AIFS was commissioned and funded by the Department of Social Services (DSS) to conduct the Working Together to Care for Kids: A Survey of Foster and Relative/kinship Carers (also known as the 'Working Together to Care for Kids Survey', or WTCKS).

This national survey involved telephone interviews with 2,203 foster and relative/kinship carers in late 2016 and was aimed at providing a better understanding of the characteristics and needs of the carers of children who are living in out-of-home care in Australia.

Participants in this survey were foster and relative/kinship carers who were registered as formal carers (i.e., had at least one child in care under 18 years of age living with them) at 31 December 2015 in all jurisdictions except the Northern Territory. Most questions relating to children who were placed under the carers' care were directed to one child (referred to as "study child" or "study children").