Our work seeks to amplify our sector’s voice.
We aim to achieve this by:
- Advocating for improved policies
- Seeking opportunities for joint advocacy, collaboration and networking
- Providing a voice for the sector via attendance of government and sector led groups and committees
- Engaging with political leaders and inform them of positive impacts, challenges and recommendations for improved outcomes
- Developing meaningful, impactful and successful advocacy resources
- Promoting and advocating on early intervention and prevention approaches across the sector
Early support and care keeps children safe, makes families stronger and builds supportive communities. Decisionmakers must appropriately fund early intervention and prevention services.
Multiple reviews advise redirecting child protection funding in NSW towards early intervention and prevention for better outcomes and long-term savings.
We work from an intersectional, social justice perspective and recognise there are core intersections with child protection such as:
- Domestic, family and sexual violence
- Mental Health
- Alcohol and other drug use
- Gambling harm
We know systems, policies and resources need to be improved to impact those most at need such as First Nations, CALD, LGBTQIA+, families with a disability, rural and remote children, families and communities.
Examples of our work include:
- Elections, direct advocacy to decision makers and members of parliament
The March 2023 state election provided an opportunity for strong sector led advocacy to government. Fams developed our 2023 Election Platform informed by the 2021-2022 Annual Survey, where the sector identified what key elements to include in our Election Ask. We worked closely with our fellow peaks to ensure our message was powerful and consistent.
Fams issued a media release and received coverage in the Daily Telegraph. Our platform was supported by our fellow peaks, AbSec, ACWA and NCOSS. We represented the sector at a meeting with the Minister’s Chief of Staff and Shadow Minister at the time, Kate Washington. Fams also received a formal response of support from The Greens. - Submissions
Fams submitted recommendations to the Australian Government’s Early Years Strategy, in consultation with the sector. Aligning to our election asks, recommendations included collaborative government approaches, disaster preparedness and alignment to Closing the Gap targets.
We collaborated with Youth Action on a submission to the Human Rights Commission focusing on reforming youth justice and child wellbeing, emphasised addressing systemic disadvantages and suggested prioritising workforce training for culturally safe, trauma-informed services.
