Social Inclusion Priorities
The Government has identified the following social inclusion priority areas as a focus of the social inclusion agenda:
- Helping jobless families with children to increase work opportunities, improve parenting and build capacity by helping parents into sustainable employment and giving children a good start in life.
- Improving the life chances of children at greatest risk of long term disadvantage by providing health, education and family relationship services.
- Reducing the incidence of homelessness by providing more housing and support services.
- Improving outcomes for people with disability or mental illness and their carers by reducing discrimination, creating employment opportunities and building community support.
- Closing the gap for Indigenous Australians with respect to life expectancy, child mortality, access to early childhood education, educational achievement and employment outcomes.
- Breaking the cycle of entrenched and multiple disadvantage in particular neighbourhoods and communities by tailoring place-based approaches in partnership with the community.
In implementing these priorities, the Government is also committed to helping vulnerable new arrivals and refugees. These groups remain central to the social inclusion agenda, with the Government monitoring progress via the social inclusion measurement and reporting framework.
The Minister for Social Inclusion will focus on the following social inclusion priorities from 2011:
A range of