Emergency care
Emergency care is in high demand.
​
Often when a child is placed in the foster system it can be at short notice, without a home ready to take them for a short-term placement. While the agency needs time to find an appropriate short-term family, often the authorities cannot leave the child in their existing home. Emergency carers fill a much needed gap in that space. They’ll take a child at short notice, for anywhere between a night to 2 weeks – depending on how long it takes the agency to find an appropriate longer family placement. In this way, emergency care is the coalface of the foster care system. It can be a time where a child brand new to the system needs understanding, love, support and security in their first moments of not knowing what the future will hold.
​
Click on one of the links below to find your local foster care agency and apply for an information session.
Story from an emergency carer:
We were called out of the blue to take in a young girl who’d seen some significant trauma in her home. She had never met a foster care family before and had no idea what to expect. She really didn’t know what was going on. For us, it is such a privilege to walk these first steps with a child when they are so fearful and unaware of what the future will hold. We want to provide a safe place for them in those initial moments of uncertainty, and an assurance that we are on their side.