Personal Support Plans for Social Housing Clients with Work Potential

⁠⁠⁠The Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) is commencing market consultation on an initiative to improve education and employment outcomes for social housing clients in NSW through tailored support plans.

Background
In January 2016 the NSW Government released Future Directions for Social Housing in NSW - the government’s vision for social housing for the next 10 years.

Under Future Directions the government committed to introducing tailored support plans for social housing clients with the potential to find employment. A personal support plan is an agreement between a housing provider, a support provider and a social housing client. In a plan the client will agree to meet a set of achievable goals with tailored support and assistance offered by housing and service providers. The aim of the initiative is to build the capability of the client to engage in education, training and employment, and to build housing independence.

This program will be piloted with 30 young adults aged between 18 and 25 who are currently living in social housing in the Campbelltown Local Government Area (LGA). Additional sites will be announced in early 2017 and may target different client groups.

Market consultation
While Future Directions sets the broad parameters and high level outcomes for the initiative, we are striving for innovative service design and delivery. This will be delivered through partnerships between government, businesses and the not-for-profit sector.

We will hold open market consultation workshops at each site ahead of the formal tender process to encourage collaboration in the early design stage of the initiative. The initial workshops will be held in the Campbelltown LGA where the initiative is being piloted. The workshops will ensure a transparent and inclusive process with input invited from all potential providers. While the workshops are intended for potential providers in the local area, all interested parties are encouraged to register their interest. All parties who have registered their interest will have access to workshop material and an opportunity to provide input.

The initial workshops will be held on:
* Tuesday 6 December 2016, 10am - 12pm at the Phillip Room, Campbelltown Catholic Club (20-22 Camden Road, Campbelltown NSW)
* Tuesday 7 February 2017 in Campbelltown (venue and time to be confirmed).

To register your interest, please email SII@facs.nsw.gov.au by midday, Friday 2 December 2016 and indicate if you would like to attend a workshop. You will be provided with additional information and instructions for workshop registration.

If you are unable to be involved in these market consultation workshops, it will not affect your opportunity to participate in future procurement stages for this initiative.

The open tender for Personal support plans for social housing clients with work potential will be available on the e-tender website in early 2017.