Content updates
This page was updated on 11 March 2026. To view changes, please see page updates
The kit explores topics such as why permanency is important, what to consider when making permanency decisions, concurrent planning and permanency case work throughout the child protection continuum.
The objective is to strengthen your approach to working in partnership with children, parents and carers to make timely decisions for children regarding permanency.
The first preference for permanency is for children to be cared for and supported by their families when it is safe to do so. Planning will always focus on supporting a child’s family and including them in decision making, no matter what the permanency decision is.
Permanency planning starts from the day a child enters care. Evidence shows that when children’s permanency options are identified and supported from the beginning of a child’s care experience, the child faces less placement breakdowns and care arrangements.
What is permanency?
Permanency is about maximising a child’s stability and identity through relationships and connectedness.
Permanency practice is the planning, actions and decision making that create stability, continuity and connection for a child in the child protection system. It involves making plans in a timely way and having alternative plans should the primary goal not be achieved.
Permanency is more than stability in a placement. It involves relationships and connections to important people in a child’s life, creating feelings of belonging, connection and love.
Permanency is focused on a child’s core needs for stability and continuity of their relationships. This can be achieved either through reunification of the child with their birth parent/s or through an alternative permanent care arrangement.
Permanency involves three different areas of focus: relational permanency, physical permanency and legal permanency.
Permanency will look different for each family, it is not a static process and must always include the three areas of focus. Relational permanency helps children and families achieve connection, while legal and physical permanency support security and stability for the individual child.
Permanency legislation and principles
Legislation, policy and procedures guide and direct Child Safety’s approach to permanency.
The Child Protection Act 1999 has specific areas that relate to permanency. While all the principles in the Child Protection Act 1999, part 2, division 1 need to be addressed in decision making, there are additional principles that must be considered when making decisions about actions to be taken for achieving permanency for a child. These principles are outlined in the Child Protection Act 1999, section 5BA and are to be considered at all phases of the child protection continuum.
The Child Protection Act 1999, section 5BA(4) also requires preferences for achieving permanency for children and young people to be considered in the following order:
- the child to be cared for by the child’s family
- the child to be cared for under the guardianship of a person who is a member of the child’s family, other than a parent of the child, or another suitable person
- if the child is not an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child—the next preference is for the child to be adopted under the Adoption Act 2009
- the child to be cared for under the guardianship of the chief executive
- if the child is an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child—the last preference is for the child to be adopted under the Adoption Act 2009.
Legislatively, a departmental case plan must include a primary goal for best achieving permanency and the actions to be taken to achieve this goal. In most cases, reunification will be identified as the primary goal for achieving permanency. An alternative permanency goal must also be identified, if the timely reunification of the child to the care of a parent is not possible. This is called concurrent planning and is embedded in the Child Protection Act 1999 under section 51B. The aim of concurrent planning is to achieve timely permanency for children and young people.
When considering permanency options for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and their families, the right to self-determination (to make decisions about their own lives) and the child placement principle elements of prevention, partnership, placement, participation, and connection are to be applied.
Family-led decision making processes are used to ensure the involvement of families in planning for children including making permanency decisions.
Further reading
Published on:
Last reviewed:
-
Date:
Page created
-
Date:
Page created
-
Date:
Page created