The Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety (the department) is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) from service providers interested in delivering family-based care services under the new Family Based Care (FBC) Services Investment Specification. The aim of this EOI is to gauge market interest in delivering one, or a number of the new service types across Queensland and provide the department with information to support investment mapping and planning and to inform where further market engagement and development is required.

This EOI forms part of the departments’ staged transition of Family Based Care service types from existing Child Protection (Placement Services) investment specification to the new FBC Services Investment Specification. The FBC Services Investment Specification includes five new service types to deliver targeted and more specific services aimed to increase the number of foster and kinship carers and deliver greater support to carer households, and a sixth new service type – Specialist Family Based Care, is included to help explore professional models of family-based care (not subject to this EOI). New service offerings aim to ensure all carers have access to the support they need to provide care to children and young people. New service types include a base and brokerage funding component, to better and more flexibly support the activities of finding and assessing carers and to respond to the changing needs of carer households, including supporting the costs of delivering care. The new service types are:

1. Connecting Kin (T210)

2. Equipping Kin (T211)

3. Supporting Kin (T212)

4. Foster Care Recruitment (T213)

5. Supporting Foster Care (T214)

6. Specialist Family Based Care (T215).