HUNDREDS of Melton and Brimbank parents ordered by courts to have visits to their children supervised are waiting months to see them.
The waiting time at Community West, which services 300 families in Melbourne’s north-western suburbs, is one month for changeovers supervised by social workers and up to five months for visits.
Chief executive Rachna Muddagouni said lengthy waiting times were due to a lack of federal funding for family support in outer suburbs.
Known as child contact services, Family Law courts order supervised access to children in centres designed so that separated parents with a history of conflict do not see each other.
Cases often involve family violence, mental illness or drug and alcohol abuse.
Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon last month announced $1million for 63 services nationwide because funding was at crisis point.
But Ms Muddagouni said the high demand at Community West’s Deer Park centre showed family support services were lagging behind the housing boom in growth corridors like Melton.
“The waiting list highlights the fact we have a lot more work to do to support parents. When we’re planning for growth corridors we often get a lower socio-economic demographic, and it’s important to have good family and parenting supports in place.
“We’d like to have fewer people using the child contact service, but that can only happen when we can help them have counselling and get more money to tackle these issues festering up at home.”
A review of child contact services last year found that most of the 65 centres around Australia were struggling to meet demand at current funding levels.
Family & Relationship Services Australia deputy director Steve Hackett said the one-off funding boost would maintain limited services for only one year.
