The Department for Community Welfare replaced the Social Welfare Department in 1983. It provided financial and other assistance to people with inadequate incomes and managed children's services, including the supervision of state wards. In July 1989, the Department was amalgamated with the Housing Department and Corrective Services to form the new Department of Community Services.
The name change from Social Welfare Department to the Department for Community Welfare reflected a shift towards preventative and supportive programs.
Like the Social Welfare Department in its later phase, the Department for Community Welfare placed an increasing emphasis on keeping children with their families whenever possible. They used a range of measures to do this. Two of these were introducing interim orders, which delayed making a child a ward of state, and the establishment of the Homemaker Service, which supported families in crisis. Increasingly the Domestic Service Assistance Scheme was used to give parents experiencing problems with their children a respite.
The Department for Community Welfare used family support to help families who sought help for their difficulties but whose children were not neglected or youthful offenders.
Family support involved providing the knowledge, skills and practical help that could enable people to sort their problems out. According to the Department's Annual Report of 1983, this assistance was probably the reason that the numbers of children coming into the care of the Department declined at this time.
The primary objective of the Department for Community Welfare was:
to enable individuals and families who require help to function in society to the best of their ability and to preserve, strengthen and where possible restore the family unit, by counselling, advising and assisting families and individuals in need, and by identifying and developing community support.
By 1983, the Department had a strategy for meeting this objective. It had three parts:
The Department of Community Welfare had up to 2 placements for state wards in a boarding school between 1983 and 1985.
1873 - 1901 Charitable Grants Department
1896 - 1901 Neglected Children's Department
1873 - 1901 Charitable Grants Department
1901 - 1918 Neglected Children's Department
1901 - 1934 Charitable Grants Department
1918 - 1935 Children of the State Department
1934 - 1961 Social Services Department
1961 - 1983 Social Welfare Department
1983 - 1989 Department for Community Welfare
1989 - 1993 Department of Community Services
1993 - 1998 Department of Community and Health Services
1998 - Department of Health and Human Services
2018 - 2022 Department of Communities Tasmania
2022 - Department for Education, Children and Young People, Tasmanian Government
Sources used to compile this entry: Department for Community Welfare: annual report for the year ended 30 June 1983, Department of Community Welfare, Hobart, 1983; Department for Community Welfare: annual report for the year ended 30 June 1984, Department for Community Welfare, Hobart, 1984; Department for Community Welfare: annual report for the year ended 30 June 1985, Department for Community Welfare, Hobart, 1985.
Prepared by: Caroline Evans
Created: 12 January 2011, Last modified: 13 February 2019