The Call for funding submission document has been prepared to assist organisations in preparing and lodging submissions to deliver therapeutic foster care in Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s (the Department) West Division.

The Department is seeking suitably qualified and experienced service providers to deliver therapeutic foster care across Victoria.

The successful service provider(s) are expected to deliver all elements outlined in Section 2 of the Call for funding submission document. Prospective service providers should clearly specify the location and the number of targets they are applying for in their submission in Part C: Submission.

The successful provider(s) are required to be registered with the Social Services Regulator to deliver therapeutic foster care in Victoria.

This call for funding submission process will occur concurrently with call for funding submission processes across the other three Operational Divisions. Prospective organisations interested in delivering therapeutic foster care across multiple Operational Divisions are required to tailor and submit separate submissions for each Operational Division, noting that the same or similar content may be used to respond to common criteria across the separate applications.

Barwon Area

Barwon area covers an area of 6,249 square kilometres and had a population of 334,450 (2021 census data). It includes the local government areas of Colac-Otway, Greater Geelong, Queenscliff and Surf Coast. The area includes Geelong, the second largest city in Victoria, and many rural and seaside communities. The Surf Coast is a growth area and the highest population growth in regional Victoria is projected to be in Geelong.

The city of Greater Geelong has the highest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people in any of the local government areas in the West Division. The proportion of new settlers and people born overseas is less than in the metropolitan areas of the division.

Barwon has areas of socio-economic disadvantage particularly in some suburbs of Geelong and Colac.

Brimbank Melton Area

Brimbank Melton area includes the local government areas of Brimbank and Melton. It covers an area of 651 square kilometres and in 2021 had a population of 373,578 (2021 Census data). It is an area that will experience increasing population growth in the future particularly in the suburbs of Caroline Springs and the City of Melton. The projected growth in Melton to the year 2031 is 6.5 per cent per year, which is over three times the state average of 2 per cent.

Brimbank Melton is a culturally and linguistically diverse area in West Division. In Brimbank just over 44 percent of the population were born overseas and in Melton 41.5 per cent of the population were born overseas, which is higher than the state level of 35 per cent (2021 Census). The cultural backgrounds that are most highly represented are Vietnamese, Indian and Philipino. Brimbank Melton has a smaller proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people than in the regional areas of the West Division.

Brimbank Melton has some areas of significant socio-economic disadvantage.

Central Highlands Area

Central Highlands area covers an area of 14,669 kilometres square and had a population of 272,709 (2021 census data). The local government areas of Ararat, Ballarat, Golden Plains, Hepburn, Moorabool and the Pyrenees make up the Central Highlands area. Ballarat, Bacchus Marsh, Ararat and Daylesford are key centres. The projected growth areas in the Central Highlands are Ballarat, Golden Plains and Moorabool, with an annual population increase ranging from 2.3 per cent to 2.9 per cent, which is just above the state average of 2 per cent.

In 2021, 1.7 per cent of the Central Highlands population identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, which is higher than the state level. Ballarat has the largest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The area has a small percentage of the population that was born overseas and is less culturally diverse than other areas.

Western Melbourne Area

Western Melbourne area covers an area of 781 square kilometres and had a population of 739,994 (2021 census data). It is a densely populated area that includes the local government areas of Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Moonee Valley and Wyndham. It is a diverse area including students and young professionals living in the Docklands and inner-city suburbs, large numbers of people living in public housing in Carlton, North Melbourne, Flemington, Footscray and an increasing number of high-income households in inner city suburbs including Williamstown.

Western Melbourne area has the highest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in West Division. However, this figure needs to be considered in context, given the proportion of the population in West Melbourne that identify, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander is 0.7 per cent which is smaller than all the regional areas of the division. Like Brimbank Melton, the Western Melbourne area is culturally and linguistically diverse with a large proportion of the population being born in other countries including India, China, Vietnam, Philippines and Italy.

Western Melbourne has some areas of significant socio-economic disadvantage

Outcomes and objectives

The key outcomes intended from this program are for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children and young people to experience a high quality therapeutic and evidence-based model of care that supports them to recover from trauma.

The primary objectives of the therapeutic foster care program are:

• to provide a strong trauma informed and therapeutic focus in the delivery of foster care placements

• to support children and young people build resilience, improve coping mechanisms and support their emotional and social functioning

• to support and resource carers to establish and maintain a stable, loving and nurturing relationship with the child or young person

• to support placement principles for children and young people which include return to family networks when safe to do so and continued focus on exit planning.