Developing a plan for families: listening to the community

Major issues faced by families, WA families & children, 2000

• Work
• Finance
• Education
• Safety
• Alcohol & drug abuse
• Relationship breakdown
• Health

Discussion

The community consultation has achieved a number of objectives for the FCPO. It has canvassed in a very inclusive way, the views of the wider community about matters of concern to families and children. While expending a lot of our energy over several months, the financial cost of this exercise has not been very great.

Though some of the messages from families and children in the consultation may, to some, seem rather obvious, the significant point is that families themselves, not organisations speaking on their behalf, have expressed these views.

The FCPO now has a large database comprising the views of community participants on a wide range of issues and this can be updated. There is perhaps a realistic expectation in the community that their views on family matters will continue to be sought. The process, including the FamilyOne web presence, has created an expectation of interactivity in a Government-community relationship.

While not strictly representative of the community at large, our participants are probably more representative of the wider community than the usual government consultation strategy. The shortcomings of the general community forums were addressed by supplementing these with special forums targeting particular groups likely to be under-represented.

Although Western Australian government policy encourages the use of the Internet by the wider community, it is too early to rely too heavily on Internet and web-based solutions for community consultation. The views obtained that way are likely to be even less representative until Internet use is as common and as accessible as telephones.

To complement the qualitative approach described here a large-sample telephone survey was carried out recently to measure family opinions of the family-friendliness of workplaces and customer services, as well as to assess indicators of the strength of connection to family and to community. These indicators will form a baseline against which future measures can be compared as family policies are implemented over the scope of the Five-Year Plan. The data from this survey has only been available in the past month or so and will be the subject of a future report. However, it is likely that as the focus of the community shifts towards the family-friendliness of customer services and workplaces, the community’s expectations of family-friendliness may increase.

The FCPO has begun to develop partnerships with more than 40 State government agencies and a number of key community organisations to discuss the findings of the consultation that are of relevance to the organisation, and to identify current and planned initiatives, which address these issues. Feedback from the consultation is being used to guide planning so that particular family issues for services and workplaces can be addressed. Through this process the interests of families and children are being promoted in the government and community sectors.

Many participants commented on the proper role of government in strengthening and supporting families. Some felt strongly that governments should be less involved in family life. Others pointed to the needs of those families that seem to need help. For a range of reasons, many felt more comfortable if those services were actually delivered by the non-government sector. In fact, the FCPO's recent phone survey suggests that government services are rated as significantly less family-friendly than services delivered by local government, business or the community sector.

Government is frequently seen as the hands-on solver of problems. The FCPO is looking to develop better ways of working together. The FCPO aims to foster partnerships between government, business, the community sector and families themselves, which will contribute to the development of social capital both within families and within communities.