On behalf of the membership, the Centre had been advocating with DHS for the review of the family services unit price since 2006/07.  During late 2007, DHS anounced this review, and set up a reference group in early 2008 to undertake thiswork.

We have been keeping you updated about the work that is currently underway in reviewing the unit price for Family Services. A large reference group comprising representatives from community organisations across Victoria is providing advice to the Department in the development of a unit price for family services. A smaller working group assisted with the development of individual components of the cost of providing a unit of service and met more frequently than the Reference Group.

Both groups worked to very tight timelines to complete this work, in order to inform the 2009/10 ERC process. Within the scope of the review, the reference group considered a range of issues associated with the development of a unit cost for family services, including a contemporary workforce staffing model for the provision of Integrated Family Services (including Child FIRST and Family Services, incorporating Innovation Projects), and associated costs involving partnership development, compliance and administration overheads. 

This work is now Cabinet-in-confidence and is part of the Government's 2009/10 budget deliberations.  The Centre will be updating members through this site and our monthly newsletter on further progress as the sector negotiates a unit price with DHS.