Family Centred Employment Project (FCEP): A new approach to assisting jobless families
The Family Centred Employment Project (FCEP) is demonstrating a new approach to assisting jobless families across three sites in Australia: Broadmeadows, Victoria; Goodna, Queensland; and Mansfield Park and Angle Park, South Australia. The FCEP is taking an innovative approach to developing, delivering and documenting effective approaches that respond to the employment, education and social needs of jobless families in these communities. The project commenced in July 2010 and will run for three years until June 2013.
FCEP Providers will work with participants to develop a plan that builds on their strengths and utilises the resources of the local community to address the holistic needs of their family. With the support of the FCEP, families will identify their concerns and set their own employment, education and social goals. They will then be provided with the support they need to achieve these goals. Assistance is expected to extend across issues as diverse as transport, mental health, self-confidence, skills, child care and family relationships. Each of the three Providers will take into account the characteristics of the local community and the existing services within these communities. The FCEP will be responsible for ensuring concepts such as ‘wrap-around servicing’ and ‘no-wrong-door’ approaches to service delivery become a practical aspect of the community’s systemic response to meeting the needs of jobless families.
Jobless families and the Social Inclusion Agenda
A key priority under the Government’s Social Inclusion Agenda, and a key focus of the Australian Social Inclusion Board, is to address the multiple and entrenched barriers faced by jobless families with children across Australia. A jobless family is defined as a family with a dependent child under the age of 16 where either one or both parents are on income support and have no reported earnings in the previous 12 month period.
Compared to other OECD countries, Australia experiences low levels of overall and individual joblessness. However, we do have a relatively high concentration of households where no one works. When parents with dependent children are jobless for long periods of time there is a real risk of entrenched joblessness and intergenerational welfare dependence. By taking a supportive, intensive and voluntary approach, as well as targeting communities with high incidences of jobless families, the FCEP will supplement the other supports provided by all levels of Government to best help families to achieve their goals.
FCEP Providers
Two Innovation Fund Panel providers have been selected to deliver the FCEP:
- Workskil, Inc – Victoria; and
- Employment Services Holdings (ESH) – Goodna
In Mansfield Park and Angle Park, the Commonwealth Government is working with the South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet to deliver the FCEP as a subset of their Building Family Opportunities (BFO) program. Under this arrangement, the FCEP commenced in August 2010 and will run for three years until June 2013.
The FCEP is a being administered by DEEWR through the Innovation Fund. The Innovation Fund guidelines can be accessed via the Innovation fund webpage.
Local Jobs for Local Families Consultant
To further support the work of the FCEP, Cuttagee Consulting Pty Ltd has been announced as the Local Jobs for Local Families consultant and will support the employment goals of the FCEP in Broadmeadows and Goodna. Cuttagee Consulting brings a strong employment and social policy expertise to the project, in particular an extensive experience in demand-led employment strategies. Cuttagee Consulting will work directly with local employers in Goodna and Broadmeadows to determine employers’ recruitment needs and how FCEP participants can fill these positions.