Advocating for the rights of children, young people and families: AGM 2024

I am very proud to present the Centre’s Annual Report for 2023–24 and reflect on the many great things we have achieved in the past year.

This is an opportunity to thank the Centre’s passionate staff, who show immense dedication to supporting members and creating better outcomes for children and young people in Victoria and Tasmania. This year we have put together some incredible events, both online and in person, that celebrate and elevate the great work being done by the Centre and across our sector. I thank my team for all they do for the Centre and for the supportive and generous work environment they contribute to for each other.

I want to thank our Board for their ongoing support and guidance, and I look forward with optimism to what we will achieve together.

This year we say farewell and thanks to our outgoing Chair, Dr Lisa J Griffith. Lisa has been a superb leader on our Board and generous with her time and energy for the Centre and our staff over her four years as Chair and nine years on the Board. Lisa, thank you for your leadership and for all you have done, and continue to do, in support of children and families.

We also farewell Graham Boal from MacKillop Family Services, who is leaving our Board, but will continue to support the Centre through our finance committee. Thank you, Graham, for all your work as a member of our Board.

Looking back over the year, we see just how critical the child, youth and family services sector continues to be in the lives of children and families. Children’s rights, and our collective responsibility for children’s wellbeing, increasingly feature  in the media and in the political arenas in our states, nationally and internationally.

Eliminating violence against women and children has been at the forefront of our minds. Concerns for children’s and young people’s safety online have escalated into political action.

There is a crisis in Australia, and it is set deep in the hearts of families who are under pressure as the increasing cost  –of living impacts parents, young people and children.

The Victorian State Budget in May responded to the economic and social pressures on families by funding early years and education programs and the Housing First response for families experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and by continuing to fund the child and family services sector over the next two years. The budget allocated $374 million to protect at-risk children and young people and to continue early intervention and family reunification services to keep families together and children safe.

This cost-of-living crisis puts housing at the top of the national agenda. Despite Australia’s commitment to housing as a human right through international agreements like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the fundamental right to secure housing is not a reality for every child and family.

The Centre surveyed over 100 member organisations working with children and families earlier this year. We found that 85% of organisations, regardless of their focus, regularly support families experiencing housing insecurity, and there has been a sharp rise in employed families seeking housing support.

These pressures take a heavy toll on families, with impacts that ripple through every aspect of their lives. Our members told us this can look like:

• Parents and children going without essentials, from food to adequate sleep;
• Disruptions to education, as families struggle to enrol children or keep them in school without a stable home;
• Fear of child protection involvement due to homelessness or housing instability, leading to heightened anxiety and distress; and
• Families splitting up because they simply can’t stay together.

Despite challenges, we have achieved a great deal this year. I am grateful to our members for their generosity and insights, contributing to the Centre’s policy, advocacy and capacity-building work.

We continue to support members and sector organisations to use evidence in their work, and I look forward to the role that the Outcomes, Practice and Evidence Network (OPEN), the Centre and the Family Preservation Model will play as we approach the next evidence horizon.

The expansion of the Centre into Tasmania marks a significant moment for the Centre and the Tasmanian child and family services sector, which worked tirelessly over many years to merge Family and Children Tasmania (FACT) with the Centre to create a peak that works across jurisdictions. Our successful Connecting Communities Tour expanded into Tasmania this year, with workshops in four centres and targeted visits to West Coast agencies to learn about our new member communities’ unique challenges and strengths.

We launched the inaugural Family Services Symposium, Working Together with Families, to showcase the incredible and valuable work family services do daily to keep children safe, families together and communities strong. We brought 300 family services practitioners together to share their work and offer inspiration and connection to a group of people who work tirelessly behind the scenes, supporting tens of thousands of families each year in Victoria.

Our work supporting care-experienced young people  in higher education expanded over the year. Raising Expectations now partners with all 13 TAFE institutions and six universities, with more partners expected to come on board. Commonwealth funding has provided free matched mentoring programs for care-experienced young people aged 15 years and over to support them in engaging with study at any level.

Mentoring support has been a recurring theme; the Community Services Mentoring Program was expanded to our member organisations following a successful cross-sector trial through the Tri-Peaks partnerships, with 32 mentoring pairs currently building the leadership capacity of contemporary and next-generation leaders in child and family services.

Our engagement with members and the wider sector is an increasingly important focus for our organisation. We have delivered member briefings with Peta McCammon, Secretary of Families, Fairness and Housing, and Katherine Whetton, Deputy Secretary of Mental Health and Wellbeing at the Department of Health. EY People Advisory Services partners Sonia Sharp and Georgina Gates delivered a hugely popular briefing on Global Workforce Trends, sharing evidence and trends in our sector workforces now and into the future.

It is increasingly difficult to recruit new carers, and we are grateful for the amazing collaboration of agencies and the Fostering Connections program in Victoria. In April, we brought Victoria’s foster care agencies together to discuss the future of foster care, which kicked off a national conversation on the future of foster care alongside the formation of the National Foster Care Sustainability Group. We work together to advocate for the collective responsibility of Commonwealth and state governments to support children and young people in out-of-home care and their carers. I was appointed Chair of Families Australia at the end of 2023, which brings a national perspective and insights to our work in Victoria and Tasmania.

In August 2024, the Centre led a member study tour to attend the ISPCAN Congress in Sweden and visit some child and family service organisations in Sweden and Switzerland. The Study Tour was an incredible opportunity to explore innovative approaches beyond our borders and bring back valuable insights to benefit the children, young people, families and carers we support.

Our year was tinged with great sadness with the passing of Joe Tucci from the Australian Childhood Foundation in March after a short illness. Joe was a deeply passionate, tireless and fearless advocate for children’s rights and needs, with an incredible legacy of achievements as a driving force behind the establishment of the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse. I was honoured to present the Centre’s Leaving a Legacy Award in recognition of his lifetime of great work at the 2024 Victorian Protecting Children Awards. Joe is greatly missed by us all.

Looking ahead

We look ahead with optimism at some big shifts that seem to be gathering momentum for children and families in Australia, and I want to acknowledge that, while the outcome of the Voice to Parliament referendum was a major disappointment, the Centre continues to walk with First Nations peoples as they strive for self-determination and treaty.

I want to thank all members, partners and staff who supported a Voice to Parliament. We will keep listening to the voices of First Nations peoples and advocate for the rights of all children, embracing the Uluru Statement from the Heart and promoting its message:

“When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.”

Deb Tsorbaris
CEO