12.1b Foster care households during the year

Foster care is one type of out-of-home care provided for children who are unable to live with their families.

Foster carer households are private households containing one or more foster carers:

  • who have undergone the relevant screening/selection and approval process;
  • who have received authorisation from the relevant department or agency to enable a child to be placed in their care;
  • for whom reimbursement is available from the state or territory government for expenses incurred in caring for a child;
  • who are part of an ongoing review process.

This indicator captures foster carer households with at least one foster child placed in the household for at least one night during the year.

Trend data: For all indicator displays, the yearly trend is limited to indicators with 3 or more years (including the current year) of comparable time series data. To see the trend click on “Yearly Trend” button on the display. Where 3 or more years of comparable data including the most recent year is not available, a “No time series data” message is shown on the display.

The bar graph shows the number of foster carer households with a placement during the year from 2010–11 to 2020–21.

Source: AIHW Child Protection Collection

See the supplementary data tables for further information and footnotes about these data.

Indicator technical specifications

The information below provides technical specifications for the summary indicator data presented in the quick reference guide.

National Standards Indicator 12.1b Foster care households: Number of foster carer households with a placement during the year
  Definition Data source
Numerator Number of carer households authorised to provide foster care placements during the reference period, that had at least one foster child placed in the household for at least one night during the reference period AIHW National Child Protection Data Collection
Denominator Not applicable Not applicable

Explanatory notes

All foster carer households that had received authorisation from the relevant department or agency to enable a child to be placed in their care are included. This includes households that have received provisional authorisation (which may be in order to facilitate a placement), whilst formal approval/registration is being finalised.