Support services
Support services provide assistance to children, young people and families who are referred by Child Safety Services for a range of interventions that focus on the assessed needs of children and families.
Support services and individual interventions provided by non-government organisations are coordinated by child safety service centre staff based on case plan goals.
Support services are available to families and children where Child Safety Services has assessed that ongoing statutory intervention is required for a child and where case plan goals developed by Child Safety Services require external service coordination to assist Child Safety Services’ decision making responsibilities and meet specific individual therapeutic and personal support needs.
The types of services that fall under the banner of support services include:
Counselling and intervention
Counselling and intervention services aim to assist the therapeutic and behavioural support needs of children and young people using evidence-based and contemporary intervention methods and models of practice that help in the recovery from a range of personal, physical and emotional impacts arising from an experience of abuse or neglect.
Counselling and intervention services may also contribute to the overall stability of a child in their out-of-home care placement through direct counselling support and may also include counselling support to carers within the child or young person's support network.
Family intervention
The aim of Family Intervention Services (FIS) is to support clients of child safety service centres (CSSC) where ongoing intervention with a family is required.
The principal aims of the funding program are to preserve families where a child remains living at home under ongoing intervention and monitoring by the CSSC, and to assist in the reunification of the child with their family from out-of-home care where it is determined to be in the best interests of the child.
FIS aims to increase the protective factors for the child and improve the overall attachment between the child and parent. The FIS support will result in the family either exiting the child protection system with improved skills and parenting ability, or the child feeling and experiencing greater security and stability, including a reduction in safety concerns.
FIS also aims to prevent families from re-entering the child protection system by strengthening the caring and parenting skills of the caregiver and their positive participation in community life.
2008-09 Family support national data collection
The Department of Communities – Child Safety, Youth and Families and Community Participation contributes annually to the family support national data collection required for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), and for the Report on Government Services for which the Productivity Commission is responsible. The aim of this collection is to obtain national data on intensive family support services by state and territory departments responsible for child protection.
Intensive family support services are defined as those services which aim to prevent imminent separation of children from their primary caregivers because of child protection concerns, and those services which aim to reunify families where separation has already occurred. In Queensland, the Family Intervention Services (FIS) funding program meet these nationally defined objectives. If your service was funded under the FIS support services funding program in 2008-09, you are required to participate in this data collection.
Please note that a copy of the data collection standards, tables and counting rules and the data items requested as part of the national collection are available here on the department’s website. The deadline for completed reports is close of business Friday 11 September 2009. For more information on the data collection, please contact Ms Louise Witte, Community Partnerships, Child Safety, Youth and Families and Community Participation, Department of Communities on (07) 3224 4546 or email louise.witte@communities.qld.gov.au
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Sexual abuse counselling
Sexual abuse counselling services provide specialist counselling to children and young people in out-of-home care placements who are not able to access an appropriate service from Queensland Health or Child Safety Services' Sexual Abuse Counselling Service (SACS) in Brisbane.
Transition from care
Transition from Care service funding in the Beenleigh, Logan and Goodna area is a joint initiative of Child Safety Services and the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations.
The service aims to assist young people aged 15-17 years who are preparing to leave out-of-home care, and the need for carers to receive breaks from their caring responsibilities.
The service will provide practical assistance in the areas of developing life skills and self care, increasing access to employment and skills acquisition, assisting the development of social relationships, and facilitating access to information and options on future housing, health and income support matters.
Further information
For further information, please contact your zonal Community Support Team.
- Last updated
- 19 August 2009