Funding up to $1.86 billion supports invited organisations to deliver flexible, evidence-led services strengthening family wellbeing, child development, community connections and First Nations outcomes nationally.
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What is the Children and Family Support Program (CaFS)?
The Children and Family Support (CaFS) program is an Australian Government initiative designed to improve the wellbeing and outcomes of children, young people and their families by funding activities that support families and strengthen communities.
CaFS will replace five existing programs under the Families and Children Activity:
- Children and Parenting Support
- Family Mental Health Support Services
- Communities for Children – Facilitating Partners
- Family and Relationship Services
- Specialised Family Violence Services
When CaFS commences, the existing program-specific guidelines, service delivery frameworks and related documentation for these five programs will cease to apply.
The program will primarily support families with children aged 0–17 years and, where appropriate, young people up to age 25 and their families.
Expectant parents and people preparing for parenthood may also receive appropriate non-clinical supports.
This is a targeted grant opportunity. Only organisations listed as eligible and invited through GrantConnect can apply.
Children and Family Support Program level of support
Funding Amount
Up to $1.86 billion is available over five years from 2027–28 to 2031–32.
Funding is divided into:
- Up to $1.67 billion for recommissioning existing funding.
- Up to $187 million for additional funding supporting new or expanded activities.
- Indexation will apply across each financial year and is already factored into 2027–28 funding.
- Additional funding is targeted and competitive and will be assessed on relative merit and value with relevant money.
For individual grants:
- Minimum grant amount: Not specified.
- Maximum grant amount per applicant: No fixed dollar maximum is specified.
- Recommissioning funding may be awarded up to the total annual base value of all contracts the organisation currently holds under the five programs being replaced.
- Organisations seeking additional funding nominate the amount required for each financial year and must demonstrate the need and value of the proposed expenditure.
Co-contribution
- No mandatory co-contribution requirement is specified.
- Funded organisations are also not required to charge client fees or client contributions.
- If an organisation chooses to charge fees, it should minimise barriers to accessing services and consider the capacity of vulnerable or disadvantaged families to pay.
Grant Period
- Maximum grant period: Five years.
- Grant activities are expected to commence on 1 July 2027.
- Grant activities are expected to end on 30 June 2032.
Children and Family Support Program important dates
- Applications close: 30 October 2026 at 9:00 pm AEDT
- Questions close: 23 October 2026 at 5:00 pm AEDT
- Expected grant activity commencement: 1 July 2027
- Expected grant activity completion: 30 June 2032
- Register your interest with GrantHelper
Children and Family Support Program objectives
The CaFS program aims to achieve two primary outcomes:
- Parents and caregivers receive support to guide children’s social and emotional growth in families and communities that are safe and strong.
- Children and young people receive the social and emotional support they need.
Funding will focus on four investment priorities:
- Invest early to improve family wellbeing, break cycles of disadvantage and reduce the need for later interventions such as child protection.
- Support connected or integrated activities that work together to meet family needs.
- Ensure activities are informed by and responsive to community needs.
- Improve outcomes for First Nations children and families by increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations delivering supports in locations with high First Nations populations.
Activities must align with the program outcomes and consider the investment priorities.
Projects and expenditure eligible for Children and Family Support Program support
Eligible activities must align with the CaFS program and fall within one of two broad service streams.
National digital support services or information websites
Eligible activities may include:
- Online support services for parents, caregivers and children.
- Digital services that build parenting capacity.
- Online information and education services.
- Research translation.
- Resources and tools that strengthen child and family wellbeing.
Child and Family Supports – prevention, early intervention and intensive family support
Eligible activities may include:
- Parenting programs.
- Non-clinical prenatal or pregnancy-related family counselling.
- Parenting information and peer support for expectant parents.
- Family support and service navigation.
- Programs supporting children’s social and emotional development.
- Playgroups and social skills programs.
- Programs building children’s emotional resilience.
- Home visiting programs.
- Counselling and skill-building sessions.
- Intensive counselling for children and families experiencing complex challenges.
- Intensive parenting programs.
- Client support and goal setting.
- Activities addressing emerging challenges before they escalate.
- Activities responding holistically to family needs.
- Activities supporting families experiencing relationship stress, safety concerns, financial stress or family, domestic and sexual violence.
Funded organisations are expected to work collaboratively across service systems, undertake triage and referrals where required and deliver activities informed by local community need.
Eligible expenditure
Grant funding may be used for:
- Staff salaries and on-costs directly attributable to funded activities.
- Training for paid and unpaid staff directly involved in service delivery.
- Direct service delivery costs.
- Governance and reporting costs, including impact measurement.
- Non-client-facing time required to coordinate or integrate services for clients.
- Place-based partnership engagement in Empowered Communities or Stronger Places, Stronger People regions.
- Agreed brokerage.
- Operating and administration expenses directly related to funded activities.
- Transport of staff or clients to service delivery locations.
- Staff travel and accommodation directly related to activity delivery or training.
- Taxi vouchers and vehicle leasing.
- Vehicle purchases in exceptional circumstances and with Department approval.
- Materials, equipment and eligible assets reasonably attributable to grant deliverables.
- Marketing services used to reach target cohorts and support connected or integrated services.
Brokerage may generally comprise up to 5% of the budget, or another amount agreed at the Department’s discretion, to provide practical or material assistance where other avenues have been exhausted and the support is needed to achieve client outcomes.
Ineligible expenditure and activities
Grant funding cannot be used for:
- Purchasing land.
- Wages not related to direct delivery of the funded activity.
- Major capital expenditure.
- Construction or other capital works.
- Retrospective costs.
- Costs associated with preparing the grant submission or related documentation.
- Overseas travel.
- Activities for which another Commonwealth, state, territory or local government body has primary responsibility.
- Services solely supporting adults who are not connected to children aged 0–17 years, young people up to age 25, expectant parents or people preparing for the arrival of a child.
- Fully subcontracted models of service delivery.
- Systemic advocacy.
- Peak body representation on national issues.
- Personal care and domestic help for clients and families, except where permitted through limited brokerage arrangements.
Other Children and Family Support Program important details that you will need to know
Organisations eligible for Children and Family Support Program support
This opportunity is by invitation only.
To be eligible, the lead applicant must:
- Be listed as an eligible organisation in Appendix A of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines.
- Have received an invitation to apply through GrantConnect.
Eligible organisations primarily include existing providers holding direct Department of Social Services contracts under the five programs being replaced, as well as eligible ACCOs identified through the transition process.
Consortium applications are permitted where:
- The lead organisation is an invited eligible organisation listed in Appendix A.
- Other consortium members may include organisations that are not listed in Appendix A.
- A formal arrangement is in place between consortium members.
- The lead organisation accepts responsibility for service delivery and governance obligations.
Unincorporated associations may participate where an eligible legal parent or connected legal entity can enter into a legally binding agreement on their behalf.
Organisations not eligible
An organisation is not eligible to apply as the lead applicant if:
- It has not received an invitation through GrantConnect and is not listed in Appendix A.
- It, or a project partner, is listed as an institution that has not joined or is not actively taking steps to join the National Redress Scheme.
- It, or a project partner, is currently listed as non-compliant by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
Children and Family Support Program assessment criteria
Recommissioning assessment criteria
Existing providers must address two mandatory criteria. These are assessed non-competitively, meaning applications are assessed individually rather than ranked against other applicants.
1. Alignment with CaFS program objectives and outcomes – No weighting specified
Applicants should demonstrate:
- How the proposed activities contribute to one or both CaFS program outcomes.
- How activities address one, some or all of the four investment priorities.
- Evidence supporting the selection, design and delivery method of the proposed activities.
- Arrangements supporting stability and continuity of service delivery.
- How workforce retention and continuity will be managed.
- Evidence of community need.
- Relevant mapping data, consultation, demand, referrals or family feedback.
- How the organisation will work with communities and other organisations.
- Any proposed changes to service areas or service types.
- Any proposed additions or removal of service locations.
- Any proposed amendments to funding levels or allocation across services or locations.
- Any changes to governance, consortium or subcontracting arrangements.
- The rationale for proposed changes.
- Where applicable, how activities align with local Empowered Communities or Stronger Places, Stronger People priorities and plans.
The response is limited to approximately 600 words or 3,500 characters.
2. Community need and how proposed activities will address it – No weighting specified
Applicants should demonstrate:
- Evidence of community need.
- Relevant information from the Community Needs Mapping Tool where appropriate.
- Community insights gathered through governance arrangements or consultation.
- Evidence from service demand, referrals or family feedback.
- How the organisation will work with communities and other organisations.
- How proposed activities will meet the needs of the target cohort.
- The rationale for the proposed activities.
- Where applicable, how proposed changes have been informed by and align with Empowered Communities or Stronger Places, Stronger People priorities and plans.
The response is limited to approximately 600 words or 3,500 characters.
Assessment criteria for eligible ACCOs
Invited ACCOs seeking to become new lead contract holders must respond to two mandatory, non-competitive criteria.
1. Capacity and readiness to deliver activities under CaFS – No weighting specified
Applicants should demonstrate:
- Their ability to deliver high-quality services.
- Their ability to achieve positive outcomes for First Nations children and families.
- Their available workforce.
- The activities they intend to deliver under CaFS.
The response is limited to approximately 600 words or 3,500 characters.
2. Community need and how proposed activities will address it – No weighting specified
Applicants should demonstrate:
- Evidence of community need.
- Relevant Community Needs Mapping Tool data where appropriate.
- Community insights, service demand, referrals or feedback.
- How they will work with communities and other organisations.
- How services will meet the needs of the target cohort.
- Evidence of relationships with and engagement of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities they propose to serve.
The response is limited to approximately 600 words or 3,500 characters.
Additional funding assessment criterion
Organisations requesting funding for new or expanded services must also address Criterion 3.
This criterion is competitively assessed and responses will be compared with other eligible applicants seeking additional funding.
3. New or expanded services and rationale for additional funding – No weighting specified
Applicants should demonstrate:
- The new or expanded activities proposed.
- Intended outcomes from those activities.
- The evidence base supporting the activities.
- Alignment with CaFS program objectives.
- Locations where the activities will be delivered.
- Capacity and capability to deliver the proposed additional services.
- Evidence of the expected impact.
- Evidence that the activities address demonstrated community need.
- Where relevant, alignment with local Empowered Communities or Stronger Places, Stronger People priorities and plans.
- The additional funding requested for each financial year.
- A high-level explanation of how the additional funding will be spent.
- How the proposed expenditure represents value with relevant money.
The response is limited to approximately 750 words or 4,500 characters.
How do I get the Children and Family Support Program support?
Because this is an invitation-only opportunity, organisations must first be listed as eligible and have received an invitation through GrantConnect.
To position an eligible submission successfully, applicants should demonstrate:
- Clear alignment between proposed activities and the CaFS program outcomes.
- Strong alignment with the four investment priorities.
- A sound evidence base for the activities proposed.
- Clear evidence of community need.
- An understanding of the families, children and young people being supported.
- Strong community connections and partnerships.
- Appropriate collaboration, triage and referral arrangements.
- Stability and continuity of service delivery.
- Appropriate workforce capacity and capability.
- Evidence that activities can deliver measurable outcomes.
- A realistic and sustainable delivery model.
- Appropriate arrangements for direct service delivery rather than wholly subcontracted delivery.
- Culturally safe and responsive approaches.
- Strong engagement with First Nations communities where relevant.
- Readiness to partner with or transition services to ACCOs where appropriate.
- Alignment with local community priorities in EC or SPSP locations where applicable.
- A clear rationale for any changes to service types, locations, funding allocations or delivery arrangements.
- Value with relevant money.
- For additional funding, a strong case for why new or expanded services are needed and the additional impact they will achieve.
- Appropriate governance, risk management and financial capacity.
- A commitment to outcomes measurement, continuous improvement and adapting services as community needs change.
Existing FaC providers should also ensure that information in their individualised Provider Preview is accurate and update it where required before submission.
Information to prepare for the Children and Family Support Program support
Applicants should prepare:
- Their individualised Provider Preview Workbook.
- A completed budget.
- Responses to all applicable assessment criteria.
- Evidence demonstrating alignment with CaFS outcomes and investment priorities.
- Evidence supporting activity design and delivery.
- Evidence of community need.
- Community consultation, service-demand, referral or client-feedback evidence.
- Details of current and proposed service locations.
- Details of any proposed changes to service types or delivery arrangements.
- Workforce capacity and continuity arrangements.
- Details of consortium or subcontracting arrangements where applicable.
- Evidence of engagement with EC or SPSP community partners where relevant.
- Evidence of First Nations community relationships and engagement where applicable.
- Details of proposed ACCO partnerships or transition arrangements where relevant.
- Details and rationale for any additional funding requested.
- Financial information supporting value with relevant money.
- Consortia partner acknowledgement forms where applicable.
- The organisation’s two most recent full years of profit and loss statements and balance sheets where requested for financial risk assessment.
Each attachment has a 2 MB file-size limit.
Applicants should not include attachments that have not been requested.
Applying for the Children and Family Support Program support
Applications are by invitation only through GrantConnect.
Register your interest with GrantHelper to explore your alignment with this grant and how we can assist you to increase your chances of success.
Children and Family Support Program resources
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