A Senate committee report released this week has made 18 recommendations to help address the vast challenges facing grandparent carers, such as better access to foster care allowances and counselling.

Barnardos South Coast senior manager Kerry Moore said the numbers of grandparent carers was growing considerably, and many received very little financial support.

‘‘Well over half of the children who are in the out-of-home care system are cared for by family rather than being in foster care, it’s a growing figure, especially for Aboriginal families,’’ she said. 

‘‘They don’t want their grandchildren to go into foster care so of course they put up their hand.’’

Ms Moore said the report was recognition for a difficult job, often taken on at a time when grandparents were ready to take a break from parenting.

Among the recommendations is a call for state and territory governments to consider extending foster care allowances to grandparents who are raising their grandchildren in informal circumstances, without court orders.

The report calls on the states to address the disparity that exists between the assistance received by foster carers and that provided to grandparents.

The committee also found some grandparent carers felt desperate and overwhelmed by their task, and believed they were under-appreciated by governments and the wider community.

Some also believed the role was stigmatised, while others felt a sense of shame that some fault in their own parenting may have led to them now taking on care of their grandchildren.

However, a challenge facing the government was knowing just how many grandparent-led families were out in the community, an issue the report said could be remedied by including a census question in the 2016 poll, or conducting a phone survey or study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Introducing a trial voucher system to help cover the cost of computer courses, better access to parenting classes and more funding for legal services were also among the recommendations.