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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-24 Daily Xml
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Family and Community Development Program

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:07): My question is to the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion. Minister, how is the government supporting vulnerable South Australians and their communities?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:07): I thank the member for Reynell for that question. I know that she has a keen interest in supporting the important work the community services sector undertake every day to support vulnerable people in their local community. Just yesterday, I had the opportunity to be in her electorate, and I know the great work she is doing with some really fantastic grassroots community groups and also some of the more established community centres.

Earlier this year, I announced that the government had decided that community interests are best served by implementing the outcome of the 2013 tender process undertaken in the Family and Community Development Program. Funding under this program is provided to organisations to deliver services in local communities which support vulnerable families, children and individuals. From 1 July 2015, our government will invest more than $8 million to 32 organisations to deliver 63 services across South Australia.

The 2013 tender process followed a comprehensive review of the F&CD Program. This was undertaken in strong consultation with the community services sector, which enabled us to identify current levels of need across target populations in South Australia. This means that, for the first time, funding under this program will be matched by need, based on evidence gathered by our world-leading disadvantage mapping tool. You may recall that last year I said the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion received an international award for this mapping tool. The focus of this tool is to ensure that resources are provided to those most in need in this state.

As a result of our government's decision, we will deliver a more equitable division of funding to regional Australia, recognising that regional communities face unique and complex challenges which require place-based approaches to solving. The split of the fund is around 64 per cent in the metro and 36 per cent in the regional areas, which is quite a significant increase in the regions.

Through the revised program guidelines, our government will place a key emphasis on preventive and early intervention services, which identifies people who are at risk of becoming vulnerable and delivers holistic and proactive case management to support them and their needs. I think that is particularly important in our regional areas where it is best if people can work together to support people who need that.

We will also provide funding for services to operate on a regional basis across South Australia, ensuring that service providers embrace a collaborative and partnership approach in conjunction with other service providers that deliver outcomes for families, children and individuals. Importantly, this decision will provide certainty and stability to the community services sector.

At the end of the day, I guess this is one of the messages that the sector gave me: we have a really high level of professional tertiary-trained people doing our community services who are very committed and dedicated, and what they want is stability to continue the great work. What this means is that organisations can better plan their services with a view to the longer term which, in turn, helps to retain trained staff in the sector.

In particular, I know this is good news for the member for Reynell's local community. The southern Adelaide region will benefit from an investment of just under $1.5 million each year for the next six years to deliver eight services. It will deliver $500,000 to the City of Onkaparinga to establish the Onkaparinga Community Hub Network which will deliver services in partnership with eight community centres across southern Adelaide, including the Christie Downs Community House and the Woodcroft-Morphett Vale Neighbourhood Centre. I am proud that our government remains committed to working in partnership—

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired. The deputy leader.

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