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Monthly Updates, Issues, News

Barnardos Australia celebrated an historic achievement this month, as the first child welfare agency in NSW to achieve accreditation at the highest level by the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian. The accreditation is given for providing out-of-home care of an extremely high standard to children and young people, and the accreditation certificate was offically presented  by the NSW Community Services Minister, the Hon. Carmel Tebbutt MLC at a ceremony at Barnardos Australia's Head Office in Ultimo on 24 March 2004. The NSW Children's Guardian, Linda Mallett, also attended the ceremony.

"Barnardos is to be congratulated for showing its strong commitment to providing the best quality care it can to children and young people who can’t live with their families," Ms Tebbutt said. "This agency has achieved the highest level of accreditation for a period of five years."

"The accreditation standards developed by the Office of the Children's Guardian focus on the needs of children and young people, such as their care environment, health, education, identity and family relationships, emotional and social development and their rights. The standards also cover important aspects of care such as casework practice, care records and how agencies support their foster and residential carers in providing the best possible care that these children and young people deserve."

Louise Voigt, Barnardos' CEO, attributed Barnardos' ability to respond the accreditation process to the Looking After Children (LAC) case-management software system, Barnardos' comprehensive system of recording information and directing practice for children and young people in care.

"Barnardos believes that the simple provision of a service is not enough and that unless clear outcomes are focused on and achieved we will not be doing our best by these children.

"To this end Barnardos adapted the Looking After Children (LAC) Case Management System in Australia to provide a framework to ensure all child welfare agencies could realise high standards," Ms Voigt said.

Thinking of volunteering as a foster carer? Barnardos’ need for carers has never been as strong as it is right now. Soaring living costs and increased career expectations for women along with other factors have taken their toll upon the traditional pool of foster carers - women who are at home during the day.

Barnardos places into out-of-home care children who have been removed from their family home for their safety, either temporarily or permanently. These children need a caring, nurturing environment so that they can begin the process of recovery from their history of abuse and neglect and the trauma of separation from their families.

Barnardos offers training and support to carers, and welcomes applicants from all walks of life: men and women, single parents, retired couples or singles and young people. You do not necessarily need to have welfare experience or experience with children, although it does help.

Barnardos is looking for people who

• are at home during the day,
• do not have young children,
• feel they have personal characteristics suitable for child care. These may be, for example, confidence in their child care skills, the ability to work cohesively with an outside organisation, flexibility, a great deal of patience and a resistance to high expectations of what can be achieved overnight with traumatised children.

With the help of the many wonderful carers who support Barnardos and our work with children, we are maintaining our fantastic success rate with foster placements. If you feel you would like to join Barnardos’ incredible army of volunteer carers and change the life of a child forever, contact us now on welfare@barnardos.org.au visit www.barnardos.org.au or call (02) 9281 5510.

Our newsletter, Barnardos Today, is a great way to inform our supporters of our recent achievements and developments.

Through Barnardos Today we are proud to share with all our supporters the achievements, innovations and rewards that come from bringing relief and hope to those vulnerable children and families under stress.

The Barnardos Today newsletters are now available in a new electronic format. To view the online version of Barnardos Today, just click on the 'Barnardos TODAY Newsletter' link below.