Foster carers in Victoria receive just $231 a week – one quarter the cost of caring for a child

Exclusive: Report by Australian Institute of Family Studies found payments to foster carers fall ‘significantly short of a meaningful contribution’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLouise Black has seen the good and the bad sides of out-of-home care.Foster caring was common among the Catholic community in south-east Melbourne in which she grew up. The family over the road regularly fostered children, while also having four of their own. Black’s father, on the other hand, had been a ward of the state and spent much of his boyhood in some of the most notorious group homes. Continue reading...