How to become a child's guardian

Child Safety will decide whether to assess a person to become a child’s guardian. This decision is informed by a range of factors including the child’s case plan and permanency goal.

If a decision is made that an assessment should progress, Child Safety will:

• seek your consent to undertake personal history checks to inform the assessment
• seek your views, and the views of the child, the child’s parents and family and the views of other significant people about you having guardianship
• do a comprehensive assessment of your ability and willingness to
  • tell the child’s parents where the child is living and give the parents information about the child’s care
  • provide opportunities for the child to have contact with parents, other members of the family and persons who are significant to them
  • preserve the child’s identity and connection to their culture of origin
  • tell the child about the Charter of rights for a child in care and make sure the rights are complied with
  • help the child transition to adulthood
  • immediately inform Child Safety, in writing, if the child leaves your care or intends to leave your care
• speak to you about your right to privacy and explain how the information that is collected will be used and shared.

The assessment will inform a recommendation, which will be either:

• you are suitable to have long-term guardianship of the child
• you are suitable to have permanent guardianship of the child
• you are not suitable to have guardianship of the child.

You will be told about the outcome of the assessment and will be given an opportunity to provide feedback about the recommendation.

The Child Safety Service Centre manager is responsible for deciding whether to approve the recommendation.

The Director of Child Protection Litigation (DCPL) is an agency that is independent of Child Safety and is responsible for deciding whether to apply for child protection orders. When a Child Safety Service Centre manager approves that a long-term guardianship order or permanent care order is the best way to meet the child’s permanency needs, a referral will be made to the DCPL recommending this type of order. The DCPL will then decide the type of child protection order to seek and make an application to the Childrens Court.

The Childrens Court decide the DCPL’s application for a child protection order.

The Childrens Court will only make a long-term guardianship order or a permanent care order if the child does not have a parent who is able and willing to protect them in the foreseeable future, or when the child’s need for emotional security is best met by the order.

In addition, the Childrens Court will only make a permanent care order if:

• the proposed guardian is suitable for caring for the child on a permanent basis and is able and willing to meet their ongoing protection and care needs
• the proposed guardian is committed to preserving the child’s identity, connection to the child’s culture and the child’s relationships with members of their family in accordance with the case plan
• the child has been in the care of the proposed guardian for 12 months or longer, unless there are exceptional circumstances (for example, if the proposed guardian is already the permanent guardian of one or more of the child’s siblings).

For an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child, the court must also:

• have regard to Aboriginal tradition or Island custom relating to the child
• have regard to the 5 principles that make up the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, which are:
  • 1. The prevention principle: a child’s right to be brought up within the child’s own family and community.
  • 2. The partnership principle: that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons have the right to participate in significant decisions under the Child Protection Act 1999 about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
  • 3. The placement principle: that, if a child is to be placed in care, the child has a right to be placed with a member of their family group.
  • 5. The participation principle: a child, the child’s parent and family members right to participate and be enabled to participate in making significant decisions about the child.
  • 6. The connection principle: a child’s right to be supported to develop and maintaining a connection their family, community, culture, traditions and language.

• be satisfied that the child’s case plan provides details on how the child’s connection with culture, and community or language group will be maintained.

For information about the court processes, you can speak with the child safety officer or seek independent legal advice.

Find information about child protection court processes.