Anyone working in the child protection space knows the conversation about foster care, kinship care and residential care is always evolving. Policies shift, funding models change, and services get restructured. But one thing stays constant: children and young people who have experienced trauma, neglect, abuse, disrupted attachments or placement instability need specialised, trauma-informed support to genuinely thrive.
At Behaviour Collaborations, we work alongside foster carers, kinship carers, residential care staff, Child Safety workers and support teams who are often managing highly complex emotional, behavioural, developmental and trauma-related needs, sometimes with very little notice and even less preparation. This guide looks at what behaviour support for children in care actually involves, and how we work alongside the adults doing that work every day.
Recent discussions within the child protection sector have also highlighted a growing need for more stable, therapeutic, family-based care arrangements, and regardless of how those policy conversations unfold, the practical need on the ground doesn’t change.
What we mean when we talk about “behaviour”
Many of the behaviours carers and support workers describe as challenging are not really about defiance or difficulty. They are usually a child’s way of communicating something they don’t yet have the words for: fear, anxiety, grief, loss, an unmet need, sensory overwhelm, difficulty trusting adults, or a very real need for safety and connection.
Reframing behaviour this way changes how we respond to it. A young person who bolts from the room during a hard conversation isn’t necessarily being defiant, they may be protecting themselves the only way they know how. A child who tests a new carer relentlessly in the first few weeks of a placement may be checking whether this adult, like others before them, is going to leave. Trauma-informed behaviour support starts from curiosity about what a behaviour is communicating, not just how to stop it.
This lines up with what the research says too: the Australian Institute of Family Studies’ work on trauma-informed care in child and family welfare services makes the same point, that responding to trauma effectively starts with understanding it, not just managing its symptoms.”
What behaviour support for children in care looks like
We work alongside Child Safety Services, foster carers, kinship carers, residential care providers and private families to build practical, trauma-informed strategies that improve outcomes for children and young people in care. That includes Functional Behaviour Assessments to understand what’s driving a behaviour, comprehensive and interim Behaviour Support Plans, risk and safety planning developed together with the people around the child, and support to reduce or eliminate restrictive practices wherever it’s safe to do so.
We also create tailored training materials for carers, support workers and other stakeholders once a plan is in place, and deliver that training in a dedicated session, either online or in person, so the strategies actually make sense in the context of daily routines rather than sitting unread in a folder. For placement providers, that often looks like residential care behaviour support built around existing staff rosters and routines, not delivered as a one-off session disconnected from daily practice.
Where a child’s support network spans multiple services, schools, allied health, Child Safety, and a placement provider, we work alongside all of them rather than in isolation, since consistency across environments is often what determines whether a plan actually works. Multi-disciplinary collaboration isn’t an add-on to how we work, it’s usually the difference between a plan that gets implemented consistently and one that quietly falls apart because two services were working from different information.
Supporting the people who support the child
One of the most common misconceptions about behaviour support is that it only involves the child. In practice, meaningful change happens when the adults around a child feel confident, supported and equipped with the right tools, not just handed a plan and left to implement it alone.
We help carers and support teams understand why behaviours occur, how trauma shapes the nervous system and behaviour over time, and how to build trust and connection with a child who may have learned, for good reason, not to trust adults easily. That includes practical, workable guidance on de-escalation, responding safely to aggression, managing absconding behaviours, supporting emotional regulation, and communicating in a way that actually lands with a child who is overwhelmed.
Consistency matters here more than almost anything else. A strategy that works at home but isn’t used at school, or a calming approach one carer uses but another doesn’t, can undo a lot of hard-won progress. Part of our role is helping build that consistency across every environment a child moves through. This is what genuine behaviour support for children in care looks like in practice, not a plan handed over once and left to chance.
Support beyond the NDIS
Not every child or young person accessing behaviour support does so through the NDIS. We work with Child Safety funded supports, foster care agencies, residential care providers, kinship care arrangements, and private families seeking support independently, and we also accept privately funded referrals directly.
Behaviour Collaborations is based in South East Queensland with services extending across regional Queensland and, more recently, parts of Sydney and New South Wales. For carers, agencies and services outside easy driving distance of our practitioners, telehealth is often how we keep support consistent without a family or care team needing to wait for the next available in-person slot. If you’re supporting a child in care and aren’t sure whether your funding pathway or location fits, the simplest next step is to reach out directly and ask. We also accept privately funded referrals directly, so the same trauma-informed behaviour support is available regardless of how a family or service reaches us.
Why early intervention matters
Children do not simply grow out of trauma. Without the right support at the right time, many young people continue to experience difficulties well into adolescence and adulthood, with emotional regulation, relationships, school engagement, community participation, mental health and placement stability all at risk.
Early intervention gives a child the chance to build skills before patterns become entrenched, strengthens the support system around them, and creates a genuinely more stable foundation, for the placement they’re in now and for whatever comes next. For carers and case workers, that often means the difference between a placement that holds and one that breaks down under pressure that could have been reduced earlier. A young person who receives consistent, trauma-informed support early in a placement is far more likely to stay in that placement, build genuine relationships with the adults around them, and re-engage with school rather than disengaging further with each disruption.
This is exactly why early, consistent behaviour support for children in care matters so much, since patterns that go unaddressed in the first months of a placement are often the hardest to shift later.
Let’s work together
Whether you’re a Child Safety Officer, foster carer, kinship carer, residential care provider, school, or family member, Behaviour Collaborations can work alongside your team to build practical, evidence-based, trauma-informed support around the children and young people you care for.
Every child deserves adults around them who understand behaviour, build genuine connection, and create real opportunities for change. If that’s what you’re looking for, whether you have a specific child in mind or want to talk through what support could look like for your service or placement, make an enquiry and we’ll help you find the right starting point. Whether you need foster carer behaviour support, kinship carer behaviour support, or residential care behaviour support for your team, we’re ready to talk it through.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do foster care agencies or residential care providers actually refer a child for behaviour support?
Referral pathways vary depending on who’s funding the support. Foster care agencies, residential care providers and Child Safety Services can refer directly to Behaviour Collaborations, including residential care behaviour support referrals from placement staff, and private families can also self-refer without needing to go through an agency first. Because not every child accessing behaviour support for children in care comes through the NDIS, we work with services to figure out the right pathway for each situation rather than assuming one funding model fits everyone. The best first step is to reach out and describe the situation, and we’ll help map out what’s needed from there.
Can you support a child who doesn’t have a formal diagnosis yet?
Yes. Many children and young people in care are still waiting on formal diagnoses, sometimes because of placement instability, gaps in previous records, or how long assessment waitlists can run. Behaviour support doesn’t need to wait for a diagnosis to begin. A Functional Behaviour Assessment looks at what’s actually happening for a child now, what a behaviour is communicating and what’s maintaining it, and a plan can be built from that regardless of where a formal diagnosis process is up to. Trauma-informed behaviour support doesn’t wait for paperwork to catch up.
What happens if a child’s placement changes partway through a Behaviour Support Plan?
Placement changes don’t mean starting from zero. Where possible, we work to transfer the existing plan, case history and strategies to the new placement and carer, so the child isn’t relearning trust with a completely blank slate on top of everything else that’s changing. It’s worth flagging a placement change to us as early as possible, even before it’s finalised, so we can help prepare the new carer or care team and keep continuity of support for foster carer behaviour support and kinship carer behaviour support arrangements alike.
Do carers need any training or experience before you can start working with them?\
No. Carer coaching is part of how we work, not a prerequisite for it. Many foster carers and kinship carers we support are new to caring for a child with complex trauma-related needs, and that’s exactly where foster carer behaviour support and kinship carer behaviour support start, building confidence and skill alongside carers rather than assuming it’s already there. Training materials and sessions are built around the actual child and plan, not generic content, so carers are learning strategies specific to the young person in front of them.
How quickly can support start after a referral, especially if things feel urgent?
Timeframes depend on the nature of the referral and current availability, but urgent safety concerns are flagged and prioritised rather than joining a general queue. If a situation feels unsafe or is escalating, it’s worth saying so clearly at the point of referral rather than assuming it will be picked up. For anything involving immediate risk to a child or carer, emergency services or your local Child Safety after-hours service should always be the first call, with Behaviour Collaborations supporting the ongoing behaviour support for children in care alongside that.
Can Behaviour Collaborations work directly with a child’s school as well as their carer?
Yes, where it’s appropriate and everyone involved agrees to it. Behaviour that shows up differently at school than at home is common, and strategies that only exist at home tend to lose their effectiveness fast. With the right permissions in place, we can liaise directly with a school alongside the carer or care team, so the same trauma-informed behaviour support approach carries across both environments instead of existing in two disconnected versions.
Is telehealth appropriate for behaviour support work with children in care, given how sensitive it can be?
In many cases, yes, though it depends on the child, the situation and what a particular session is trying to achieve. Sessions focused on carer coaching, plan review or coordinating with a wider support team often work well by telehealth. Sessions that need direct observation of a child in their environment, such as part of a Functional Behaviour Assessment, are more often done in person. We’ll usually recommend a mix based on what the situation actually needs, since behaviour support for children in care rarely fits a one-size-fits-all format.
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