Welcome

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The Minister encouraged community business partnerships contributing to a better Australia to apply for the Awards, saying they were a valuable way of raising awareness of the benefits of community business partnerships.

Nominations close on 27 April 2007.

For more award information or to access the nomination forms go to www.partnerships.gov.au or call 1800 102 014 (freecall).

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The new services to be established this year will help separated families. Services under the Parenting Orders Program help separated parents experiencing high conflict to put aside their own interests and to focus on the best outcome for their children.

Children's Contact Services also help families in high conflict or where there are safety concerns. They provide safe transfer of children from one parent to another and supervised visits where this is needed.

The successful organisations have been invited to negotiate funding agreements to operate these new services.

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A recent course addition is in Brisbane between Monday 25 to Friday 29 June 2007. Applications close 30th March 2007. So don't delay - register now!

The training is an intensive five-day accredited course available to suitable practitioners wanting to deliver Mental Health First Aid Training (MHFA). The training teaches best practice responses to people experiencing mental health issues.

The initiative will further increase community capacity to respond to mental health issues.

To review the Evaluation Report from the pilot MHFA training delivered last year, go to http://www.facsia.gov.au/frsp.

For a summary of the MHFA training, go to http://www.mhfa.com.au.

To register or for more information, go to Free Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Instructor Course.

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The new representative body, Family Relationships Services Australia (FRSA), has now been incorporated as a public company limited by guarantee. As a public company, FRSA will have extensive reporting requirements and be legally accountable for acting in the best interests of the company and membership. The objects for which the Company is established are:

1. to provide an independent Representative Body to contribute and respond to the initiatives and policy of Government and others in regard to the Family Relationships Services Program (FRSP or its successors) and associated issues to advance the wellbeing of individuals and families in the community;
2. to act as a conduit of information between the FRSP sector and Government on FRSP policy, program management and service delivery developments;
3. to represent to other organisations and Government the needs and interests of members in relation to key priorities and emerging issues related to them;
4. to foster the development of policy, strategic planning and evaluation toward improved services and activities to facilitate the delivery of high quality family relationships services focused on outcomes for individuals and families; and
5. to facilitate FRSP sector development and the interests of members.

A consultation process has been held with FRSP service providers to inform decisions regarding the function, structure and operations of the new organisation.

Providers were asked to complete an online survey in response to the Discussion Paper ‘Working Together’ and then invited to participate in consultation forums held in six capital cities. Feedback gathered from these consultation activities will provide valuable input to assist the FRSA Inaugural Board and the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs in working through establishment issues.

FRSA is aiming to be fully established and operational by 1 July 2007. Prior to this, FRSA will need to recruit staff and establish a secretariat.

For more information, email frspe-news@facsia.gov.au

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CSHISC, engaged by the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA), have introduced the following qualifications:

• Certificate IV in Relationship Education
• Diploma of Relationship Education

These two qualifications have now been submitted for endorsement through the Vocational Education and Training endorsement process. Once endorsed, they will form a part of the Community Services Training Package (CHC02). It is expected endorsement will be received by April 2007.

FaCSIA is now in the process of considering the implementation of the qualifications. It is expected that the implementation strategy will involve assessment tools, an information kit and national workshops for training providers, workplace assessors, employers and employees.

For more information, email frspe-news@facsia.gov.au

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The Family Relationship Services Branch of the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA) and the Family Pathways Branch of the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) are responsible for organising and funding the 2007 FRSP Forum as part of their ongoing commitment to the family relationship services sector. We hope to bring together around 400 delegates from service provider organisations around Australia.

The proposed theme for this year’s forum is ‘Building an integrated and innovative service delivery system’. The purpose of the conference is to review progress against the strategic planning and update it as appropriate, to review the expansion of services under the New Family Law Reform, and to access the service operation as an integrated service delivery system.

The forum provides an opportunity to reflect on the establishment of the new services, to consider the extent to which the program is working as a system of service support, and also look at how to improve linkages and innovation in service delivery to families.

More information will be provided closer to the date.

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The pilot will assist eight FRSP EIS and eight Early Childhood Program (ECP) services to better meet the needs of fathers.

ECP services are being recruited through a separate process.

Expressions of interest to participate in the Pilot close 2 April 2007 and the selection process outcomes will be announced by 13 April 2007. 

The Father Inclusive Practice Pilot overview has further information on the:

• Support the Department will provide for participating organisations;
• Pilot selection criteria; and
• Pilot aims, measures of success, activities and timeline.

To express interest in participating in the pilot, please respond to the selection criteria and email your response to Neal Ollett at neal.ollett@facsia.gov.au.

For more information, please call Neal Ollett on (02) 6212 9167.

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CSA has a range of products and refers separated parents to services which can help.

The CSA’s Me and My series comprises five free booklets, focusing on the main areas of stress for separated parents: kids, money, personal wellbeing, dealing with the ‘ex’ and managing new relationships.

The booklets have been created with input from experts and advocacy groups and were ‘road tested’ by parents to make sure the information is useful and relevant. Furthermore, they’ve just been translated into five languages for parents who don’t speak English.

The free Me and My booklets have received high praise from community groups including Deputy CEO of beyondblue Dr Nicole Highet.

Dr Highet said the latest booklet in the series, Me and My Changing Family highlights the numerous complexities and adjustments for all family members as a result of re-partnering.

“This booklet offers practical tips and strategies which can be invaluable in assisting individuals during this transition, which can sometimes be difficult and challenging,” Dr Highet said.

CSA’s free interactive CD-ROM, Dealing with Separation, has real people in real situations talking about their experiences and includes practical tips and hints on dealing with separation.

Copies of the free booklets and CD are available from 1800 040 972 and www.csa.gov.au

Parents and community groups can also obtain information about services in their area via CSA’s Community Service Directory on www.csa.gov.au

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Experienced professionals, called Parenting Advisors, are also available to help people affected by separation work through the issues they are facing and decide what to do next. Over 60,000 calls have been taken since July 2006. The following are examples of how advisers have helped in recent months.

The adviser helped Tom focus on his children and used a strength based approach to help him shift from feeling like an unworthy parent to one who was looking at re-engaging with his children and exploring new ways to get back into the workforce.

Amber had left a violent relationship and the adviser worked with Amber to develop a safety plan and make sure she understood she didn’t deserve the violence.

Allison had recently split from her child’s father who had principle care of their child. Allison was under pressure from family to take the child and move away without the ex-partner’s knowledge. As there were no concerns about her ex-partner’s parenting, they talked about Allison’s role in supporting the relationship between her child and her ex-partner, that unilateral action could undermine any future attempts at co-operative parenting and the impact this action would have on her child, particularly a sense of stability. Allison intended to talk to her ex-partner about modifying the arrangements for the parenting of their child.

The Family Relationship Advice Line can be reached on 1800 050 321 and is open 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Friday and 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday.

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Service providers can use Family Relationships Online to find information about local and out of area services that might be helpful to their clients. The Family Relationship Advice Line relies on Family Relationships Online for referral information. The Attorney-General’s Department currently employs staff dedicated to working with service providers to enter and update their information on Family Relationships Online.

If you would like to check or update your service information, please contact the Family Relationships Online Help Desk by email at frohelp@ag.gov.au or by phoning 1800 654 724.

Family Relationships Online can also be used by service providers to find helpful information. There is a page ‘for service providers’ and the information resources available from that page will steadily be expanded over coming months.

As indicated in the last FRSP Sector e-News, a project is underway to get feedback from our stakeholders (particularly FRSP service providers) about how they find Family Relationships Online and what suggestions they have for improving it. That project is being progressed in conjunction with another project which will develop individual pages for Family Relationship Centres to better promote their services.

Other exciting development includes proposals for new enhancements to the search function to greatly increase the number of information resources that are available and to make sure that searches for both information resources and services return the most relevant results. This work is expected to greatly improve satisfaction with the online service and we will keep FRSP services updated on progress with it.

We welcome your feedback about Family Relationships Online. To provide comments, please visit www.familyrelationships.gov.au and click on the feedback link on the bottom right-hand side of any page on Family Relationships Online.

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An email was sent out to all funded organisations confirming their organisational details. This information is to be used on the FaCSIA and Attorney-General’s FRSP websites. This included the outlet location and contact details. Service Provider Administrators have the ability to update a certain amount of their outlet details directly into FRSP Online. This can be done by selecting the view option under the organisation heading. Please note that only the FRSP Online Support Centre or organisation users authorised as a Service Provider Administrator have the ability to modify the organisation and outlet details.

The email also included a list of the current active users and professionals. If a user or professional is required to be added or removed, a signed request form needs to be supplied to the FRSP Online Support Centre. Please note,the user/professional request form must be signed by a Service Provider Administrator or the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). A request to add a Service Provider Administrator must be signed by the organisation’s CEO. The user/professional request form can be downloaded from the FRSP Online login website.

A problem with the FaCSLink data transfer process has been identified. This issue has stopped data from being sent from organisations to FaCSIA through the automated process introduced in FaCSLink version 4.7. This problem has not resulted in any data loss, as data is held on your FaCSLink installation until it is able to transfer to FaCSIA. To transmit your FaCSLink data all you will need to do is log into FaCSLink. The automated process will do the rest.

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Service providers who were successful in the recent funding round (subject to the resolution of some outstanding contractual issues) to receive funding for Family Relationship Centres, are to be offered the choice of Funding Agreements to sign.

Service providers may choose to use a slightly modified version of the draft Funding Agreement used in the selection process documentation, or the updated Multi-Schedule Long Form Funding Agreement which will shortly become the FaCSIA standard Funding Agreement.

Providers selected to provide services for EIS and PSS will be required to sign the Multi-Schedule Long Form Funding Agreement.

With the finalisation of the templates for the Funding Agreement complete, largely due to the level of assistance from FaCSIA’s Service Helpdesk, FaCSIA’s state and territory office network are able to progress negotiations with service provides and finalise the 2006/2007 selection process.