General Foster Care 
Phone: 1800 024 453
Email: fostering@dcp.wa.gov.au

• The Department provides care for children from birth to 18 years, for emergency, respite, short, medium and long term care.
• Fostering Services recruits, assesses, trains and supports foster carers across the State.  

Respite Program
Phone: 1800 024 453
Email: fostering@dcp.wa.gov.au

• Respite Carers look after children for short periods of time to give their full time Carers a break. 
• They look after children in their own home for a few hours, a weekend or a few weeks. 
• They undertake the same training, assessment and approval process as general foster carers.
• Respite care fact sheet (PDF, 274kb)
• Respite Foster Care For Adoption Applicants fact sheet (PDF, 288kb)

Specialised Care
Phone: 1300 133 705
Email: specialisedfostering@dcp.wa.gov.au

• Specialised Fostering mainly provides long-term care for children aged 6 to 17 years.
• The service assesses and trains suitable foster carers to care for children with complex needs and challenging behaviours. 
• Specialised foster carers get extra training and support, including a higher subsidy.
• Specialised foster care fact sheet (PDF, 221kb)

Pre-Adoptive Foster Care
Phone: (08) 9222 2555
Email: adoptions@dcp.wa.gov.au

• Mainly for newborn babies while the birth parents are considering long-term care options.
• The period of care ranges from a few days to several months. 
• You need to have had experience caring for a newborn baby, and the main caregiver cannot be in paid employment. 

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