Emergency Kinship Care in the ACT: What Happens When a Child Arrives Suddenly

Two Ways a Child Arrives in an Emergency

A child can land in your home through two very different doors. Understanding which one you came through determines what support is available right now and what paperwork comes next.

CSD emergency placement: Child and Youth Protection Services (CYPS) has removed a child from an unsafe situation and needs an immediate placement. They contact you — a grandparent, aunt, uncle — and ask if you can take the child, sometimes that same day. This is a statutory placement. CSD holds legal responsibility, and you are placed on an interim care arrangement while a full kinship assessment is completed.

Family emergency, no CSD involvement: A parent is hospitalised, arrested, enters rehab, or dies. The child comes to you because you are family. No government agency is involved. This is an informal arrangement. A private care arrangement does not itself transfer parental responsibility to you; if a parent has died or is unavailable, check who holds that responsibility.

Both situations are overwhelming. Here is what to do in the first 48 hours.

If CSD Placed the Child With You

CYPS will assign a caseworker and begin a kinship assessment. In the immediate term:

• Establishment costs: CSD can reimburse emergency expenses for bedding, a cot or bed, safety equipment and initial clothing. Ask your caseworker about establishment funding on the first call — do not wait until you have already spent your own money.
• Foster and Kinship Care Subsidy: Once your interim authorisation is processed, you begin receiving the fortnightly subsidy. The amount varies by the child's age band. This is tax-exempt and not counted as Centrelink income.
• Emergency items: If the child arrived with nothing — no clothes, no medication, no comfort items — tell the caseworker immediately. CSD contracted agencies (Barnardos, Key Assets, OzChild, Australian Childhood Foundation) can also coordinate emergency material support.

CSD placement support and Commonwealth payments are separate. Check with Services Australia whether you also qualify for Commonwealth support, and lodge any eligible claim as early as possible to protect its payment start date.

If the Child Arrived Without CSD Involvement

You are on your own administratively, and the clock is ticking on several fronts:

Day one — immediate needs:

• Make sure the child is safe, fed and has somewhere to sleep
• If there is any concern about the child's safety or the parent's whereabouts, contact the Child Protection Helpline on 1300 556 729
• If this is a medical emergency, call 000

First week — financial:

• Call the Centrelink Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Adviser Line on 1800 245 965. Tell them a child has come into your informal care and you need to lodge a claim for Family Tax Benefit. FTB can generally be backdated to the start of the current financial year if lodged before 30 June, but limited backdating (up to 13 weeks) applies if special circumstances delayed the claim.
• Ask about the Foster Child Health Care Card — it is non-means-tested and gives the child PBS concession medicines and bulk-billing access
• If the child needs childcare immediately and you are a grandparent on income support, ask about the Additional Child Care Subsidy (Grandparent), which covers up to 100% of the benchmark fee for up to 100 hours per fortnight

First week — paperwork:

• Start a care evidence dossier. The most important document is the Non-Parent Carer Statutory Declaration (form CS4647), which formally declares your primary care of the child. Get it witnessed and submitted to Centrelink as soon as possible.
• Gather the child's birth certificate and any Medicare details you can access
• If the child needs to start school, contact the nearest ACT public school to confirm its requirements. Bring proof of residency in the Priority Enrolment Area and the child's birth certificate; the school may also request a statutory declaration or other evidence of your care arrangement.

Emergency Material Relief

If you cannot cover immediate costs — food, clothing, bedding — ACT community organisations can help:

• St Vincent de Paul Society (Canberra/Goulburn) — emergency food vouchers and material goods
• Anglicare ACT — emergency assistance and family support
• UnitingCare — utility relief and practical support

The ACT Government's utility rebate (up to $800 per year on electricity, gas and water) is also available to holders of a Centrelink Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card, which can offset ongoing household costs.

What Comes Next

The first week is about stabilising. The weeks that follow are about establishing your claim, getting the child into school, sorting out medical access and building the paper trail that protects you if anyone questions the arrangement later. The ACT Kinship Carer Support Guide covers every step from emergency to established care, with checklists and tracking worksheets built around the specific agencies ACT carers deal with.

See more Australian Capital Territory guides →