BRINGING CHILDREN AND CARERS TOGETHER
LOOKING after children in some way was something that Pippa Beckman says she ‘always knew’ she wanted to do as she was growing up.
That drive to help children led her to become the director of a childcare centre when she was just 19 years old, having worked and studied hard to secure the qualifications to make it possible.
It was this work in childcare that guided Pippa to move into the foster care space, after chatting to a parent at the centre who was working with IFYS and becoming interested in how it worked.
When a job came up as a support worker, Pippa said she applied and was successful in winning the role.
After a period of training, she was given a caseload and started to work closely with a group of carers and the children they were looking after – providing regular support via phone calls and visits, and working as the key link between families and the various services they might be required to access.
‘A couple of years after that, a new position came up as placement intake officer and I moved into that role,’ Pippa said.
Pippa has now held this job for the best part of 10 years, and plays a crucial part in the process of bringing children and carers together in a way that will best work for both groups.
‘Referrals come in through Child Safety and we match them as best we can with the carer families we have on our list,’ Pippa said.
Even at its base level, the challenge is not easy. ‘Humans don’t always get on with humans,’ Pippa notes.
The children who come into foster care can be at all ages and stages of development, dealing with diverse levels of physical or mental trauma and have often come from environments where their normal, everyday life is likely to be markedly different from the new “normal” they’re moving to.
With more than 170 families listed as carers supported by IFYS, and services required ranging from shortterm care to weekend respite care and primary or long-term care, the mixture of elements is immense.
Personalities, family sizes, preferences, locations and ease of access to other support services, if required, are further components complicating the mission that is ultimately to match well and create a stable environment for the children and carers involved to build on.
‘You do need to know a little bit about every family on the books; who they’d be best suited to care for,’ Pippa said.
And for Pippa, there’s no doubt who the heroes are in the equation.
She said without foster carers who are willing to offer their guidance, support, time and love to children in need of a home, the system simply would not work.
She said there’s always a need for more carers and with the extra stress contributed by COVID-19 last year, the number of children in need of placement had risen markedly.
‘We need all sorts of carers who can do all sorts of things for us. We have short-term, weekend respite and primary carers,’ Pippa said.
‘We do try and set up carer teams, I guess you’d call them, so that if the primary carer is going away, the children have a relationship with another carer they see regularly and it’s like staying at an Aunty or Uncle’s house.’
For Pippa, the challenging times are balanced by the many wins along the way.
‘Just recently we had a young girl who has turned 18, graduated from school, secured her driver licence, gained entry into university – and she’s off to the Gold Coast to start her new adventures,’ Pippa said. ‘I first met her when she was 8 years old. It’s amazing when you see small wins like that.’
Having moved to Cairns when she was 15, Pippa said she now called it home and when she wasn’t working to match carers and children in her role at IFYS, she could be found camping, playing guitar or spending quality time with her own friends and family.