Fostering and Home for Life: A guide for NZ employers
Foster care provides safe, temporary homes for vulnerable children. Some foster arrangements become permanent through Home for Life placements or permanent care orders. Supporting employees who open their homes to these children demonstrates your commitment to family-friendly workplace practices.
In New Zealand, over 4,000 children are in foster care at any given time, with around 300-400 children transitioning to permanent Home for Life placements annually. Given these numbers, employers are increasingly encountering these situations in their workplaces.
Statutory entitlements
Temporary fostering
For short-term or emergency foster placements:
Employees are not entitled to parental leave entitlements.
They may use annual leave, unpaid leave, or flexible working arrangements.
Some collective agreements or workplace policies provide special foster care leave.
Permanent Home for Life placements
Employees who become permanent caregivers for a child under 6 years old are eligible for parental leave entitlements:
This includes "Home for Life" placements and permanent guardianship arrangements.
For qualifying permanent arrangements, standard parental leave entitlements apply, such as:
Up to 26 weeks of primary carer leave
Up to 26 weeks of government-paid parental leave (if eligible)
Partner's leave (1-2 weeks)
Extended leave (up to 26 or 52 weeks)
Standard eligibility criteria apply, including the requirement to have worked an average of at least 10 hours per week for any 26 of the 52 weeks immediately before the child's placement date to qualify for government-paid parental leave.
Important timing note
Employees must notify you in writing at least 14 days before they expect to assume care of the child. Employers are encouraged to waive standard notification periods and work collaboratively with employees to arrange appropriate leave for unexpected adoption situations, such as emergency placements. The application should include evidence of the permanent caregiving arrangement, such as a court order or a letter from Oranga Tamariki.
Potential upcoming changes
The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (currently progressing through Parliament) includes changes that would give non-biological parents more flexibility:
It would clarify that eligible employees can stop working within a reasonable period of becoming the primary carer of a child under the age of six, rather than having to stop working immediately when they become a primary carer.
This change would particularly benefit those who take on the care of a child unexpectedly or through informal arrangements that later become formalised.
Under the current rules, some adoptive parents have been denied parental leave payments because they did not take parental leave or stop working from the exact date they became the child's primary carer.
Best practices for employers
While statutory entitlements remain the same, employers can acknowledge the additional challenges of multiple births through supportive policies.
For temporary fostering
Flexible work arrangements: Offer flexitime, compressed workweeks, or remote work options
Short-notice leave provisions: Create policies for emergency placements
For permanent Home for Life placements
Flexible timing: Allow for adjustable start dates for leave
Bonding time: Consider offering leave for relationship-building before the official placement
Extended leave options: Offer additional leave beyond statutory requirements
Return-to-work flexibility: Support phased returns or alternative arrangements
Creating a supportive policy
An inclusive parental leave policy explicitly addresses fostering:
Distinguish between temporary and permanent placements
Clarify eligibility for parental leave entitlements
Outline any additional support your organisation offers
Consider how to support emergency or short-notice placements
Include links to relevant support resources, such as Caring Families Aotearoa and Oranga Tamariki
For further enquiries
While we work to keep our information current, the last word lies with the relevant government agencies:
Contact Inland Revenue (IRD) for information on government-paid parental leave.
For everything else related to parental leave entitlements, contact the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) through Employment New Zealand.
Need a hand improving your policy or modelling the cost?
Gain our insights from creating the largest NZ database of verified parental leave policies, a growing number of which include provisions to support employees fostering children.
Now for the important legal part: The information we provide is general and not regulated financial advice for the purposes of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. Please seek independent legal, financial, tax or other advice in considering whether the content in this article is appropriate for your goals, situation or needs. The information in this article is current as at 11 May 2025.
Stephanie Pow
Founder & CEO of Crayon
