Specialised substitute residential care (SSRC) is a type of care arranged between a child or young persons family and an agency, where the agency agrees to provide overnight care outside a child's usual home.
Organisations that provide SSRC may:
- provide overnight respite care, or
- provide overnight behaviour support services.
SSRC is not a specific service. It is a type of arrangement which may include:
- overnight or short-term accommodation in a group home or respite environment
- an overnight stay with another family in a ‘host family’ arrangement
- longer term residential care
- camps that focus on respite care or behaviour support
- accommodation provided under the Bail Assistance Program.
SSRC may be provided as a one-off emergency placement or accessed on a regular or long-term basis.
These arrangements can be funded in several ways including direct payment by families or through the NDIS.
Finding overnight care
Parents can find providers of SSRC through the NDIS website or by talking to their NDIS Local Area Coordinator. Parents can also call support services such as:
Choosing a provider
Parents are solely responsible for selecting an appropriate provider to care for their child. Parents should consider if a provider can meet the needs of their child and the family.
Parents should research any providers they are considering to provide care for their child or young person. This can include:
- reviewing the organisation’s child safe policies, procedures and code of conduct
- asking for a tour around the service area. The care environment should be clean and have rooms and spaces that allow easy supervision by carers
- finding out how the organisation can meet the needs of your child. Child safe organisations are more likely to understand things children may have difficulty with in the care environment and ways to support them
- asking about staff recruitment and training. Staff working with children must have a verified Working with Children Check clearance and may need a NDIS Worker Check.
- finding out how the organisation involves families in decision making. Ask their leaders about how they communicate with families about any events that involve children
- learning about the organisation’s complaint processes.
It’s also important for parents to ask children about their experiences and show them they are interested in what the children do. Parents should talk about safe behaviours and let their children know they can communicate to them if they ever feel scared, worried, upset or uncomfortable.
We have developed a checklist (PDF, 194.84KB) of questions and actions parents may want to consider when selecting a provider for their child or young person.
What to look for
Providers should be able to explain:
- how they support children's safety and wellbeing
- how staff and carers are supervised
- how concerns or complaints are managed
- how they involve children and families in decisions
- their responsibilities under the Child Safe Standards and SSRC Code of Practice.
