When a parent makes an arrangement with an organisation for their child to receive overnight respite care or behaviour support for 3 or more nights in a 7-day period outside of the family home in NSW, this is legally known as specialised substitute residential care. Any organisation that provides this type of care falls under the Child Safe Scheme and must follow a code of practice.
We monitor providers of specialised substitute residential care under the Children's Guardian Act 2019 and Children’s Guardian Regulation 2022.
The list of providers includes those organisations and sole traders that have identified and registered with us, and have either completed a Child Safe Self-assessment (which is a requirement of the Regulation), or have been registered under the previous Voluntary out-of-home care (VOOHC) scheme. Former VOOHC providers have until 1 March 2023 to complete their Child Safe self-assessment.
From 1 September 2022, the specialised substitute residential care regulatory system replaces the voluntary out-of-home care system. These pages are being updated to reflect this change.