The 2022/2023 state budget announcement yesterday included an increase in core funding to nine service providers across the family and sexual violence sector, one of which is SASS. The government committed to a five-year contract on this funding (indexed annually).
So what does this mean for us at SASS?
A lift in core funding will make a significant impact on how we provide and deliver services.
A five-year commitment is really important as it allows us to plan for the future. In particular, it enables us to to better manage, and maximise, staffing levels to ensure an ongoing specialist trauma informed service to meet the increasing demand. Knowing our funding levels will last past the current year is also crucial for job security for existing staff.
“Over the past five years the number of referrals at SASS have increased by 162%."
"We’ve been liaising with the government regularly about the strain on our services, so we are pleased that they have listened and responded.” says SASS CEO Jill Maxwell.
“The core funding increase will start to have an effect almost immediately through staffing to help decrease wait times for those needing to access counselling.”
To that end, we have already listed vacancies for additional counselling staff online and have also put a call out internally to see if any of our part time counselling staff are seeking to increase their hours.