Department of Social Services Grant Funding Offers

The Department of Social Services has advised applicants of the outcomes of the grant funding rounds announced earlier this year.

The Government is committed to ensuring grants funding supports the area of greatest need for the community and the most vulnerable people and families in Australia are looked after.

The response to funding under the New Way of Working for Grants was overwhelming.

The Department received more than 5,500 applications for grants worth more than $3.9 billion, with approximately $800 million in grants funding available when the new grant rounds were announced.

Grant funding will support a broad range of vital services that assist families, seniors, cultural and linguistically diverse Australians, Indigenous and mainstream communities and vulnerable people across Australia.

The New Way of Working for Grants will result in more streamlined reporting for organisations, enabling them to focus on delivering important services in the community.

Funding has been allocated to specified locations according to the identified level of need and disadvantage.

The Department of Social Services will be negotiating formal funding offers with the successful applicants throughout January. An announcement of the preferred providers and their funding offers will be made once these negotiations have been finalised.

As a result of developments in the background law and the High Court’s Pape and Williams decisions; some programmes will require redesign to ensure conformity with the law. Some grant agreements will be of two years duration as that redesign process takes place. This will also help to ensure service providers have the scope and flexibility to be responsive, innovative and creative in meeting the needs of the community.

There has been no impact on the National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) and National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness (NPAH), which are the primary sources of Commonwealth funding provided to state and territory governments to deliver housing assistance and specialist homelessness services.

Some organisations applied for grants that now, due to Budget considerations, will not be going ahead. More information about these rounds is available at: www.dss.gov.au/grants

The Department will work with affected organisations through the transition to minimise any impacts on services, staff and clients.