NSW launches specialist "Family Time" team to revamp supervised foster visits

New South Wales has overhauled its supervised foster-care visitation system by creating a dedicated Family Time team of over 300 specialist workers employed by the Department of Communities and Justice. The new approach moves visits out of private-sector caseworkers' homes and into community settings such as parks, sports fields, ice-skating rinks and theme parks, aiming to create positive memories for children and their birth parents.

Minister Kate Washington argued that the previous model suffered from poor training and frequent staff changes, which the new in-house program seeks to remedy. Workers like Kylie Stone, whose own family was split by addiction and incarceration, and Gomeroi-Wonnurua man Cody McGrady Miller, who was removed from his mother as a child, bring lived experience and cultural insight to the role. The program also prioritises cultural matching, with nearly 20% of staff identifying as Aboriginal, and includes legacy-building activities such as photography to document positive moments for the children.