In September 2016, $5.65 million was allocated to Child FIRST and Integrated Family Services to provide additional resources and build the capacity of these services to support over 600 families experiencing violence until the establishment of the recommended Support and Safety Hubs. This brought the total investment in Integrated Family Services to more than $115 million.
Work will continue to be done with the sector to co-design a system focused on delivering early support to children and families at risk and keeping more families together by building stronger connections between universal, targeted and specialist services to strengthen responses for families, and identifying opportunities for future investment.
The 2017–18 Budget also provided $29.2 million to increase the capacity of the family services system to support an additional 1,229 families. In addition, the range of supports available will offer more families intensive assistance. The 2018-19 Budget continued this support, providing $92 million over 2 years to continue the current investment in family services and early years support.
As the above actions are complete this recommendation is implemented.