The Child and Family Support System (CFSS) has been on a significant journey to reshape and reform child and family support services in South Australia. We have built a strong system that supports children and families earlier, more intensively and more effectively.
Child Protection Systems Royal Commission
In 2016, the report of the Royal Commission into the Child Protection System (Nyland Report) called for substantial growth in prevention and earlier intervention services to respond to and support families to care for their children.
In response to the Nyland Report, the Child and Family Support System was created in July 2019. All government family preservation services were brought into the Department of Human Services. This enabled the department to directly deliver family support services and commission non-government services. A single, coherent system meant services were informed by the same evidence and used consistent approaches and practices.
Co-design process
In late 2019, a statewide co-design process was carried out to set shared goals and guide the development of the new CFSS.
Nearly 1,000 people took part – including service users from diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal leaders, government and non-government providers, people with lived experience and researchers. This collaborative effort built strong agreement and commitment to work together on the design and implementation of CFSS.
Further reading
- Co-design phase two slides (PDF 2.7 MB)
- Co-design population projections and demographic information (DOCX 10.5 MB)
- Summary of the co-design findings and next steps (PDF 1.2 MB)
- Summary of the key themes from phase one of the new system co-design - Sept 2019 (PDF 192.0 KB)
- Co-designing the Child and Family Support System: Final qualitative report (PDF 3.1 MB)
- Lessons learned in the CFSS co-design with the support of LEN
The future of CFSS
The CFSS continues to be guided by research evidence to ensure our system is proactive, preventative and improves outcomes for children and families experiencing complex problems and disadvantage. Find out more about our research.
Our healing approach
Children, families and services are working together to build a system that supports healing and prevents further harm.
Lived Experience Network
The Lived Experience Network helps guide how the CFSS can better support families to keep children safe and well at home.