New funding is an important part of our response to child protection system review recommendations made by Mal Hyde and Kate Alexander.
The reviews recommended rebalancing and providing a more responsive system to work with at-risk families sooner and boosting efforts in responding to concerns about child safety and wellbeing.
Announcing the funding today, Human Services Minister Nat Cook said the focus is on ensuring more families receive services to stay safely together through targeted, specialised interventions led by the Department of Human Services (DHS).
Intensive family support programs focus on improving parenting skills, household management, service access and school attendance, as well as offering other practical backup such as financial assistance and transport.
It is expected this intensive family service initiative will support around 250 additional families a year from 2024.
This focus on early years investment aims to prevent the high cost of out of home care and increase the capacity of the system to ensure more families get the help they need to stay together.
DHS is also working to ensure South Australia has the best people in the right jobs in the child and family support system. Significant work is underway to develop graduate and student programs and ensure work readiness for this challenging but rewarding area supporting children and families.
Approximately 60 new social workers will be employed by DHS, commencing immediately.
The Department is in ongoing discussions with Flinders University and the University of South Australia to support a pipeline of social workers coming into the child and family support system.
Families entering the DHS family support programs are identified through SA Health, Department for Education and Department of Child Protection.
Quotes
Attributable to Nat Cook
We know we need to turn things around and are investing to improve the lives of children and parents across South Australia.
Parenting is challenging and some families need extra support. We want to keep families together and we know that one way of doing that is by investing in early intervention.
If we can address issues before they become seriously insurmountable, requiring children to be removed, that’s a far better outcome.
Early intervention is a priority for this government and aligns with our move towards universal three-year-old preschool. It is an important measure to improve outcomes for all children – but is does have a disproportionately positive impact for children from vulnerable or disadvantaged communities.
This $35.7 million in new funding ensures capacity to work with more at-risk families sooner to achieve better outcomes especially for children.
Attributable to Katrine Hildyard
Families are facing deeply complex and interconnected issues – poverty, domestic violence, intergenerational trauma, mental ill health, substance misuse – and one in three South Australian children are notified to child protection.
Tackling these very challenging issues requires a multi-pronged whole of government, whole of community and whole of sector effort. That is why we are now convening our cross-government CE group focused on child protection reform and responses to recent reviews, and why we are amplifying the voice of children and young people, carers and people with direct experience of the system.
Tackling these issues also requires supporting families in a focused, effective and targeted way to walk alongside and help them tackle the complexity of challenges they may face.
This significant funding is about doing just that. I look forward to working with the Minister for Human Services and with other government agencies to deliver the funding in a way that makes a real difference.
Attributable to Kathy Venn, DHS social worker
I have been a social worker for 23 years and have been working with DHS for three years. I’m a supervisor in a team in Adelaide’s South in which we support vulnerable families and children. My team is committed to providing the highest quality of service to our most vulnerable and in need children and their families.
I am social worker because I have a strong sense of social justice and I’m really passionate about supporting vulnerable people, communities, families and children.
Being a social worker is a privilege and is an incredibly rewarding career. Social workers can play a vital part in improving people’s lives and there are many opportunities within DHS to be able to make a difference.
We get to work closely with families and communities who have been through significant challenges and we often see how our support can improve the quality of life for families. Social work is an amazing profession to be a part of.
