Independent Family Advocacy and Support

About Independent Family Advocacy and Support

Independent Family Advocacy and Support (IFAS) provides non-legal advocacy and support to parents and primary carers who are involved in the child protection system at the early stages. Our dedicated advocates work with you to identify what you need, how to get there and support you to understand your rights and responsibilities in the system.

IFAS is not a legal service but we can refer you to get legal advice, or other support, if you need it.

We are an independent, non-judgemental service, focusing on ensuring that the rights of primary carers and families are upheld, and that you feel like you are an active participant in the decisions about the care and wellbeing of your family.

IFAS is confidential, free and voluntary. We respect everybody’s individuality and culture and we will always work with you to make sure you feel safe and supported within our service.

How we can help

IFAS can:

• give you information and support to understand and act on your rights and responsibilities in relation to child protection
• listen to what you want and talk about your options
• help you understand your situation and what you may need to do
• work with you so you can have your say
• speak directly to other professionals on your behalf
• refer you to helpful and culturally safe services, if you need.

Who we can help

IFAS works with parents or primary carers who:

• have current involvement with child protection (at either the unborn report, investigation, or substantiation stage)
• have not been to court in relation to their current child protection case.

The parents or primary carers must live or work in:

• northern, eastern or western Melbourne
• southern Melbourne (except Bayside Peninsula)
• greater Bendigo and Loddon region
• greater Ballarat and Central Highlands region
• greater Geelong and Barwon region
• Horsham, Warrnambool and the Wimmera south-west region.

IFAS offers more intensive support to First Nations families, parents with an intellectual disability, families from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background, parents subject to an unborn report, and parents who experienced child protection involvement when they were children.

We encourage anyone seeking assistance to contact us and we can discuss how we might be able to help.

Fact sheets for parents and primary carers

Visit our Child protection page to download fact sheets that have more information for parents and primary carers who are involved in in the child protection system. These include:

• common questions about child protection involvement, how to get help and what you can do if you’re unhappy with a child protection decision
• answers to some common questions about the child protection court process and how to get help
• tips about working with child protection, from advocates and parents who have experience of child protection involvement with their family in the past.

Your experience with Independent Family Advocacy and Support

We want to hear about your experience with IFAS. Our online survey will take five minutes.

If you would like some one to assist you to complete the survey or you would like to give us feedback in another way please call IFAS on 1800 849 200.

More information

Read more about Victoria Legal Aid's review of our child protection services.

Read more about Child Protection.

Watch a video about Family Violence.

Read more about Independent Mental Health Advocacy