Tag Archives: Family and Community Services

Request for Tender | FACS Family Group Conferencing Facilitation Services – Panel of Service Providers

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FACSThe NSW Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) has released an open Request for Tender for FACS Family Group Conferencing Facilitation Services.  Applications are invited from suitably qualified facilitation service providers (either individuals or organisations) with experience in a child protection or family-focused context, for appointment to a prequalified panel of family group conferencing facilitators.

Applicants will be appointed to the prequalification panel following an application, evaluation and selection process.  Successful applicants will be appointed for a period of two 2 years with an option to extend for a further one year.

Request For Tender  ID:      FACS.15.110                             
Request For Tender Title:   FACS Family Group Conferencing Facilitation Services – Panel of Service Providers

Applications are to be completed and uploaded onto the eTendering site, by 4 December 2015  at 2pm.

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To view tender documentation and lodge applications please follow this link: https://tenders.nsw.gov.au/?event=public.rft.show&RFTUUID=EA6EC168-E464-FE1D-EC3B50B960CE3E46

Please follow the link if your organisation is a New User to the NSW eTendering website. This link allows you to set up a new registration in order to lodge your application. An eTendering registration guide is also attached for your information.

If you have any questions, you may contact Bernice Redman, Senior Project Officer, Programs and Service Design on 02 97162049 or via email bernice.redman@facs.nsw.gov.au

 

2015 NSW Seniors Week Grant

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Three weeks left to apply…

Every year, the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) provides funding for local government and community organisations to participate in NSW Seniors Week. The hundreds of projects that receive funding help make NSW Seniors Week a vibrant, diverse and exciting celebration of our state’s seniors.

If you have previously applied for a grant, you might be interested to hear that for the first time, grants of up to $5,000 are available in a second tier of funding.

You’ll also notice that for 2015, the application process has changed and is much easier.  NSW Seniors Week grants are now administered using SmartyGrants software, through a custom FACS grants portal. This is a secure and streamlined process for applicants and it means grant applications can be saved and revisited at any time.

In order to be successful, projects will need to align with one or more of the following objectives:

  • Provide seniors with an opportunity to participate in creative, sporting, recreational, and/or cultural activities;
  • Encourage seniors to embrace and enhance their technology skills;
  • Promote communities that are age-friendly, and where seniors participate in social and economic life;
  • Encourage healthy and active ageing of the body and mind;
  • Recognise and encourage the contribution of seniors to their community ;
  • Promote the self-expression of seniors; and
  • Promote the diversity and unique experience of seniors.

For more information and to apply for a grant, visit www.nswseniorsweek.com.au/grants.

Applications will be accepted until 5.00pm Friday 19 September.

 

Illawarra Forum | Going Home, Staying Home Reforms

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You will be aware of the recent Going Home, Staying Home (GHSH) reforms to the specialist homelessness service system in NSW.

Since the recent tender process to establish who will deliver these services as part of the reforms NCOSS, along with the other homelessness peaks Homelessness NSW, Domestic Violence NSW (DV NSW) and Yfoundations, has been very keen to ensure a robust evaluation of the reform process was conducted.

To this end, at the request of the peaks, the Deputy Ombudsman and Family and Community Services met to establish a Monitoring and Evaluation Advisory Group to be convened by the NSW Ombudsman.

Our state peak, NCOSS, strongly believes it is important for an independent body to have oversight of a review of what worked and what did not work about the GHSH reforms which can then inform ongoing evaluation and improvements to the system.

Please see below a message regarding the monitoring and evaluation strategy:

A meeting was recently held between the Deputy Ombudsman, representatives from Family and Community Services and peak bodies to discuss the Going Home Staying Home (GHSH) reform evaluation. The meeting focused on a request by the peaks, Homelessness NSW, Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS), Domestic Violence NSW (DV NSW), and Yfoundations, that the Ombudsman play an oversight role in relation to a proposed review of the rollout to-date of the GHSH reform process.

FACS has been working with these peak organisations to develop a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) strategy for GHSH.  At a recent consultation with the GHSH Sector Reference Group and Panel of Experts, it was agreed that an independently chaired GHSH M&E Advisory Group would oversight a post implementation review which is due to commence shortly.

The post implementation review will initially involve an examination of how, to-date, key aspects of the reform process have been designed and implemented by FACS.

The findings from this initial exercise will then be used to inform the broader GHSH evaluation strategy that is being developed with input from the peaks. The strategy commits to:

  • deliver high-quality evidence,
  • be governed objectively,
  • use transparent processes to embed the changes and benefits introduced by GHSH, and
  • inform the continuous improvement of SHS over the next 6 years.

FACS and the peaks acknowledge the importance of the Ombudsman’s role in providing independent oversight of how the reform process has been designed and implemented to-date.

A meeting of the new GHSH M&E Advisory Group will be convened shortly. The Terms of Reference for this governance group will be finalised at that time.

The Ombudsman has indicated that he would welcome receiving feedback from interested individuals and organisations on the implementation of the GHSH reform process to-date.

Contact officer for the Ombudsman: Julianna Demetrius
email: jdemetrius@ombo.nsw.gov.au

NCOSS is satisfied to have achieved this outcome with the other peaks, the Ombudsman and the Government as ultimately it will work towards improved outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.