Change and continuities in foster care in Victoria: Prospects and Tasks in Foster Care revisited

Foster care in Victoria is under strain. As Victoria implements major legislative and service system reforms, we should consider how the future of foster care can be informed by its past. To that end, this paper revisits the document on which Victoria’s current system of foster care was founded, Tierney’s 1973 report ‘Prospects and Tasks in Foster Care’. With reference to that template, this paper examines some of the service system changes that have threatened the viability of foster care, and draws attention to some enduring qualities of foster care that nevertheless are worthy of preservation.