A message from Anthony Shannon:

This edition of TEI Inform includes information about:

TEI recommissioning 2025

The NSW Government is committed to continuing to invest in early intervention programs that improve outcomes for vulnerable children, young people, families and communities. DCJ is recommissioning the Targeted Earlier Intervention (TEI) and Family Connect and Support (FCS) programs with new 5-year contracts to commence from 1 July 2025.

TEI and FCS will be merged into one program from July 2025, to streamline the programs and contracts. For this reason the recommissioning process from this point forward will be referred to as TEI recommissioning 2025.

The newly combined TEI program will have three program activities:

There will be sector consultation on renaming the program. Your input will be requested in a future TEI Inform.

Recommissioning principles

The TEI recommissioning is driven by the following principles:
 


Timeline

This is a high-level timeline of the TEI recommissioning 2025, noting that local planning with the TEI sector will start in April and continue through to September 2024 and is led by your local DCJ Commissioning and Planning team. This planning process will use local socio-economic, child protection and program data, local practitioner expertise, and early intervention evidence to understand local needs and identify local priorities to support design of local services.

Recent and upcoming TEI recommissioning forums led by State Peaks and DCJ

Several online information forums on the TEI recommissioning 2025, hosted by State Peaks (Fams, LCSA, Youth Action) and DCJ, were held in March and attended by around 588 participants. These sessions provided an important opportunity to hear directly from you about the TEI recommissioning approach.

The presentation has been made available on the new TEI News and Updates webpage.

Coming Up:

We look forward to hearing further from the TEI sector at the following upcoming forums:

We are developing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that provide responses to common questions raised by the sector about TEI recommissioning 2025. The FAQs will be updated throughout the recommissioning process. These will be available on the TEI webpage shortly.

Data resources to support local planning 

A number of data resources are now available to support local planning during TEI recommissioning. The data helps to build a comprehensive picture of local community need, including issues and trends. Local planning workshops will be used to discuss and validate the analysis of the data using local knowledge held by TEI practitioners and other stakeholders. The aim of these workshops will be to reach a shared understanding of local priorities, outcomes and needs, including changing or emerging needs. 

The main data resources available are:

You can access these resources on the Understanding your local area of the TEI website. Here you will also find links to the original data sources from most of the data sets used in the DEX Community Profiles. 

TEI and FCS program data

Data about TEI and FCS service delivery is available on the TEI Interactive Data Dashboard and FCS Interactive Data Dashboard .The dashboards provide high-level quantitative data reported by TEI and FCS service providers on different aspects of each program, including referrals, reasons for seeking assistance and services by Aboriginality, CALD status, district and LGA. Both dashboards have been updated with 2022-23 DEX data. 

What do funded services need to do to be ready for planning workshops? 

You can familiarise yourself with the data sets available, which will be used to inform local planning, so that you have a basic understanding of the kinds of data that will feed into the discussion.

However, please be reassured that you are not expected to be a data analysis expert to participate in these conversations. The value you bring as TEI practitioners is your knowledge of what’s happening on the ground in your local community and with the people who use your services. Your local wisdom will be used to validate the analysis of the data that DCJ will undertake, and you might be aware of emerging issues that haven’t yet been picked up in the data. These insights from sector stakeholders will help ensure that the evidence being used to inform local decision making is sound. 

Aboriginal Community Partner Forum on 18 April 2024

Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and Aboriginal staff from TEI and FCS providers are invited to an online Aboriginal community partner forum on April 18th from 1:00pm until 2:30pm led by Noeleen Timbery, Manager, Commissioning and Planning, Aboriginal Sector Development, DCJ.

The purpose of the forum is to:

Please register here by 12:00pm on Monday, 15th April 2024. If you know of any Aboriginal colleagues from TEI and FCS services who don’t receive TEI Inform please feel free to share this with them.

Feedback from the forum will used to update the TEI program specifications and outcomes framework. A follow up session in May will provide an opportunity to discuss how we have used your feedback workshop further changes.

We hope to see you on the day and look forward to hearing your valuable feedback. 

Nominations for the NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards - closes 14 June 2024

The NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards is an annual event hosted by The Centre for Volunteering, the peak body for volunteering in NSW. The Awards aim to recognise the contributions, dedication and excellence of volunteers from across every part of the NSW volunteering sector.  

The Awards are now in their 18th year and have grown to become one of the largest celebrations in Australia. In 2023, more than 133,000 people from over 500 organisations were recognised. 

There are eight award categories in which to nominate, from Young Volunteer of the Year to Volunteer Team of the Year. There is a category for everyone! 

Nominations for the 2024 NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards open from Monday 18 March and close on Friday 14 June. 

Details regarding the Awards and how to nominate can be found on the Centre for Volunteering’s website. 

If you work with a volunteer involving organisation, share the information about this year’s NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards, and encourage them to celebrate volunteers within their organisations by nominating them today!  

Brighter Beginnings Parent and Carer Information Hub

From pregnancy until five years of age, children’s brains develop more rapidly and they learn faster than at any other time. There are many things that we can do in children’s early years to help give them the best start in life.

The Parent and Carer Information Hub has services and resources to support families during this important time. You can also find out more about why the first 5 years of a child's life matter. 

For further information about any of the content please contact tei@dcj.nsw.gov.au.

Kind regards,

Anthony Shannon
Director, Early Intervention, Volunteering, Youth and Carers