And just like that another year is drawing to a close! We have been beavering away in the FRSA National Office finalising the Conference abstract review process with our review panel and we expect to release the Conference program early in the New Year. Early bird registration is currently open and our Sponsorship prospectus has launched!

We’ve also been working away on our submission to the Review of the Attorney-General’s Department’s Family and Relationship Services Program (FRSP). The review is bring led by former Senior public servant, Mr Andrew Metcalfe AO, with support from the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS). If you provide family relationship services to separating or separated clients or you are a family law system professional providing services to these clients, it’s not too late to have your say. AIFS survey of Professionals is open until 1 January 2024.

As we head toward the festive season, I am conscious that so many families are struggling under the weight of the cost of living crisis. Families in far North Queensland are facing flood recovery while further South people are anxiously awaiting rain and a lessening of the bushfire threat. I know many of our Members and friends will be working to support these families and communities over the holiday period. I wish to acknowledge your tremendous work through the year – every day you make a positive difference in the lives of so many.

The FRSA National Office will be closed from COB Thursday, 21 December 2023 and will reopen on Tuesday 2 January 2024. Contact details during this period will be available on our website – frsa.org.au.

I wish you all a safe and restful holiday season. We look forward to reconnecting with you all in 2024!

Kind regards,
Jackie Brady
FRSA Executive Director

Don’t miss out on early bird registration rates, which end 4 March 2024. As the sector’s ‘go to’ National, annual event – FRSA will not fail to deliver great speakers, great sessions, great networking and a great venue.

Early Bird Registration Fee* Until 4 March 2024

* To be entitled to the early bird registration fee you must have registered and paid by 15 March 2023.

Pre-Conference Workshops – FRSA MEMBERS ONLY

We’re pleased to release our Conference Sponsorship Prospectus. This year’s Conference is expected to attract 550+ delegates, including practitioners, researchers, managers, executives, and policy and program developers from government and non-government agencies.

FRSA is delighted that the Department of Social Services and the Attorney-General’s Department have committed as Conference Partners for this year’s Conference.

Sponsorship has always been a big part of FRSA’s Conferences and in acknowledgement of this support, we have designed packages that will allow for maximum visibility to showcase the work and activity of your organisation/business.

We welcome your support of the conference and hope that you will take advantage of the opportunities available to you in joining with FRSA as a Conference 2024 sponsor.

If you are interested in a more bespoke package for your organisation don’t hesitate to get in touch with the FRSA team on (02) 6162 1811 or events@frsa.org.au.

FRSA is pleased to offer two bursaries available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are registered for or would like to attend the 2024 Family & Relationship Services Australia National Conference,

Bursaries are provided to assist with covering the cost of conference registration, and travel & accommodation. Each package includes:

• 1 x Complimentary full registration to the Conference (including dinner)
• $500 towards travel and accommodation

To be eligible you must be an employee of a fully financial FRSA member organisation. Applications closes on THURSDAY, 28 March 2024.

People experiencing family, domestic or sexual violence can now receive specialist counselling and support services from 1800RESPECT via text message, ensuring those in unsafe situations who can’t access telephone or web chat can still get help.

The expansion follows an increase in demand for 1800RESPECT services, with more than 286,000 responses provided to phone and online requests in the 2020-21 financial year.

The new channel is expected to help meet the diverse needs of people living in rural and remote communities, and people who may have limited access to technology or internet, by offering more accessible ways to seek support.

Anglicare Australia has released its annual Jobs Availability Snapshot, which shows that the job market has been locking the same people out of work each year.

The Snapshot measured how many jobs are available for people who don’t have qualifications or work experience. It found that:

• For every entry-level job, there are 26 people out of work
• Of these people, 18 don’t have recent experience or qualifications, or they have barriers to work
• Unemployment has gone down, but the number of people with barriers to work has not budged
• These Australians spend almost four years looking for work
• On top of that, there are 947,000 underemployed workers. They could also be competing for these jobs.

“Our system is failing those who need the most help to find work – people with disabilities, who didn’t finish year 12, or older workers who lost their jobs later in life,” said Executive Director Kasy Chambers. Read the full report.

New research released by the Australian Institute of Criminology this week, has shed light on the prevalence of Australians accessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.

The study, ‘Prevalence of viewing online child sexual abuse material among Australian adults’, surveyed more than 13,000 Australian adults, with 0.8 percent of participants disclosing they had intentionally viewed online CSAM in the past year.

Further analysis based on logistic regression and predicted probabilities identified four key demographic factors associated with CSAM consumption. Survey respondents who were aged 18–34 years (predicted probability of 1.2%), were living with disability (predicted probability of 1.5%) were currently serving or had previously served in the military (1.9%), or spoke a language other than English at home (predicted probability of 2.0%) were more likely than others to have intentionally viewed CSAM.

Read the full report.

On 4 December, the Government held an inaugural roundtable with philanthropic partners of the Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children.

This initiative forms part of the $199.8 million package to target entrenched disadvantage announced in the May Budget, which has a strong focus on place-based, community-led change.

Roundtable outcomes

1. Working Together Agreement

Participants signed the Working Together Agreement – outlining a shared commitment to a long-term collaboration to improve the wellbeing of children, young people, and their families.

2. Millions of dollars’ worth of new initiatives

Philanthropic Dialogue members have made $65 million in philanthropic commitments towards new projects and initiatives aligned to the Investment Dialogue’s vision. This funding will support improved outcomes for children and families, including programs for children experiencing developmental delays and First Nations-led education and youth employment initiatives.

3. Community voices

Participants agreed to embed community voices in Investment Dialogue discussions through the establishment of a Community Leadership Council and a First Nations Leadership Council.

Read more here.

The findings of the NCAS Youth Report, launched on 13 December, shows that young people’s attitudes are improving.

The periodic survey, conducted by Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety ANROWS, shows that young Australians’ (aged 16 to 24) understanding of violence against women and attitudes towards this violence and towards gender inequality are improving slowly over time.

Key findings:

• Young people improved many attitudes that minimise violence and mistrust and objectify women. However, young respondents were still significantly less likely than those aged 25 years or older to “strongly disagree” with some attitudes that minimise violence, such as that domestic violence should be excused if the violent person later regrets their behaviour (54% compared to 73%).
• Most young Australians recognise that consent must be active and ongoing. However, fewer young respondents “strongly disagreed” that a man was justified in forcing sex when the woman had initiated kissing and then pushed the man away (70 – 72%), compared to when the man had initiated kissing (89 – 90%).
• Most young respondents agreed that violence against women is a problem in Australia (91%) and in the suburb or town where they live (53%). The recognition that violence against women is a problem in their local area was higher for young respondents compared to respondents aged 25 years or older.
• Many young Australians know where to get help. About two in three young respondents knew how to access domestic violence services.

The report, fact sheet and other related information is available on the ANROWS website.

The mental health of Australians has been declining since around 2010 and this is seen in earlier generations, not just the youths of ‘Gen Z’, according to a new study led by the University of Sydney.

It’s widely agreed that young people’s mental health has declined in developed countries in recent years. However, it has been debated whether this is an effect seen just in the post-millennium cohort, as well as whether it is a temporary shift that recovers with age, or a more permanent and worrying trend.

The new study, Generational differences in mental health trends in the twenty-first century, sought to answer this question by tracking the mental health of a dedicated cohort of Australians for 20 years from 2001 to 2020.

Drawing on data from the HILDA survey the researchers assessed how a birth cohort’s mental health changed as they aged and compared the mental health of each cohort (those born in each decade from 1940 to 1990) at the same age.

They found that people born in the 1990s have poorer mental health for their age than any previous generation and do not show the improvements in mental health as they age, as experienced by earlier generations. Importantly, the researchers found that this decline in mental health from around 2010 also impacted those born in the 1980s and, to a lesser extent, even the 1970s.

The Attorney-General, the Hon Mark Dreyfus, released the first annual report against the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030 on 15 December – the sixth anniversary of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse delivering its Final Report. The Royal Commission’s Final Report in 2017 made 409 recommendations on how to improve laws, policies and practices to prevent and better respond to child sexual abuse in institutions.

In response, all Australian Governments are collaborating on the implementation of the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030 – a whole-of-nation framework for preventing child sexual abuse in all settings – including within organisations, online, within families and by other people known and unknown to the child or young person.

More information on the National Strategy is available on the National Office for Child Safety website. You can read the Annual Report here.

The Parliamentary Inquiry into Australia’s worsening rental crisis has concluded with the release of the Committee’s final report.

This was the first-ever national inquiry into renting. The inquiry received 407 written submissions and 16,061 submissions through a simplified submission form, with more than 9,000 of these being renters.

The report is structured around three themes: increasing housing stock; rental affordability; and the strengthening and protection of renters’ rights.

Chair of the Inquiry, Senator Janet Rice put forward a suite of recommendations to the government in her Chair’s view. These include:

• Committing to substantial further investment in public, social and genuinely affordable housing in the 2024-25 Federal budget, including specific funding for youth and First Nations housing.
• Immediately increase all income support to ensure no income support recipient lives in poverty.
• Coordinate with the states and territories to freeze rental increases for two years, followed by a limit on rental increases of two per cent every two years. Both freeze and the ongoing limits should be attached to the property, not the specific tenancy or lease.
• Strengthen tenancy rights, giving renters security and stability.

“What was made undeniably clear by an overwhelming number of submitters and witnesses was that we are in the midst of a housing crisis, one of the worst Australians have ever seen,” said Senator Rice.

The Federal Government is inviting individuals, businesses, and community groups to submit their ideas and priorities for the 2024-25 Budget.

Submissions must be lodged by Thursday 25 January 2024.

Further information about lodging a submission is available on the Treasury website.

Earlier this month Kids First Australia (KFA) and Whitelion Youth Services formally completed their legal merger, creating a national organisation operating as KFA, that aims to improve the life trajectories of children and young people up to the age of 24.

The merger expands Kids First Australia’s footprint further across Victoria and into New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. KFA will continue to deliver the programs that Whitelion has become known for, as well as continue to seek to collectively impact and influence systemic challenges through the broad range of services and support they deliver.  These services and supports include:

• Education: early childhood and educational support;
• Support for children, youth and families: family coaching, mentoring for young people, case management, group work, employment pathways and vocational support; and
• Therapeutic: prevention programs, counselling and recovery.

“I am very excited about what we can achieve as we integrate our combined knowledge and skills to create a better future for children and young people, and their families nationally,”  said Kids First Australia Chair, Sandy Forbes. Read more.

Anglicare Tasmania has released a new research report detailing the physical and emotional toll that cost of living pressures are having on Tasmanians who live on low incomes.

The report, Survival Mode, explores the day-to-day experiences of a diverse group of Tasmanians who took part in in-depth interviews and kept a spending diary between July and November this year. It provides a clear picture of their daily struggle to cope with the cost of living crisis and the harm it is causing to their health and quality of life.

Dr Alexandra King from Anglicare Tasmania’s Social Action and Research Centre said the diaries showed people regularly missed out on or rationed groceries, electricity, medicine, health care and social activities. Many stayed home for days at a time to manage their transport costs.

The report calls for government action to raise the base rate of Jobseeker, improve access to healthcare for Tasmanians with chronic conditions, and make Centrelink and employment services less harmful for people. Read the full report.

AIFS has been commissioned by the Attorney-General’s Department to undertake research that will inform the review of Review of the Family Relationship Services Program (FRSP).

If you provide family relationship services (including under the Family Relationship Services Program) to separating or separated clients or you are a family law system professional providing services to these clients, AIFS want to hear from you. This research aims to help understand the needs of separated and separating families.

The survey takes 30 minutes to complete and closes 1 January 2024. Click here to complete the survey.

Homelessness Australia is inviting urgent responses to this survey, which is designed to shed light on the challenges faced by homelessness support workers in Australia due to the ongoing housing crisis.

The survey takes about two minutes to complete, and the confidential responses will help identify key areas of concern and potential solutions. The information gathered will also be used to assess the level of funding needed to meet the growing need in our communities as the new five-year National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA), which will come into effect in July 2024, is being negotiated

This summer ACOSS is running a survey in partnership with First Nations Clean Energy Network to understand the impacts of heat on people experiencing financial stress.

The survey will form the basis of an ACOSS report to be shared with media early next year. This is part of their broader advocacy calling for mandatory minimum energy performance standards and government support for low-income households to invest in energy-saving measures.  

The First Nations Clean Energy Network will publish a separate report on data from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents.

Click here to complete or share the survey.

If you have any events you’d like listed on the FRSA Events and Training Calendar or job vacancies you’d like listed on the FRSA Jobs Board, email Communications Officer, Vanessa Lam at communications@frsa.org.au. Please note that posting onto the FRSA website is reserved for FRSA Members only.

If you have an news item or event that you would like to be featured in a future eBulletin please submit your announcement via the form below or email communications@frsa.org.au with the subject “FRSA eBulletin submission”.

Please note FRSA members receive priority for items posted in the eBulletin. And to keep information current, relevant and useful, submissions will not be repeated from week to week.