Australian Government: Attorney-General's Department
Australian Government: Attorney-General's DepartmentAchieving a Just and Secure Society

Family Relationship Services Overview of Programs

The Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department jointly funds, with the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), the Family Relationships Services Program, which provides a range of services to help families.

The Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department funds the following services:

Family Relationship Centres
Family Relationship Centres are a source of information and confidential advice for families at all stages in their life. Forty Centres are located throughout Australia and by July 2008 there will be 65 Centres established. Funded by the Australian Government, the Centres are staffed by independent, professionally qualified staff offering confidential and impartial services in a welcoming, safe and confidential environment.

Family Relationship Advice Line
The Family Relationship Advice Line is a national telephone service established to assist families affected by relationship or separation issues. The Advice Line provides information on family relationship issues and advice on parenting arrangements after separation. It can also refer callers to local services that can provide assistance. The Family Relationship Advice Line (1800 050 321) is available from 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Friday, and 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday (local time), except national public holidays.

Family Relationships Online
Family Relationships Online provides information about family relationships and separation, and helps people find services across Australia. It also allows families to find out about a range of services that can assist them to manage relationship issues, including agreeing on appropriate arrangements for children after parents separate.

Service providers can also use Family Relationships Online to find local and out-of-area services that might be helpful to their clients.  Staff of the Family Relationship Advice Line use Family Relationships Online to identify services to refer people to.  Service providers registered on Family Relationships Online can check or update their service information by contacting the Family Relationships Online Help Desk.

Family Dispute Resolution
Family dispute resolution is a process conducted by an independent practitioner or practitioners to assist members of families, including separated families, to resolve some or all of their disputes with each other. Examples of family dispute resolution processes are mediation and conciliation. Family dispute resolution services can help separating families resolve disputes as an alternative to going to court.

Family Counselling
Family counselling is the name for counselling under the Family Law Act. Family counselling services help people with relationship difficulties to better manage the personal or interpersonal issues relating to children and family during marriage, separation and divorce. Family counselling may be about hurt feelings, problems between you and your partner or another person in the family, new living arrangements and issues relating to the care of your children and financial adjustments.

Children’s Contact Services
These services assist the children of separated parents to establish and maintain a relationship with their other parent and family members.

 The services provide a safe, reliable and neutral place to assist parents with the changeover of children. They also provide supervised visits to assist separated parents to manage contact arrangements, especially where there are concerns about safety. The number of Children's Contact Services has been expanded to 65 services across Australia.

Parenting Orders Program
Services under the Parenting Orders Program assist separating families in high conflict over parenting arrangements. The Parenting Orders Program uses a variety of child-focused and child -inclusive interventions to respond more effectively and flexibly to families' needs and works where possible with all members of the family. It involves a case worker intensively managing parents and getting them to understand the effect their conflict is having on their children.

Family members, including children, can receive a range of services such as counselling, family dispute resolution and group work education as part of this program. High conflict families are referred to the Parenting Orders Program to offer separated parents an alternative to taking their disputes to court. The Parenting Orders Program has been expanded to 20 services across Australia.

Commencing in 2008:

Post Separation Cooperative Parenting services will assist separated parents with education and support where a high level of conflict is affecting their relationships with their children. It will help them to focus on the children’s needs, instead of on the conflict with the other parent. Post Separation Cooperative Parenting builds on the success of Building Connections, which was piloted by Interrelate Family Centres in regional NSW in 2005-06. Fourteen Post Separation Cooperative Parenting services will open in October 2008, and another 14 are scheduled to open in July 2009.

Supporting Children after Separation Program will assist children from separating families to deal with issues arising from the breakdown in their parents’ relationship and to be able to participate in decisions that impact on them. The objective of this new service type is to support children within the context of their family to manage and enhance their relationship during and after family separation. It is anticipated that the selection process for community organisations to establish services will be advertised in early 2008 with locations being announced at that time. Services are scheduled to open in October 2008.