and practitioners to meet the expectations it introduces.
The Victorian Government has introduced the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Stability) Bill 2025 to Parliament. The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing states the Bill aims to strengthen support for children and families to stay together wherever it is safe to do so and embed stability as a principle in all care arrangements for children and young people in Victoria.
If enacted, the Bill in summary states:
The term ‘permanency’ would be replaced with ‘stability’, which includes:
Legal stability – secure legal arrangements
Physical stability – stable living arrangements
Cultural stability – connection to culture and identity
Relational stability – strong relationships with carers and family
The Bill removes adoption as a case plan goal unless parents choose it voluntarily. Most case planning timeframes would be removed, except for family reunification, where the period may be extended from 12 to 24 months or longer based on court decisions. This aligns with the 2023 Yoorrook for Justice report, which recommended that reunification timeframes be extended where it is in the child’s best interests, noting that current statutory timeframes have negatively impacted Aboriginal and other families.
Foster, kinship, and permanent care continue to be important long-term care options for children and young people where this is in their best interests. Carers awaiting orders can speak with their case manager in the first instance. The FCAV will keep you updated as the Bill progresses through Parliament or as new information becomes available.
Full Bill and Explanatory Memorandum:
Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Stability) Bill 2025
