Disability, Child, Youth and Family Services

Disability Child Youth and Family Services consists of four Area Teams, Policy and Programs, Liaison and Development, Children's Service, Information Management and Data and Finance teams. The area teams are situated in the Northern, North Western, Southern Western and South Eastern regions, the boundaries of which align with the Departments of Education (DoE) and Police & Emergency Management's (P&EM) boundaries. Each area team aims to provide services to families located within their region including young children and people with disabilities. Services range over the three platforms - universal, secondary and tertiary level services - from child health and parenting services through to statutory child protection services.

Child protection and disability services in Tasmania are being redeveloped to more fully align services with community needs and expectations. This redevelopment work will see restructuring of a number of aspects of child protection and disability services including intake, out of home care, family support and child protection practice, accommodation and community support, community access and respite.

Services provided by each Area Team include:-

Gambling Support Bureau

The Gambling Support Program (GSP) administers the majority of the functions described in the Gaming Control Act 1993. This includes managing gambling support services delivered by the community sector, undertaking research projects, community education and health promotion activities as well as overseeing the administration of the charitable grants program. The GSP also works collaboratively across government and with the Tasmanian Gaming Commission to administer the Community Support Levy.

The Commissioner for Children is an independent, statutory office responsible to the Parliament of Tasmania. The Commissioner’s functions include promoting the rights and well-being of children along with examining the policies, practices and services provided for children and any laws affecting their health, welfare, care, protection and development.