Anglicare Victoria has welcomed many of today's State Budget announcements including spending on child protection, mental health services, social housing, job training incentives and an increase in the water and sewage concession to protect low income earners.

Anglicare Victoria CEO Dr Ray Cleary said he was pleased to see a commitment to address and restructure the child protection system but warned more would need to be done in the coming years as higher numbers of children require state protection.

"The Brumby Government is to be commended for their commitment to child protection evident in the announcement of $134 million to increase residential care places, recruit family mentors and to employ 100 live-in carers to support the most challenging children," Dr Cleary said.

But the money will be spent over four years and Dr Cleary warned that up to 1,000 extra children and young people may enter the protection system in that time.

"We expect numbers to increase by 20 per cent by 2013 while the number of volunteer carers available to provide homes for these children is in freefall.

"The funding will help reverse this trend by employing 100 professional carers but without continued commitment to recruit more carers we may soon find ourselves in crisis again."

The Victorian Government projected unemployment to rise to seven per cent this year and 7.25 per cent in 2010/11.

In light of a worsening economic climate and increasing unemployment, Dr Cleary welcomed the extension of the Apprenticeship Completion Bonus to encourage employers to take on young workers and increased funding for mental health services.

Dr Cleary again welcomed the commitment to build 667 new social housing homes but warned that more needed to be done about the regulation of private rooming houses as more families are forced to find alternatives to the rental market.

"With a public housing waiting list of about 37,000, these new homes will only go a small way to addressing the community need," Dr Cleary said. "Many people are forced to seek housing in privately operated rooming houses which continue to operate without comprehensive minimum standards and no system to register and regulate their management to prevent exploitative practices. Without attention to these matters there is a crisis waiting to happen."