NSW residents from Bega to Bourke and everywhere in between are benefitting from the NSW Government’s increased focus on community outreach through Service NSW.
In the past year Service NSW has worked hard to ensure it is the ‘centre of care’ for customers needing friendly and personalised face-to-face support, whether it’s through distance and isolation, digital literacy challenges or natural disasters.
With regional and remote NSW facing unique challenges, community outreach and engagement is critical to ensuring individuals and small businesses can easily access services and support.
Around 90 Service NSW team members including 25 Business Bureau team members were deployed in recovery centres and assisted almost 10,000 individual and small business customers after disasters including Cyclone Alfred and the Mid North Coast floods, to replace lost identity documents and make hardship grant applications.
They also connected people with other government and third-party organisations to access additional support including temporary housing and personal care, legal, insurance and mental health support as well as other clean-up and recovery services.
This is in addition to Service NSW teams supporting more than 83,000 calls for assistance, helping more than 78,000 people with individual financial assistance grants worth more than $22.2 million and 1,021 small business grants worth almost $2.4 million in response to the Far West NSW power outage, Cyclone Alfred and the Mid North Coast floods.
The Service NSW Business Bureau’s rapid response team also provided on the ground support for more than 140 businesses facing acute crisis in the aftermath of the tragic Bondi incident and worked closely with businesses in Northern NSW who had supply chains disrupted due to the fire ant infestation.
The friendly Service NSW staff have also helped more than 23 000 people tackle the cost of living through Savings Finder rebates.
Service NSW also continues to invest in its Mobile Service Centres, which visited around 144 remote and regional communities and served almost 13,300 customers in the past year.
This includes the “Kangaroo Bus” Mobile Service Centre which visits more than 40 Aboriginal communities as part of a regular 10-week loop and includes Aboriginal Outreach officers from Revenue NSW, NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages and a business specialist from the Business Bureau to help provide tailored and culturally sensitive advice and support.
In the 2024-25 financial year, Service NSW attended more than 2,300 community engagement events around NSW, with around 54 per cent taking place outside of Greater Sydney and Wollongong and 27 per cent targeting Aboriginal and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
This included more than 1,350 community and small group presentations on initiatives such as cost-of-living support, digital literacy and education on major life milestones like getting your driver licence.
Service NSW has also participated in around 340 community festivals and exhibitions, as well as run around 130 pop-up stores in shopping centres offering customer education and assistance with transactions.
For more information on upcoming Mobile Service Centre visits, please visit: service.nsw.gov.au/mobile-service-centres
Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Jihad Dib said:
“Service NSW is not just a one-stop shop for NSW Government transactions and services, it’s the centre of care for NSW residents who need and deserve face-to-face support when times are tough.”
“Community outreach activities like the Mobile Service Centres, disaster recovery assistance and small group information sessions mean we can rapidly respond to the needs of people on the ground and make it easier for people to access NSW Government services no matter where they live.”
“Community outreach is in addition to our 116 Service Centres and other phone and digital service channels, and we remain committed to making NSW Government services and support more accessible and more flexible than ever.”
Minister for Small Business, Recovery and North Coast, Janelle Saffin said:
“We know that many communities and small businesses are facing challenges at the moment, including the cost of living, business pressures and natural disasters.”
“Service NSW’s community outreach programs help us reach more businesses and households across the state, providing the face-to-face support that can make all the difference for people accessing government services and transactions.”
“Our trained Business Concierges play an important role during and after disasters, when they support households to navigate and access government assistance.”
