Departmental operational information

Working with ministerial offices

Departmental Liaison Officers

A Departmental Liaison Officer (DLO) is a public servant who is temporarily placed in a minister's office (MO). They act as a conduit between their department and the MO.

Information on the allocation of our DLOs to portfolio ministers is provided in the table below. This information is updated twice a year.

Correct as at 31 March 2026.

Ministerial briefs and correspondence

We routinely provide briefings to our ministers and assistant ministers.

The table below shows the number of briefings provided to ministers or assistant ministers.

The table below shows the number of correspondence sent for minister or assistant minister signature.

The Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission provided 31 briefs to portfolio ministers and assistant ministers between 1 July 2024 and 31 March 2026.

The National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People provided 10 briefs to portfolio ministers and assistant ministers between 13 January 2025 and 31 March 2026.

Interdepartmental committees, taskforces, reviews and entities

Interdepartmental committees

An Interdepartmental Committee (IDC) is a common governance body for cross-agency taskforces. An IDC is where officials from representative agencies may discuss work and provide input on deliverables.

The Department of Social Services and its portfolio agencies are regularly involved in the work of IDCs. We participate in IDCs that are led by the following departments/agencies:

• Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
• Department of Finance
• The Treasury
• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
• Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
• National Indigenous Australians Agency
• Attorney General’s Department
• Department of Education
• Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
• Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts
• Australian Taxation Office
• Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
• Department of Home Affairs
• National Disability Insurance Agency
• Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Digital Transformation Agency
• Department of Industry, Science and Resources
• Services Australia

Some examples of IDC topics include:

• Australian Public Service reforms
• Closing the Gap
• health and wellbeing
• aged care
• people with disability
• gender equality
• education
• employment and early childhood
• children and young people
• seniors
• families
• communities
• income management
• housing
• migration
• regional development
• international relations
• finance
• privacy
• integrity
• regulation
• economic
• productivity
• resilience and emergency management
• expatriate adoption
• grants management
• artificial intelligence.

By their nature, IDCs can be established and conclude their work rapidly as the need arises.

Taskforces

Taskforces are a method of doing business across the Australian Public Service (APS), including in the department. We regularly establish taskforces to meet emerging or high-profile government priorities. Some are short term (3 to 6 months), some longer (one to 3 years). All taskforces require dedicated focus, varying timescales, set-up and delivery resourcing and effort. This is from many parts of the department and more broadly across the APS.

We, and our portfolio agencies, are regularly involved in the work of a range of taskforces.

Reviews

We are also involved in reviews. Our current reviews, as 31 March 2026, are:

• Review of Carer Payments and Supports
• Transition to Independent Living Allowance (TILA) Review
• Review of jurisdictions’ implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle
• Implementation Review for Safe and Supported: The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-2031 (Safe and Supported)
• Evaluation of the Paid Parental Leave (PPL) Scheme – Phase 2
• Evaluation of the Community-Led Sexual Violence Prevention Pilot (also known as the Partners in Prevention of Sexual Violence Project) model for evidence gathering
• National Model of Care
• Evaluation of the Improving Multidisciplinary Response Program
• Joint Evaluation of Family and Relationship Services (FaRS) and Specialised Family Violence Services (SFVS)
• Evaluation of the Child and Family Intensive Support Services (CaFIS)
• Evaluation of the Support for Trafficked People Program (STPP) and the Additional Referral Pathway (ARP) pilot
• Independent evaluation of the Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY)
• Strategic Review of Governance
• Evaluation of the National Consumer Protection Framework for online wagering (NCPF)
• Be Connected Program Evaluation 2025-2027
• Refresh of the National Out-of-Home Care Standards
• Evaluation of the Investment Strategy – Innovation Fund Grant Opportunity
• Evaluation of the Strong and Resilient Communities (SARC) Activity
• Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Workforce Survey. 

Our reviews, completed and released between 1 July 2024 and 31 March 2026, are:

• Review of child, youth and parenting programs under the Families and Children (FaC) Activity(Opens in a new tab/window) - released on 19 November 2024
• Carer payments assessment process(Opens in a new tab/window) – released in February 2025.

Entities

Since 1 July 2024, the following new entities including advisory boards and agencies have been wound up, amalgamated, ceased, disbanded, or reconstituted as new bodies:

• National Autism Strategy Oversight Council – ceased 14 August 2024
• National Coordination Group – ceased 30 June 2025

Since 1 July 2024, the following new entities including advisory boards and agencies were created:

• National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People(Opens in a new tab/window) (entity) – started operations as an executive agency on 13 January 2025. The National Commission will transition from an executive agency to a permanent independent statutory agency from 1 July 2026.

Committees, groups and panels

Our committees, panels and groups provide ways for people and organisations to help us develop policies and provide advice on specific issues.

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership Group 
  This group shares decisions with all Australian governments in implementing Safe and Supported: the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-2031.
• Child Support Stakeholder Consultation Group
  This is an advisory group to Government on the Child Support Scheme. It helps achieve better outcomes for separated and separating families.
• Commonwealth National Plan Implementation Committee
  This committee ensures senior executive leadership and accountability across key Commonwealth agencies responsible for the effective delivery and implementation of the National Plan.
• Community Services Advisory Group
  This is a key community sector stakeholder engagement group on issues relating to our policies and programs.
• Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee
  The committee provides independent advice to Government before each Budget on economic inclusion and tackling disadvantage.
• Intercountry Adoption Authorities
  We perform the duties of the Australian Central Authority under the Hague Convention. There is also a central authority for each state and territory. Responsibility for intercountry adoption is shared across these central authorities.
• National Leadership Group
  The group is a cross-sector advisory body that supports the implementation of the Stronger Places, Stronger People initiative.
• Parents and Carers Reference Group
  This group provides parents and carers with the opportunity to share their experience and knowledge. This helps inform policy, programs and services for families.
• Partnership Priorities Committee
  The committee helps steer better policy and delivery outcomes by embedding partnerships and co design.
• Chief Counsel Social Security and Family Assistance Legal Forum
  The forum provides a valuable mechanism for senior-level engagement across the portfolio. It ensures alignment on significant legal risk issues and relevant legislative reform.
• Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Sector Strengthening Plan (SSP) Working Group
  The working group is made up of Commonwealth, state and territory governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives. They are developing a Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Sector Strengthening Plan.
• National Redress Scheme Inter-jurisdictional Committee
  The committee provides support to the Minister’s Redress Scheme Governance Board. They identify emerging issues and make decisions under the National Redress Scheme during its period of operation. The committee is consultative and advisory in nature. The committee, chaired by a Commonwealth representative, consists of senior state and territory officials responsible for redress. 
   

Operational matters

Official hospitality expenditure

Official hospitality involves the use of public resources to provide hospitality, including food, drink, and/or entertainment, to persons other than departmental officials. This is for the purpose of achieving government objectives. This includes:

• Tier 1 events such as receptions, functions and sit-down meals with defined guest lists and formal catering arrangements.
• Tier 2 activities such as light refreshments provided at business meetings and other work-level engagements involving external parties.

The approximate cost of official hospitality including both Tier 1 and Tier 2 was:

• 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025: $281,746
• 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026: $50,872.11

The table below reports Tier 1 official hospitality events hosted by Portfolio Ministers and the department.

Official Hospitality Events from 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026

Official hospitality events from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025

* The total event cost includes expenditure for catering, venue hire, audio-video and other expenses relating to an event.

Department leadership forums

We regularly hold in-person and online executive forums to build capability in our leadership. These are for both senior leadership staff (including SES and state managers) and Executive Level 2 staff. In-person forums are usually 5 to 6 hours long and involve catering for morning tea and lunch (buffet-style of salads, sandwiches/wraps and a hot food option). Participants are encouraged to attend in-person, with an online option also available for those unable to attend. Online forums are usually 3 hours long.

2026 (as at 31 March 2026)

Executive Level 2 forums

Senior Leadership forums

2025

Executive Level 2 forums

Senior Leadership forums

From 1 July 2024 to 31 December 2024

Executive Level 2 forums

Senior leadership forums

Community Grants Hub Forums

We held a series of staff training and development forums for Health Grants Branch (HGB) staff in the Community Grants Hub. The forums focussed on various programs and work areas as follows:

• Aged Care Forum – 1 to 2 October 2024
• Indigenous Health and First Nations Forum – 16 to 17 October 2024
• Business Improvement, Processing and Enabling Teams Forum – 30 to 31 October 2024
• Client Grant Branch Forum – 1 to 2 April 2025

Itemised list of catering costs is detailed in table below

Travel

Our Official Travel Policy provides the overarching rules and principles for officials undertaking official travel, or organising official travel for others. This includes:

• Officials ensuring we achieve maximum value for money when booking travel. Value for money requires the use of Commonwealth resources in a proper (efficient, effective, economical and ethical) manner. This is enhanced through competition.
• When booking travel, officials making decisions based on an impartial consideration of the fares available. This is not on a personal preference for a particular airline or aircraft type, provision of access to airline lounges or accumulating airline status points.
• Official travel being undertaken where other communication tools, such as teleconferencing and videoconferencing, are impractical.

Travel expenses

Our total travel expense, including Secretary and Deputy Secretary travel, is:

• 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025: $8.54 million.
• 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026: $2.63 million.

The table below shows details of Secretary and Deputy Secretary travel.*

* Data is provided by the whole-of-government contract provider. At the time of publication this may not include adjustments of trips (including amended travel dates, and late cancellations) in this reporting period. The data provided includes flights, ground transport and accommodation. 

** Deputy Secretary positions reflect titles outlined on our organisation chart at the time of publication.

*** Includes international travel.

Facilities

We have a presence in each state and territory with approximately 3,200 work points.

We manage upgrades to our staff amenities (including SES offices) according to Commonwealth guidelines and policies, including the Commonwealth Procurement Rules(Opens in a new tab/window).

From 1 July 2024 to 31 March 2026, we had 9 contracts with a total value of $11,451,234 relating to upgrades to staff amenities as per the table below. We report on our procurement contracts with a minimum contract value of $10,000 (GST inclusive) and above on the AusTender website(Opens in a new tab/window).

The table below shows costs and details of upgrades to staff amenities.

Our people

We continue to invest in our people’s capability. We also grow the diversity of our workforce to support the government to deliver outcomes for all Australians.

We report on our employee data biannually, based on data as at the end of June and end of December. This is via the  APS Employment Database(Opens in a new tab/window) (APSED).

We operate in line with the Strategic Commissioning Framework. We do core work in-house in most cases. Any outsourcing of core work is minimal and aligns with the circumstances allowed under the Strategic Commissioning Framework. We continue to work to meet the principle to have 10% or fewer of our workforce outsourced.

Learn more about our organisational structure, including SES.

As at 31 March 2026, our workforce comprised of:

• 2,563 APS staff
• 237 contractors.

Of the 2,563 APS staff:

• 2,505 are ongoing
• 58 are non-ongoing.

We have 169 APS staff who identify as a person with disability (6.6% against the APS average of 5.9%*).

We have 118 APS Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff (4.6 % compared to the APS average of 3.5 %*).

* APS Employment Data 31 December 2025, published 26 March 2026.

The table below shows the Average Staffing Level (ASL), Full Time Employees (FTE) headcount and contractors as at 31 March 2026.

ASL budget is reported in the Portfolio Budget Statements 2025-26 (pre-Machinery of Government changes)

The table below shows the staff headcount and diversity numbers by classification as at 31 March 2026.

* APS employees only.

** This includes staff in their acting role and the substantive who are on leave.

*** We currently use Non-English-Speaking Background (NESB) data from the human resources (HR) system to determine Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) status.

Recruitment

Merit selection processes take an average of 14 weeks to complete. This includes advertising, shortlisting, interviewing and onboarding processes.

During the period 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026, we advertised a total of 5 vacancies, both ongoing and non-ongoing roles.

During the period 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026, we engaged 77 ongoing employees and 12 non-ongoing employees (total 89).

The table below shows the number of ongoing and non-ongoing staff working full time or part time.

Of the 77 ongoing staff, 33 transferred to us from other APS agencies.

31 employees transferred at the same classification, and 2 employees commenced on promotion.

Flexible work arrangements as of 31 March 2026:

• 1,508 of our people have approved working away from the office arrangements. This accounts for 58.8% of the workforce (ongoing and non-ongoing employees)
• 363 of our people worked on a part time employment arrangement
  • 215 also accessed working away from the office arrangements
• 288 of our people accessed compressed hours
  • 185 also accessed working away from office arrangements
• 531 of our people worked a pattern of hours outside of the standard hours
  • 328 also accessed working away from the office arrangements
• 847 staff within the ACT had a flexible work agreement in place, accounting for 53.4% of all ACT staff (excluding non-APS contractors).
   

The table below shows a breakdown of employees working from home per fortnight.

A total of 989 staff (excluding non-APS contractors) work 6 or more days per fortnight at home. The table below shows the APS classification for these staff.

Work health and safety

We are committed to proactively managing physical and psychosocial risk.

We conduct regular consultation, audits and monitoring of safety compliance and performance. This ensures we continue to improve our safety risk management arrangements. We aim to create and sustain safe, supportive, and inclusive work environments for all workers and visitors.

From 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026, 3 incidents were notified to Comcare.

Freedom of Information requests

We are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982(Opens in a new tab/window) (Cth), including the requirement to publish information as part of the Information Publication Scheme (IPS).

Further detail about the information released in response to an FOI request is available on our Freedom of Information Disclosure Log.

Advertising

Our total expenditure on government approved information and advertising campaigns in financial year 2024–25 was $28,345,872 (GST exclusive). From 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026, our total expenditure was $3,833,438 (GST exclusive), as itemised in the table below.

Promotional merchandise

From 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, we spent $8,500 (GST exclusive) on promotional merchandise.

From 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026, we spent $17,536.55 (GST exclusive) on promotional merchandise on behalf of the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.

Procurement activities

We procure goods and services, including consultancies, according to the Public Governance Performance and Accountability Act 2013(Opens in a new tab/window) (Cth) and the requirements of the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.

In 2024–25, we entered into 266 contracts with a total value of $557.9 million (GST inclusive). Further, between 1 July 2025 and 31 March 2026, we entered into 167 contracts with a total value of $6.4 billion (GST inclusive). Following the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, we publish all procurement contracts with a value greater than $10,000 (GST inclusive) on the AusTender website(Opens in a new tab/window).

In 2024–25, we awarded 31 contracts to Indigenous businesses with a total value of $45.0 million (GST inclusive). Between 1 July 2025 and 31 March 2026, we also awarded 38 contracts to Indigenous businesses with a total value of $204.9 million (GST inclusive).

Market Research

In 2024–25, we entered into 8 market research contracts with a total value of $2,345,418.69 (GST inclusive).

Between 1 July 2025 and 31 March 2026, we also entered into 3 market research contracts with a total value of $2,228,185.10.

Use of consultants

In 2024–25, we entered into 49 contracts with a total value just over $16.6 million (GST inclusive). Between 1 July 2025 and 31 March 2026, we also entered into 14 new consultancy contracts with total value of $3.8 million (GST inclusive).

We engage consultants:

• when there is a need for independent research and assessment
• when there is a need for specialised or professional skills
• where there are skills currently unavailable within the department.

Following the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, details about our consultancy contracts with a contract value of $10,000 (GST inclusive) and above are reported on the AusTender website(Opens in a new tab/window).

Paper usage

Our paper usage and its cost for the last 5 financial years: