Secretary's introduction

In 2001–02, the Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) was again at the centre of the Government's social policy and welfare reform agenda.

I was honoured to join the department as Secretary in January 2002. The energy and talents of people in the department and its agencies impressed me straight away.

While public service medals awarded to Denise Swift and Barry Smith this year paid tribute to their personal efforts and two fine careers, they also reflected the obvious quality and commitment of all FaCS's staff to their jobs.

I followed in the footsteps of Dr David Rosalky, who retired in December 2001 after running the department for three years. David led FaCS through rapid shifts in policy and public sector management and successfully steered the fledgling department to maturity.

Family and Community Services is one of the largest Commonwealth portfolios. The work it does has a major impact on society. It is responsible for a vast range of programs covering social security payments, housing support, youth and disability services, and child care and family assistance.

FaCS assists the great majority of Australian families with children and provides income support payments to over four million individuals at any given time.

Following the federal election in November 2001, the Government announced significant administrative changes to the portfolio. Senator the Hon Amanda Vanstone was reappointed as Minister for Family and Community Services.

The Hon Larry Anthony MP was given new responsibilities as the first ever federal Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. The Hon Ross Cameron MP was also appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Family and Community Services.

CRS Australia went to the Health and Ageing portfolio. However, as the major purchaser of its rehabilitation services, the department still has close links with CRS. As part of the consolidation of youth responsibilities, FaCS also welcomed the Youth Bureau from the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

The new arrangements demonstrated a renewed Government commitment to better outcomes for Australian families and communities. They also signalled a greater emphasis on improving the lives of young people and giving children the best possible start in life.

Helping to achieve these outcomes for government continues to be FaCS's core business. While it was incumbent on FaCS to respond quickly and effectively to the changed directions, we had to also remain focused on existing tasks.

These tasks included the effective delivery of services by the Child Support Agency and CRS Australia, which are crucial to FaCS's overall success.

While still part of FaCS, both organisations are semi-autonomous agencies. Given the special nature of their businesses, I have invited the two general managers to reflect on their activities over the past year (see Child Support Agency General Manager's review and CRS Australia General Manager's review). This year, management and accountability reporting on their operations is incorporated in the general body of this annual report.

Other important work was developing and implementing the Personal Support Programme—one of the first Australians Working Together measures to come on stream. Starting in July 2002, it helps the most disadvantaged people participate in their community. A network of 144 community-based and private organisations was selected to deliver the program from more than 600 sites around the country.

In the lead-up to a September 2002 start date, FaCS also worked closely with Centrelink on the Australians Working Together Personal Advisers initiative. This included pilot services in seven Centrelink sites in Adelaide and Brisbane.

During the year, ongoing welfare reform remained a major priority, especially in the area of disability. This was affirmed in the 2002–03 Budget, with proposals to changes for Disability Support Pension eligibility and a substantial boost to the number of rehabilitation, training, education and employment places for people with disabilities.

As with any major change, implementing disability reform is complex and challenging. Ultimately, however, we are confident it will lead to increased opportunities for people with a disability to take part more in community life and if at all possible, find and keep jobs.

The disability measures mirror the principles of the wider reform agenda. This involves substantial up-front investments in creating increased opportunities for people to participate in work and community life. It also means encouraging people on income support—including people with a disability—to become as active and self-reliant as they can.

At Budget time, the Treasurer released the Intergenerational Report. The report reinforces the need for careful planning now, so we are better prepared to meet the future challenges of an ageing population.

For FaCS, the report sets the framework for a very rich policy agenda over the next 20 to 30 years. It also highlights the importance of continuing our work in the areas of structural ageing, transgenerational welfare dependence, work and family and economic and social participation.

Apart from our policy role, we looked afresh in the past 12 months at our alliances with Centrelink and other service providers.

Given the separation of policy and operations and the size of our joint business, the alliance with Centrelink is challenging and demanding. While we do not always get our relationship perfectly right, ultimately we both need to ensure that government outcomes and client needs are properly met. This means recognising what Centrelink has to offer and involving them more in the policy loop. It also means asking Centrelink for assurances that FaCS is continuing to get value for money.

With recent moves away from a passive payment system to prevention and early intervention strategies to try and stop problems happening in the first place, the strength of our relationships with what I call our 'true' service deliverers is integral to successful welfare reform.

A priority is to have consistent, efficient and effective services delivered through more than 15 000 service provider outlets across Australia. The FaCS state and territory office network is playing a pivotal role in this. The imperative to perform well underpins the need for close day-to-day working relationships and a solid understanding of each other's business.

These relationships give the state and territory offices special insights into local community needs and this network provides valuable policy input. Drawing together Indigenous policy for the first time and outposting much of this function to FaCS's Darwin office is one way the department is making more use of state and territory office expertise in specific policy areas.

As the key interface with state and territory governments, the network is also helping to build better links between programs and services funded by both levels of government.

The amount of state and territory funding for disability services in particular, and the need for greater accountability and transparency, were major elements this year in extensive negotiations over the third Commonwealth, State and Territory Disability Agreement.

During the year, two important internal developments positioned FaCS to better manage its policy and administrative functions.

The FaCS Certified Agreement, which attracted a record number of 'yes' votes, represents an important piece of corporate history. Designed to improve overall performance, it also includes provisions that reflect some of the directions we are taking in our broader work.

The Agreement has family-friendly provisions to help staff balance their work and personal lives. It promotes health and well-being and offers cash payments towards the costs of healthy activities. It supports staff who contribute to their communities through volunteering. And it commits FaCS to developing a mature-age workforce strategy.

During the year, FaCS also developed a new Strategic Statement and its first Priority Plan was released in September 2002. These recognise that our success fundamentally depends on our performance, our organisational 'health' and the skills and abilities of our people. The Statement responds to a clear message from the Government that their social welfare agenda requires effective, high-quality policies and a whole-of-government approach.

The companion Priority Plan is a working document that pinpoints five key policy 'drivers' for FaCS in 2002–03. Not surprisingly, these are children and youth, welfare reform, structural ageing, implementation and service delivery policy, and Commonwealth–State relationships.

In the coming year, I look forward to working with every person in FaCS on these important issues.

Mark Sullivan
Secretary