Part 2: Achievements and challenges–performance insights
- Building the evidence base
- Partnerships
- Volunteering
- Indigenous communities
- Stronger Families and Communities Strategy
- More help for families
- Helping prevent homelessness
- Giving children the best possible start in life
- The new Child Care Support Program
- Helping parents support their children—the Child Support Agency
- Work and family
- Encouraging participation
- Reforms to support people with disabilities
- FaCS–Centrelink Business Alliance
- People are a priority in FaCS
- FaCS triple bottom line reporting
Work and family
Key points
- Work and family is one of the Australian Government's strategic priority areas.
- In 2003–04, the Government funded 44 000 more child care places.
- A range of new family assistance and child care measures–in the More Help for Families package in the 2004–05 Budget, in the December 2003 announcements, and in the new Stronger Families and Communities Strategy–will help families balance their work and family responsibilities.
In November 2002, the Prime Minister announced that work and family was one of the Australian Government's strategic priority areas for consideration during its current term and that it would work to develop policy options in this area. The Government's objective has been to facilitate choice for families and individuals in balancing their work and family lives, rather than to mandate behaviour, given that individual families will differ in their priorities.
During 2003–04 the Government made available an extra 40 000 outside school hours care places and 4000 more family day care places. These additional places represent a 17 per cent increase in the supply of outside school hours care and nearly a 6 per cent increase in the number of family day care places available.
These places were sufficient to meet the current verified demand from service providers and have allowed 683 new outside school hours care services and two new family day care services to be established.
The availability of these extra places will assist many more families to access affordable, quality child care. Access to quality child care helps parents to participate in employment, training or community activities and to better balance their work and family responsibilities.
In addition, in the 2004–05 Budget the Government allocated additional funding of $219.9 million over four-and-a-half years to provide Child Care Benefit to eligible parents and provide establishment funding for new child care services in areas with demonstrated demand.
In combination, the More Help for Families package measures, outlined earlier in this volume, will provide greater assistance to families when they need help–while also providing better rewards for paid work and improving work incentives. The package includes a universal maternity payment for each new child born on or after 1 July 2004, and further increases in the availability of child care, vital in supporting parents' participation in the workforce.
The package was developed following consideration by the Work and Family Taskforce, established by the Prime Minister to review policy and develop a range of options for financial assistance on the birth of a child, other financial support for families, and child care. The taskforce was chaired by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with participation from the departments of Family and Community Services, the Treasury, Employment and Workplace Relations, and Finance and Administration.
FaCS will be responsible for implementing many of the measures that will help families balance their work and family responsibilities.