Family Support Services

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Can the minister guarantee these important early intervention services provided by Anglicare will not be disrupted in any way should a different provider be awarded a new contract?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:47): On coming into government, we have made significant reforms including working as a whole-of-government response. The Early Intervention Research Directorate found that under the former government the evidence was that they weren't evidenced-based programs, they weren't evaluated, they weren't delivered in the right manner and they weren't culturally competent. We had to look at new ways of delivering evidence-based evaluated programs.

As a result of that, the Department of Human Services, which has jurisdiction over the early intervention and prevention programs, has initiated several pilots, one of which is the Anglicare Intensive Family Support Service in the north. We also have one run by KWY in the west, which was also a pilot program. Further, there is the Benevolent Society's social impact bond, which is also a family preservation or intensive family support service, which is about to start in the south. That's out for tender at the moment.

These programs, as per a Liberal government, need to be evaluated. We need to make sure that we are getting the outcomes that we anticipated, and then the tender process will go ahead as it should.