FamS offers a range of services for members:

Publications and other resources
Newsletter and e-Updates
Training
Policy development and advocacy
Member survey
Regional Meetings
Regional Reps’ Forums
Committees on special issues

You should also be aware of what we don’t offer!

Click here for our Resources for Members Booklet

Publications and other resources

We publish many guides, CDs and other materials relevant to family services. Many of them are free for members. Click here for a list of all publications

developing practice is a journal edited by the Association of Children's Welfare and FamS. It is aimed at practitioners and managers who provide programs and services for vulnerable children, young people and families. It presents and discusses practices, programs, ideas and practical initiatives aimed at assisting these target groups.

Newsletter and e-Updates

We produce a newsletter – Turning Curves for Kids – every two months, with latest news from the family services sector about funding, research, training, projects updates, job advertisements and so on.

Regular Updates are also emailed to members to inform them of more urgent information, such as the latest job advertisements. We welcome contributions from members to the newsletter or e-Updates; these can be submitted to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For more information about the newsletter or e-Updates, call us on (02) 9692 9999.

Training

We offer training for members and other organisations on a range of topics. Training workshops and workshop kits are available at a discount rate to members.

Policy development and advocacy

To help you develop policies for your service, we offer a range of Policy Guidelines on a range of service delivery and management issues. We can help you by making a contribution to policy development affecting families and family services. Click here for a list of current Policy Guidelines.

We also play an advocacy role with governments, representing the interests of our members and the families they support. We have, for example, done various submissions on behalf of members.

Member survey

So that we can better understand the family services sector, we gather statewide data by conducting a statistical survey of FamS members each year. We encourage you to cooperate in this survey as the information greatly assists us both in our advocacy role on behalf of members and in ongoing research about family services and their clients. Once the survey is completed each year, you as a member will receive the survey report.

Regional Meetings

As a member of FamS, your service can attend Regional Meetings organised by the members in a particular region. Meetings are generally held every four to six weeks. There are 17 regions throughout NSW.

Each regional group elects someone to act as Regional Representative. This person has the responsibility of convening Regional Meetings, acting as an information conduit between us and our members, and attending Regional Reps’ Forums in Sydney three or four times a year. To view the list of Regional Reps click here.

FamS is well served by its regional networks, and we consider it a priority to strengthen and support this aspect of our organisation. Regional Meetings play a valuable part in developing and promoting the family services sector throughout NSW.

Regional Reps’ Forums

Regional Reps attend quarterly Forums where they can feed back ideas and concerns from the Regional Meetings. The aim of the Forums is to find out what is happening ‘out there’. FamS staff and a Board representative attend each Forum. FamS staff can also reinforce information and answer questions about our work and priorities. The Forum can send issues through to the next Board meeting for action and response.

These Forums are a powerful process for giving individual members and regional groupings of members access to the FamS staff and Board. Issues can be raised and responded to without delay. FamS staff are well informed about members’ responses to current or proposed government actions and can advocate from a position of knowledge. The Board is well informed of current concerns and can therefore debate issues in an informed way.

Committees on special issues

FamS is managed by a Board which meets four times a year. Committees and working parties, usually made up of various Board members, are convened from time to time for special purposes, such as investigating issues in a particular local area.

What we don’t offer

While we offer many types of support for members, FamS is not an industrial body. For industrial matters, employees should contact their union, and employers and management committees are encouraged to join an employers’ association. As its employers’ association FamS uses Jobs Australia (contact 1800 331 915, www.ja.com.au).

Contact us

If you have any queries about membership or other matters, contact us.