Community Builders and Early Intervention and Placement Prevention updates - November 2011
I have recently been involved in the data training sessions for Community Builders funded services across NSW and have been sourcing information of the make-up and scale of youth service provision within Community Builders. This will provide YAPA with data to assist with further developments in the Community Builders and EIPP funding programs. YAPA has also developed some youth-specific surveys for CB services to gather data from young people in a targeted way.
There have been also some significant updates for both funding streams, and to avoid a very long update I have separated information for each program:
As always I am here for any queries or further explanations into either of the funding programs and look for feedback on anything YAPA can assist with during this transitionary stage.
CSGP funding - progress report 4
Based on feedback from a wide range of former CSGP service providers, YAPA and our partners at NSW Family Services worked throughout January to pull together the changes we believe are necessary in order to make the “Child, Youth and Family Support” service model under the new “Early Intervention and Placement Prevention” stream of the former-CSGP into something that will work better for youth and family support services and deliver better outcomes for vulnerable children, young people, and their families.
Sophie Trower has been visiting all 18 networks around NSW on an additional Early Intervention and Placement Prevention road show. Sophie has represented YAPA along with Mike Sheargold from FamS as part of the continuing role of supporting the sector through the Community Service Grants Program realignment. The Keeping It Together (KIT) Youth Sector Support Project continues to provide resources and advice to former CSGP services and will be heading around the state once again, as part of the Community Services briefings for affected services. Please contact Sophie at kit@yapa.org.au.
Hi from Ann Deslandes
I've a background in the South Australian youth sector where I worked in youth participation, policy research & sector development, mostly with YAPA’s sister peak, the Youth Affairs Council of SA. More recently in Sydney I've worked with the Whitlam Institute on their 'Young People Imagining a New Democracy' project, and completed a PhD on social movements. It's a real thrill to be able to combine these skills and experiences as YAPA's Keeping It Together (KIT) Youth Sector Support Worker! I’m working for YAPA 2.5 days a week and you’ll mostly find me in the office on Thursdays and Fridays. I’ve been working with Sophie Trower on the CSGP funding reforms. I’m also working on YAPA’s forthcoming survey of youth workers and youth services in NSW – so expect to hear from me about this soon!
You can contact me at kit2@yapa.org.au
YAPA surveys of the NSW youth sector
As part of the involvement of YAPA in the Keep Them Safe reforms, YAPA is working with consultant Liz Reimer on two surveys for the NSW youth sector. The first survey is for managers and coordinators of various funding streams, and the second survey is for all individual youth workers in NSW. These surveys will be available online and in PDF format as well as hard copy. Keep an eye out for the surveys – prizes will be given out for the youth worker survey - a great incentive to send round to colleagues who work with young people.
Published yaprap April-May 2011
Child Protection Policy Guidelines
9/12/10 Some services may be in the process of organising changes to their policies regarding Child Protection. Other services may be facing changes due to CSGP realignment, and service specification refinement, which may require an update to policies.
YAPA in partnership with ACWA, FamS and LCSA will be developing with a consultant a comprehensive Child Protection Policy Guideline, which may assist many services who are not sure where to start when updating their policies regarding Child Protection and recent changes to the law.
Some of the content will include information sharing under Chapter 16A, protecting privacy, confidentiality discussions, mandatory reporting, principles underpinning good practice (supervision, debriefing, difficult conversations), case management ad writing case notes for data collection, working with aboriginal families and organisations and Interagency collaborations and how to support culture change in NGOs.
There will be quick guides as well as further details contained within the document. There will be examples of forms and documents with further examples which are relevant to each of the four peak sectors involved in the project.
YAPA is expecting that copies of the Policy Guidelines will be distributed and available online by mid-April.
If you have any further questions regarding your Child Protection Policies please contact me.
CSGP - latest update from YAPA
emailed by YAPA to CSGP services 21/9/10*
In response to concerns raised with YAPA throughout the CSGP Roadshow events in August and further discussions with service providers, we emailed services advising those in the EIPP stream working with clients aged 18 years and over, to delay the final submission of their tenders until after discussions with Community Services about this important issue had concluded.
We now wish to advise that we have confirmed the 3 options listed below are available for those services to discuss with Community Services during the 6 month transition period from January 2011, and therefore services should submit transition / tender forms as soon as possible, and no later than the 13 October deadline.
Support for services in putting together tenders is available from the YAPA (KIT) Youth Sector Support Officer, Sophie Trower, on the contact details at the end of this email.
The response on this particular issue is extracted an email from John Tansey, A/Executive Director, Funding and Contracting Strategy and Reform, Community Services, as follows:
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"[YAPA has] stated in your email that you "believe that service providers should be able to allocate a percentage of their pre-existing CSGP money to preserve the important work they do with 18-25 years".
[CS and YAPA] agreed that this issue only relates to services existing former CSGP funding. It is clear and agreed that the new funding available through Keep Them Safe and being allocated through the current tender is tied to specific KTS outcomes in early intervention and child protection placement prevention, and therefore is only available for the target groups and eligibility criteria contained in the new EIPP models.
[Community Services] would like to propose that we agree a couple of broad ‘business rules’ that should be considered when it comes time to work with individual services on the transition of existing CSGP funding and activities to the new EIPP program models.
Options to be considered individually or in combination could include the following:
- Services may be allowed a period of 12 months, or longer if appropriate, to transition service delivery so that services are targeted to young people under 18 years; and/or
- Services may be allowed to provide a majority proportion of their services to under 18s and a minority proportion to vulnerable 18 to 25 year olds; and/or
- Services may be allowed to provide a percentage of their services to vulnerable 18 to 25 year olds provided that priority is always given to providing services to under 18s."
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Feedback to YAPA from services in the past week on these three options has been positive in relation to providing workable outcomes for EIPP services in the CSGP realignment process. The full email from YAPA and the response from Community Services is available at:
www.yapa.org.au/youthwork/csgp/CSReponseCSGPEmail17sep10.pdf
Further issues that have been raised by YAPA, and the response received from Community Services can be accessed at:
www.yapa.org.au/youthwork/csgp/CSReponseCSGPIssues20sep10.pdf
Materials relating to the reforms produced by Community Services, including frequently asked questions can be found at:
www.community.nsw.gov.au/for_agencies_that_work_with_us/csgp_realignment/csgp_tender.html
YAPA also has a webpage on the CSGP reforms, at:
www.yapa.org.au/youthwork/csgp/index.php
*If you did not receive this email directly from YAPA and would like to add your address to our CSGP mailing list, simply email info@yapa.org.au with the subject: ADD ME TO CSGP LIST.
emailed by YAPA to CSGP services 10/9/10*
Throughout August, the Department of Human Services - Community Services travelled to each of the 17 Networks across NSW to discuss the changes to services funded under CSGP. YAPA attended 18 out of 20 of these roadshow events.
YAPA is currently assisting the youth sector with the transition and tender process of CSGP realignment. We wish to strongly advise Service Providers that have been streamed under EIPP (Early Intervention and Placement Prevention) who provide a service to clientele over the age of 18 to delay submitting their tender until after the 20th of September. The tenders are required to be submitted before the 13th October.
Discussions between YAPA and Community Services concerning the issues surrounding the omission of provision of service for 18-24 year olds within the reform will be taking place until the nominated date (20th September). After this time we hope to be able to correctly advise Service Providers on recommendations on how to continue with the transition and tender process. We would like to stress that this only concerns Service Providers that have been streamed into EIPP.
Up until the nominated time we would advise Service Providers to prepare the majority of their transition and tender document as comprehensively as possible. If you require any further consultation please do not hesitate to contact me on my details listed below on any matter regarding CSGP (EIPP and Community Builders queries alike). If you have not spoken to me as yet regarding CSGP realignment I would welcome discussions over any concerns you may have at this stage.
Materials relating to the reforms produced by Community Services, including frequently asked questions can be found at: www.community.nsw.gov.au/for_agencies_that_work_with_us/csgp_realignment/csgp_tender.html
Issues raised from CSGP Roadshow - Response from Community Services (PDF) 21/9/10
Email regarding services to 18 years and over - Response from Community Services (PDF) 21/9/10
CSGP Streaming Process - June 2010
Important update from YAPA 18/6/10
Update from Community Services & response from YAPA - Feb/March 2010
Community Services Grants Program Update from Annette Gallard, Chief Executive of Community Services CSGP Roundtable December 2009 9/2/10
...and the response from YAPA 11/3/10
Communique 7 - June 2008
Community Services Grants Program Update from CSGP Roundtable July 2008 Communique 7 17/6/08
Communique 6 - June 2008 & response from YAPA - June 2008
Community Services Grants Program Update from CSGP Roundtable June 2008 Communique 6 6/6/08
...and the response from YAPA and other peak bodies 6/08
Communique 5 - Feb 2008
Community Services Grants Program Update from CSGP Roundtable February 2008 Communique 5 7/2/08
Communique 4 - Dec 2007
Community Services Grants Program Update from CSGP Roundtable October 2007 Communique 4 7/12/07
Communique 3 - Sep 2007
Update from CSGP Roundtable September 2007 Communique 3 26/9/07
Communique 2 - Aug 2007
Department of Community Services has put together Communiqué 2 (36KB PDF) & the CSGP Review diagram (PDF) to update services on the progress of the current CSGP Review. DoCS has informed us that these documents have been sent via post to services and will be on their website soon.
YAPA has typed up the results of the youth services workshop we held on 2 August 2007. 9/8/07
