Parenting and Caring

Parenting and Caring is the third core module, worth about a quarter of the course. It covers anyone who looks after a dependant: a child, an older person, or someone with a disability or illness. Answers should show you understand that "parenting and caring" includes carers, not just parents.

• Becoming a parent or carer: types of parents and carers, roles, and preparation.
• Factors affecting parenting and caring roles: characteristics of the dependant, personal influences, social influences, and styles of parenting and caring.
• Rights and responsibilities of parents, carers and dependants.
• Support for parents and carers: informal and formal support, and types of services.

Parents

• Biological parents are genetically related to the child.
• Social parents take on the parenting role without being the biological parent:
• Adoptive parents: a court order (in NSW, from the Supreme Court) permanently transfers all parental rights and responsibilities to them. Since 2010, same-sex couples in NSW can adopt, as can single people and de facto couples. Most NSW adoptions are open, so the child keeps some contact with the birth family.
• Foster parents (carers): authorised by an agency to care for a child who cannot live safely with their family, often temporarily. Legal parental responsibility usually stays with the birth parents or the Minister.
• Step-parents: the partner of a child's parent, who may take on a parenting role.
• Intended parents through surrogacy: under the Surrogacy Act 2010 (NSW), altruistic surrogacy is legal but commercial surrogacy is an offence, including for NSW residents arranging it overseas. The birth mother is the legal parent at birth; the intended parents apply to the Supreme Court for a parentage order.

Legal, social and technological change has widened social parenting. Assisted reproductive technology (IVF, donor eggs and sperm), changed adoption law and more blended families mean more children have social parents.

Carers

• Primary carer: the person who gives the most informal help to someone with disability or an older person with core activities (self-care, mobility, communication).
• Informal carers are unpaid family members or friends. They may still receive government payments such as Carer Allowance.
• Formal carers are paid and usually trained, employed by an organisation (disability support workers, aged care workers, nurses, childcare educators).

Key statistics (ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, 2022): about 3.0 million Australians were carers (11.9% of people living in households), about 1.2 million were primary carers, and 391 300 carers were under 25. Women are more likely than men to be carers, and most primary carers are women. About 44% of primary carers had a disability themselves.

Why people become carers: love and a sense of duty, cultural or family expectations, no alternative services, cost of formal care, or a sudden event such as an accident. Age and gender matter: older carers (often spouses) may have their own health problems; young carers may miss school and social life.

1. Meeting the specific needs of the dependant: food, shelter, health care, safety, education, emotional support.
2. Developing a positive relationship: communication, trust, consistency, spending time together, respecting independence.
3. Promoting the wellbeing of the dependant: physical, social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual wellbeing; encouraging independence and self-esteem.

How important each role is depends on the situation. A newborn needs constant physical care; a teenager needs guidance and room for independence; an older person with dementia needs safety, routine and dignity.

Paid Parental Leave (Australian Government): 26 weeks for children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2026 (it was 24 weeks in 2025–26); parents can share it, and superannuation has been paid on it since 1 July 2025.

Characteristics of the dependant

• Age: infants need constant care; adolescents need guidance; older people may need mobility or personal care help.
• Skills and capabilities: what the dependant can do for themselves.
• Special needs: disability, chronic illness, mental illness, giftedness, behavioural needs. These usually add time, cost, skills and stress to the caring role.

Personal influences (on the parent or carer)

Culture, religion, education, previous experience, upbringing, multiple roles (competing commitments such as work and other children), socioeconomic status, and the carer's own special needs (for example a carer with a chronic illness).

Social influences

• Community attitudes: for example, how the community views young parents, same-sex parents or people who place a parent in aged care.
• Gender expectations: assumptions that women are natural carers and men are breadwinners.
• Media stereotypes: the "perfect mother" on social media; the incompetent father in advertising.

Influences combine. A sole parent on a low income working shifts (socioeconomic status and multiple roles) may struggle to find time, and community attitudes towards sole parents can add stress.

Most research links the democratic style with the best outcomes, but parents often mix styles depending on the situation, and culture shapes what is seen as appropriate.

Legal rights of parents and carers: to make decisions about the dependant's health and medical treatment, education, religion and where they live; to financial support where eligible (for example Family Tax Benefit, Carer Payment, Child Support).

Rights of dependants: to be protected from harm, to education, to health care, and to be heard in decisions that affect them as they mature. An older adolescent who understands a treatment may be able to consent for themselves.

Responsibilities of parents and carers:

• Duty of care: take reasonable steps to protect the dependant from foreseeable harm, for example supervising children near water.
• Setting limits: clear, consistent rules suited to age.
• Discipline: guiding behaviour. In NSW, physical punishment of a child by a parent is legal only if it is reasonable; it is unlawful to use force to the head or neck, or force that harms the child for more than a short time (Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), section 61AA). Most experts recommend non-physical discipline.
• Making sure children attend school (in NSW, complete Year 10, then school, training or work until 17).

Neglect or abuse can be reported by anyone, and mandatory reporters (teachers, doctors, childcare workers) must report a child at risk of significant harm to the Child Protection Helpline.

Informal support: relatives, friends and neighbours, such as grandparents providing childcare, a friend cooking meals, a neighbour checking in.

Formal support: government agencies and community organisations.

Carer Gateway is the national Australian Government service for carers (counselling, coaching, peer support, emergency respite). Carers NSW advocates for carers. You do not need detailed knowledge of every agency, but you must be able to describe what a named service does and evaluate it.

Evaluating support: is it accessible (location, hours, cost), suitable for this dependant and carer, timely (waiting lists), and does it improve wellbeing? Barriers include not knowing the service exists, reluctance to ask for help, eligibility rules and distance.

Question (original, 4 marks): Explain how multiple roles can affect a parent's ability to meet the needs of a dependant.

Answer: Multiple roles are the competing responsibilities a person has, such as paid work, caring for other family members, study and community commitments. A parent who works full-time and also cares for an ageing mother has less time and energy for their child. They may miss school events or have less time to help with homework, which can affect the child's education and emotional wellbeing. Role conflict can also cause stress and fatigue, making the parent less patient and affecting the parent–child relationship. Using workplace flexibility, sharing roles with a partner and using services such as respite for the ageing mother can reduce these effects.

• Writing only about parents of young children when the question says "parenting and caring" or "dependant".
• Confusing informal (unpaid) and formal (paid) carers.
• Mixing up personal influences (on the carer) and characteristics of the dependant.
• Confusing permissive (warm, few rules) with negligent (uninvolved).
• Describing a service without explaining how it helps the carer or dependant.
• Stating out-of-date law, for example that commercial surrogacy is legal with a contract.

• Short answers often name a type of carer (young carer, foster parent, carer of an aged person). Keep every example specific to that carer.
• Use syllabus terms precisely: roles, preparation, characteristics of the dependant, personal influences, social influences, rights, responsibilities, informal support, formal support.
• For "analyse" questions, show how influences interact and what they mean for the dependant and the carer.
• Graph or data questions: describe the trend first, then explain it using course content (for example rising numbers of young carers linked to an ageing population and increasing chronic illness).

• Groups in Context: carers of people with disabilities and the aged; sole parents; young carers within youth.
• Research Methodology: interpreting carer statistics and evaluating research about carers.
• Options: Family and Societal Interactions (child protection, family law, older people); Individuals and Work (carer's leave, flexible work, managing multiple roles).