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Federal funding agreements
The Department of Finance published a suite of government grant agreement templates to be used by Commonwealth entities when entering into grant arrangements.
These templates are designed to replace agency-specific grant agreement templates, including the Department of Social Services (DSS) templates. The DSS Streamlined Grant Agreement is not part of the Department of Finance’s suite of templates and is being phased out as DSS enters into new grant agreements with community-based organisations.
Commonwealth Simple Grant Agreement
We have published a fact sheet on the Commonwealth Simple Grant Agreement (part of the Department of Finance’s suite of templates). The Commonwealth Simple Grant Agreement is based on and replaces the previous ‘Low Risk Grant Agreement’ and it includes more drafting options for the supplementary terms.
Our fact sheet provides guidance on some of the important terms for funded organisations to be aware of. The fact sheet will make more sense if you read it with your grant documents at hand.
The fact sheet includes information on:
- what the Commonwealth Simple Grant Agreement is
- important terms in the Agreement
- when written notification is required
- record and reporting requirements, and
- tips to help organisations be prepared for operating under the Agreement
Note
The Commonwealth Simple Grant Agreement is not just one document - it’s made up of a number of documents. Funded organisations must make sure they are aware of the terms of all the documents as, together, they make up the Commonwealth Simple Grant Agreement.
The documents that make up the agreement between the Commonwealth government entity and the funded organisation will vary and may include the following documents:
- Commonwealth Simple Grant Agreement template, including introductory information, the Grant Details and any Supplementary Terms (some, all, or none of these may apply – organisations need to check)
- the schedules, including the Commonwealth General Grant Conditions, and
- other documents referred to in the Grant Details
Organisations should seek independent legal advice about the terms and practical implications of their Commonwealth grant agreements.
NSW Government funding agreements
The Human Services Agreement is a NSW Government document that sets out the standard terms and conditions that apply to organisations (referred to as non-government organisations on ProcurePoint) that deliver human services funded by NSW government agencies.
From 1 August 2017, the Human Services Agreement applies to all organisations funded by a NSW government agency to deliver ‘human services’. Human services are defined by the NSW Government as programs, facilities or services provided to meet the health, welfare and social needs of individuals, families and communities.
We have been forced to start removing our resources for NSW-based community organisations.
We developed a guide to the Human Services Agreement that provided information on the key obligations of organisations under the Human Services Agreement and included checklists to help organisations comply with their obligations. We also developed a fact sheet for organisations funded by the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ). This fact sheet helped organisations understand the supplementary conditions contained in the DCJ schedule to the Human Services Agreement.
Last year we told you that, since the NSW Government had stopped funding our work, we had no choice but to cut off our NSW advice services completely and remove our tailored legal information resources for NSW-based community organisations from our website.
We’re grateful to have secured short-term support from another funder which means we can get our NSW-specific resources back on our website for the time being. This particular resource will be back online soon.
However, this support is time limited, and it’s not enough to reopen our advice service in NSW.
We need your help to ensure a sustainable NSW community sector where frontline organisations can access our free legal support to help them deliver services to the growing number of people in need across the state every day.
The content on this webpage was last updated in January 2023 and is not legal advice. See full disclaimer and copyright notice.
