April 2017
Department of Health and Human Services
To: Children, Young People and Family Service Providers:
- ChildFIRST andFamily Services
- Early Childhood Development Coordinators
- Cradle to Kinder and Aboriginal Cradle to Kinder
- Early Parenting Centres
- Parenting Assessment and Skill Development Services (PASDS)
Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare
Children's Resource Program
Homeless Children's Support Services
Youth Support:
- Leaving Care and Springboard
- Finding Solutions
- Youth Support Service
- Adolescent Family Violence Program
- Adolescent Support Program
DHHS & DET:
- Local Connections Teams
- Child Protection
- Safeguarding and Community Services Branch
- Children and Youth Area Partnership
Introduction
Welcome to our Children, Young People and Family Service Providers Newsletter.
This newsletter has been prepared by the Early Pathways Unit of the Community Services, Department of Health and Human Services, to provide updates in statewide policy and service developments to our funded organisations and department programs that deliver services to vulnerable children, young people and families. We hope that you find this informative and useful to the valuable work in your organisations.
We encourage you to please distribute this to staff and managers across your services.
Contents
Supporting Victorian Young People Leaving Care
First Social Impact Bonds For Disadvantaged Victorians
Support For Vulnerable Families From Cradle To Kinder
Nominations Open For Protecting Children Awards
Launch Of Victorian Permanent Carer Helpline
Supporting Young Children As They Grow
Family Violence Workforce Census
Monash Emergency Expansion To Treat Kids Quicker
Boosting Forensic Mental Health Services To Keep Us Safe
Expressions of Interest Open For Homeless Funding
New Training and Support for Kinship And Foster Carers
More Support for New Parents and Their Children
New Eating Disorder Support Provides Food For Thought
Helping Victorian Students Learn a Musical Instrument
New Sporting Education Opportunities For Victorian Kids
Nominate Now for the 2017 Victorian Learn Local Awards
More Pharmacists Recruited To Fight The Flu
Getting Victoria’s Disability Services Ready for the NDIS
$85m to deliver NDIS in Victoria
Young Carers Website
Supporting Victorian Young People Leaving Care
Young Victorians leaving out-of-home care will have more support as they transition into adulthood.
On 5th Apr 2017 funding of $2.9 million for two new innovative programs was announced:
- Better Futures,a support service for young people leaving out-of-home care
- Mentoring, Learning and Support, a model for young people transitioning from residential care.
Better Futuresproactively engages with young people as they are about to turn 16. The service connects them with a support worker who’ll assist them as they transition from out-of-home care into adulthood up until the age of 21.
The funding will assist 100 young people, including 20 from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.
The funding includes $1.6 million for Better Futures which will be delivered by Quantum Support Services, MOIRA and Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency in the Gippsland, Southern Melbourne and Bayside Peninsula areas.
Anglicare Victoria in partnership with Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency has received $1.3 million to roll-out the Mentoring, Learning and Supportprogram.
The support will include a comprehensive learning and guidance model provided over a two-year period to stabilise and develop the necessary life skills for effective independence.
First Social Impact Bonds For Disadvantaged Victorians
Two welfare providers have been invited to develop Victoria’s first Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) to reach better outcomes for at-risk teenagers and the long term homeless.
On Thursday, April 13, 2017 it was announced that consortia led by Anglicare and Sacred Heart Mission have been chosen to explore new approaches to complex social issues through the use of Social Impact Bonds.
The Anglicare consortium, which includes VincentCare, proposes a mix of individualised case management, specialist support, and stable housing to improve outcomes for young people leaving out of home care.
Sacred Heart Mission will provide rapid access to stable housing and intensive case management to support Victorians experiencing chronic homelessness and harmful alcohol and other drug use.
Social Impact Bonds enable investors to fund service providers to develop and test new programs to tackle serious social issues. The Government will be instituting robust systems to measure SIBs outcomes and evaluate results.
The SIBs will complement current programs and services and will not replace existing services.
For more information on Social Impact Bonds in Victoria, visit
Support for Vulnerable Families From Cradle to Kinder
More Victorian families will have access to the critical support they need during and after the birth of their child thanks to the expansion of an intensive family and early parenting support program.
On 5th April 2017 an investment of $19 million for the Cradle to Kinder program was announced.
The extra funding means the program will grow from an existing eight sites to statewide coverage and the Aboriginal Cradle to Kinderprograms will also expand from two locations to 10.The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency will receive $4.1 million to expand its AboriginalCradle to Kinderprograms.
The program is an ante and post natal support service for vulnerable young mothers – aged 25 and under – and their families, commencing in pregnancy and continuing until the child reaches four years of age. Parents are supported to build their capabilities to provide for their child’s health, safety and development, as well as developing their own self-reliance through links to education, vocational training and employment.
Nominations Open for Protecting Children Awards
Nominations were opened on 19th April 2017 for awards celebrating the dedicated individuals and teams who work to improve the lives of Victoria’s most vulnerable children.
The Victorian Protecting Children Awards (formerly Robin Clark Protecting Children Awards) recognise the valuable contribution of individuals, organisations and the broader community who play their part to achieve the protection and wellbeing of children and young people, and their families.
Nominations close on Monday 15 May, 2017 and winners will be announced at the Victorian Protecting Children Awards ceremony on Tuesday 12 September as part of Foster Care Week in Victoria.
For further information or to nominate visit
The NAPCAN Play Your Part Award (Victoria) will also be awarded at the Victorian Protecting Children Awards ceremony. Information about this award can be found at the NAPCAN website
Launch of Victorian Permanent Carer Helpline
A new helpline established to provide timely support to permanent carers has been launched on 3rd Apr 2017.
The helpline will provide greater support for permanent carers, as well as referral, advocacy and advice to assist them to look after the children and young people in their care.
The helpline is managed by Permanent Care and Adoptive Families.
Permanent carers provide a stable and secure family life for children who cannot live with their own families. As at 30 June 2016, there were over 2200 children and young people in permanent care in Victoria.
The permanent care helpline is available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm on 03 9020 1833.
For more information, please call the helpline or email Permanent Care and Adoptive Families at
Supporting Young Children as They Grow
On 27th April 2017 the new online, interactive elearning course, Laying the Foundations, for early childhood educators was launched.
The course highlights the importance of the early years in a child’s life and how early experiences of health, learning and development influence a child as they grow older.
The course has been developed, with early childhood educators in mind but can be used by others working with families and young children, including those working with families experiencing vulnerability.
For more information go to
Family Violence Workforce Census
On Monday 10 April 2017, the Victorian Government launched its first family violence workforce Census to help better inform planning for the future.
Last year the Royal Commission into Family Violence highlighted one of the challenges to effective industry planning was a lack of workforce data. The Census will help address this gap capturing critical data about capabilities and skills of the workforce, workforce supply, remuneration and conditions and health and wellbeing.
Data will be collected across a range of workforces that have a role in preventing, identifying and responding to family violence - from specialist family violence services and those undertaking primary prevention activities through to mainstream and universal services, such as GPs, maternal and child health nurses and teachers.
The information gathered for the Census will be instrumental in highlighting key workforce issues for the Government’s 10 Year Industry Plan that will be delivered in December 2017.
The Family violence workforce censusis open for input until Friday 19 May 2017, and can be accessed at work, home or on a mobile device.
Monash Emergency Expansion to Treat Kids Quicker
From 19th April 2017, the world-class Monash Children’s Hospital will begin treating sick babies, children and adolescents needing specialist care from Melbourne’s booming south-east suburbs, the Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland.
After three months of careful planning, Monash Health will move up to 130 young patients from two paediatric wards via bed, cot incubator or wheelchair into the new hospital. It will treat an extra 7000 children and provide an additional 60,000 specialist treatments each year, as well as over 40,000 admissions every year.
For more information go to
Boosting Forensic Mental Health Services to Keep Us Safe
On 17th April 2017 an expansion of mental health support for those who are in, or at risk of entering, the criminal justice system was announced.
With a focus on preventing offending, the funding will mean more forensic mental health beds, more specialist treatment and create a range of community, prison and court programs.
The Budget includes $28.6 million over four years, to identify clients who are at risk of entering the criminal justice system, and provide support to stop them offending in the first place.
The funding will also provide specialist mental health support for people aged 16 to24, both in custody and in the community.
An after-hours mental health service will provide bail hearing support to ensure people at risk of harm to themselves or others are being properly managed.
Expressions of Interest Open for Homeless Funding
Registered Housing Agencies and funded Community Service Organisations will soon be able to access up to $35 million to deliver accommodation options for Victorians experiencing homelessness.
It was announced on 5th April 2017 that funding was available for the second phase of the Accommodation for Homeless program as part of the $109 million response to homelessness, in addition to $10 million from the Community Sector Rooming House Upgrades project.
The funding will enable registered housing agencies and community service organisations to deliver up to 120 additional and upgraded crisis and longer-term accommodation options and upgrade existing sector owned rooming houses.
The Accommodation for Homeless program is designed to grow and enhance the supply of crisis and longer-term accommodation options for vulnerable Victorians, including young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, women and children escaping family violence, people experiencing chronic homelessness, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
For more information on the submission process go to
New Training and Support for Kinship and Foster Carers
For the first time foster carers and kinship carers will join to undergo comprehensive training to better support the children they care for.
On 21st April 2017 it was announced that an integrated training program was being developed which will address issues such as trauma informed care, how to manage difficult behaviours and de-escalation techniques.
Carer KaFÉ; Kinship and Foster Care Educationwill improve and expand kinship and foster carer knowledge by providing access to face-to-face training, online learning, accredited training opportunities and conference attendance sponsorship.
Carer KaFÉ also focuses on ensuring the needs and interests of Aboriginal children are met and that carers can provide culturally supportive and appropriate care.
For more information on Care KaFÉ or to access the training please visit:
More Supportfor New Parentsand Their Children
Announced on 20th April 2017, as part of the 2017-18 Budget, a $81.1 million package will provide extra support for new parents, including those with babies born prematurely, twins and triplets, or families facing particular disadvantage.
As well as providing information on feeding and sleeping, our Maternal Child Health nurses also give vital advice on a child’s development and help ensure our kids get the best start in life.
For the first time, those at risk of family violence will receive additional outreach visits by Maternal Child Health nurses.
The Maternal and Child Health Line will get additional funding to respond to parents’ concerns over the phone.
New Eating Disorder Support Provides Food for Thought
Teaching staff will be provided with more resources to support young people in an Australian first initiative to tackle disordered eating.
The Food For Thought, a program developed by headspace, was launched on 20th April 2017, at Buckley Park College.
Food for Thoughtwill help to support staff in secondary schools to be able to identify and respond to disordered eating, which can be an early indicator of an eating disorder.
Eating disorders are a key concern for young people, with the Mission Australia National Youth Survey reporting body image as one of the top three concerns for young people over the last eight years.
The Food for Thoughtprogram has already been trialled in 14 local government areas across the state, and staff from 87 schools have already received training.
Training will be available to key staff from every secondary school across Victoria, with online resources available for schools at
Helping Victorian Students Learna Musical Instrument
More Victorian students will get the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, thanks to a recent announcement. Round two of the $400,000 Musical Instruments Grants program was opened Thursday, 20 April, 2017.
Under the program, 200 eligible schools will be invited to apply for grants of up to $5,000 to buy musical instruments.
Research shows that exposure to music enhances student engagement and wellbeing, improves academic performance and builds personal and social development.
Information on Music in Schools can be found at:
New Sporting Education Opportunities for Victorian Kids
Victorian students will have new opportunities to pursue careers in the sport and recreation industry through the Sports Education and Development Australia (SEDA) College.
At the College’s North Melbourne Football Club campus on 24th April 2017, it was announced that SEDA College is now registered as an independent school.
SEDA has 39 campuses and operates from sporting venues throughout Melbourne and in regional cities including Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat. It has over 30 partnerships with sporting associations and professional sporting clubs including the AFL, Basketball Victoria, Netball Victoria and Cricket Australia.
The college will deliver the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) programs to its Year 11 and 12 students - the only “hands on” certificate of its type in Australia. VCAL provides students with a solid grounding in the real world application of literacy, numeracy, problem solving and personal development skills.
Nominate Now for the 2017 Victorian Learn Local Awards
Nominations for the 2017 Victorian Learn Local Awards opened on 20th April 2017 – celebrating the contribution that more than 300 Learn Local organisations make to training across Victoria.
The awards are held annually by the Adult, Community and Further Education Board, and are an ideal chance to pay tribute to the Learn Local sector and the success of learners and the providers who support them.
Learn locals offer pre-accredited and accredited training, with courses covering everything from literacy and numeracy to communication and job search skills.
In total, there is $66,000 to be won across the categories. Nominations close Friday June 9.
To find out more about the Learn Local Awards or to nominate, visit
More Pharmacists Recruited to Fight the Flu
On 10th April 2017 it was announced that the Pharmacist-Administered Vaccination Programmeans adults can now get their annual flu vaccination from a fully-trained pharmacist.