The month of January has already been a busy one – as it has for everyone in the sector.
It has also been a month in which I am sure all FRSA members have been able to breathe a sigh of relief with the confirmation of increased funding for 2022-23 to help meet increased costs of service delivery. First, the Attorney-General’s Department advised overall increases to funding for organisations funded under the Family and Relationship Services Program in the order of 4.71%. Then, this week we had the Department of Social Services advise that the increase they would be applying to all eligible grants (which includes all programs under the Families and Children Activity) would be well above the 5.3% identified by the sector as the minimum required to meet increased costs. Whilst these increases are a combination of pre-existing indexation commitments and the October Budget measure ‘to support Community Sector Organisations’ ($560 million over four years), they provide assurance to service providers that the Government has been listening and are committed to supporting community sector organisations to do the important work they do. It is a very welcome outcome!
FRSA is also in the thick of work with the Centre for International Economics (The CIE) to contribute to the evidence base of the value of Family and Relationship Services through the cost benefit analysis project. The work the team at CIE have been doing is very impressive and we can’t wait to deliver the results of that report before the Federal Budget this year.
Looking to the year ahead there are significant opportunities for FRSA and the broader sector to be involved in consultative processes aimed at improving the outcomes for the children, adults, and communities we work with. Already we have two significant consultation processes underway with the proposed amendments to the Family Law Act and the ALP’s Early Years Summit (more on these below). We will be actively involved in both and look forward to working with our members to bring the views of our sector to the table.
In February we will be delivering two ‘Member Only’ webinars, a new deliverable exclusive to the FRSA Membership base. The first will be on the Exposure Draft of the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 on 8 February 2023, with Rebecca Mills, Assistant Secretary of the Family Law Branch at the Attorney-General’s Department. The second webinar on 21 February 2023, will have Catherine Liddle, CEO of SNAICC, talk about their recent work for the Department of Social Services looking at the role of ACCOs and services for families and children.
My special thanks to members of the FRSA Conference Reference Committee and a couple of other FRSA friends we have had to lean on for assessing and scoring the 147 abstracts over the month of January. We are going through the final stages of assessment and hope to have the concurrent session program out to you in the next few weeks. It is looking really impressive, and we hope you will be able to attend the FRSA Conference at the Gold Coast Convention Centre from 15-18 May 2023.
I am also gearing up for the FRSA member forums we are convening in every state and territory in mid-late March. I can’t wait!
With 2023 well underway, just a reminder that the FRSA team is here to assist you. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch:
- Jackie Brady, Executive Director – ExecDirector@frsa.org.au
- Robyn Clough, Manager, Policy and Research – policy@frsa.org.au
- Narelle Kay, Events and Membership Officer – events@frsa.org.au
- Vanessa Lam, Communications Officer – communications@frsa.org.au
- Sandra Rabjohns, Communities of Practice Project Officer – projects@frsa.org.au
- Carol Reeve – Administrative Officer – admin@frsa.org.au
Or contact the National Office on 02 6162 1811.
