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FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SERVICES STRONGER AND FINANCIALLY SUSTAINABLE

September 6, 2011

The NSW Liberals and Nationals Government has committed $1.6 billion in the 2011-12 Budget as a first step to rebuilding the Department of Family and Community Services and improving support for children, young people and families across NSW.

Minister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward said the Budget lays a solid foundation for the future, meeting election commitments to protect frontline workers, while placing the Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) on a sustainable footing.

“Protecting frontline workers so they can continue to support our most vulnerable is paramount. However, the future wellbeing of children and young people will ultimately depend on a financially sustainable Department that can offer the support they need,” Ms Goward said.

The Budget includes exciting new initiatives to look at how we can work better and smarter:

  • Clearing roadblocks to adoption.
  • Trialling minimum targets for caseworker visits.
  • Investigating how we can reward early intervention and prevention through Social Benefits Bonds.
    Labor left NSW with:
  • A huge $1.9 billion Budget gap in FaCS over 4 years from 2011-12.
  • Out-of-home care (OOHC) expenditure growing at almost 15% per annum, with 17,931 children and young people, or 11 in 1000 in OOHC. This is the highest number and proportion of children and young people in OOHC in the nation.

“There are difficult decisions in this Budget which will return FaCS to financial sustainability”, Ms Goward said. These include:

  • Returning to Labor’s pre-2006 practice of reducing carer allowances by the amount of the Youth Allowance when young people turn 16 years of age.
  • Reducing allowances paid to new carers who adopt children and young people in out of home care.
  • Incorporating the 2009 $30 increase in the base rate of pension and allowances in the calculation of subsidised public rents.

“These savings are dwarfed by hundreds of millions of dollars in savings contributed by the Department through reforms including to Community Services’ contracting arrangements, without affecting caseworkers or care.

“The Budget provides $700 million for OOHC in 2011-12, including investments aligned to transferring OOHC to the non-government sector, a key election commitment.

“The NSW Government is committed to improving services for vulnerable families. By building better systems and programs, we can fully harness the strengths of both the non-government sector and Community Services to deliver their best, at a cost that is sustainable in the long term.

“Developing a Social Benefit Bond in OOHC with the Treasurer will boost non-government service flexibility and creativity to improve services for children and share the benefits with investors, NGOs and taxpayers.

“The transfer of OOHC to NGOs will occur in a staged and manageable way, taking into account the improvements in capacity, processes and systems needed from Government and NGOs alike.”

Ms Goward said funding of $283 million for the Community Development and Support Program, an increase of $36 million from 2010-11 for Community Services, would increase a range of services including those delivered by neighbourhood and community centres and build safer and stronger communities.

“The NSW Government is investing a further $2.5 million to expand the Staying Home Leaving Violence program to an additional five sites.

“This extra funding is another election commitment delivered by this Government and demonstrates our strong support for tackling domestic and family violence,” Ms Goward said.
Key areas of expenditure in 2011-12 include:

  • Child Youth and Family Prevention and Early Intervention Services – $169 million* including $64.2 million for Brighter Futures, an early intervention initiative delivered by the NGO sector to over 3,600 families to help prevent children from entering or escalating in the child protection system. This includes an additional $10 million for the NGO sector to deliver the Brighter Futures program, as announced on 1 July.
  • Statutory child protection – $424 million to protect children who need statutory intervention, an increase of $20 million from last year.
  • Out-of-home care (OOHC) – $700 million to support children and young people who cannot live at home safely because of serious neglect and abuse or whose families might be unable to care for them.
  • Keep Them Safe (KTS) – Over $183 million will be spent looking out for and responding to children at risk across government. This includes $43 million for prevention and early intervention and $10.8 million to improve services for Aboriginal people.
  • Community Development and Support Program – $283 million to support and strengthen families and communities. This includes funding of $12 million to implement Homelessness Action Program initiatives focused on prevention and early intervention for those facing homelessness.

In total, the Family and Community Services cluster will receive over $5.5 billion in the 2011-12 Budget for services and over $250 million for capital infrastructure. This includes funding for the Aboriginal Housing Office; Ageing, Disability and Home Care; Businesslink; Community Services, Housing NSW and the Office for Women’s Policy.

* This budget item has been substantially transformed by the transfer of children’s services to Education and Communities and is therefore not comparable to last year’s budget for the same program item.