Family Relationship Centres and the Family Relationship Advice Line 003-11040010

Family Relationship Centres and the Family Relationship Advice Line are 2 additional services available for customers with families who are experiencing relationship difficulties and require assistance.

Assistance provided by the Centres and the Advice Line includes information about family relationships, the family law system and services that can assist families, as well as referrals to appropriate services.

They will both provide advice about the impact of conflict on children, appropriate arrangements for children after parental separation and the development of parenting plans. The Centres will also provide group and joint sessions in relation to arrangements for children.

The Advice Line will not initially provide any dispute resolution, but will refer callers to local Family Relationship Centres and other dispute resolution services for face to face dispute resolution, or will help to arrange telephone dispute resolution for them.

The Centres are a community resource providing information and referrals for families at all stages. They will also provide individual, group and joint sessions for separating or separated parents (and other family members, where applicable) to help them make parenting plans and resolve disputes about their children without the need to go to court.

Centres may refer customers to Services Australia if they have queries about payments (to an appropriate Service Centre depending on the customer's location and circumstances, the families phone line 136150 or the Services Australia Website), or to Child Support if they have queries about child support payments.

There are 65 Centres around Australia. The first 15 opened on 3 July 2006 and are located at Hobart, Salisbury, Mildura, Sunshine, Joondalup, Frankston, Ringwood, Strathpine, Darwin, Sutherland, Penrith, Wollongong, Canberra, Townsville and Lismore.

The Advice Line replaces and considerably expands the existing Family Law Hotline service by adding a new parenting advice and legal advice component. The services provided will complement the services offered by the Centres.

The Advice Line is a free national telephone service available to the general public, especially for callers who do not have a Centre in their local area or who prefer to use the telephone. It is available from 8am - 8pm Monday to Friday and 10am - 4pm on Saturday (local time), except national public holidays.

The Advice Line has 3 components:

• Information Officers, as the first point of contact, will assess a caller's needs, give information, and refer the caller to national and local services, for example Centrelink, Child Support or local family counselling and dispute resolution services that should be able to assist families experiencing relationship difficulties. Officers may provide contact information for the service or transfer the caller to the service.
• Parenting Advisers will more thoroughly assess a caller's needs and give appropriate advice on parenting plans and the impact of conflict on children and/or refer the caller to Centres or other counselling/dispute resolution services. Parenting Advisers may provide contact information for the service, transfer the caller to the service, or actively refer the caller.
• Legal Advisers will give simple legal advice to families about care arrangements for children after separation. This component of the service supports the other components listed above. The Advice Line is not promoted as a legal advice service. Callers requiring more complex legal advice will be referred to other legal services.