Today's post comes to from the UK, specifically from Liam Stanley who is is an Associate Fellow, SPERI, & Lecturer in Politics, University of Sheffield. Liam notes the drmatic rise in the use of welfare and the negative connotations that accompany this rise. Sounds familiar right?
Read MorePolicy-makers, we presume, want to solve social problems. Therefore, they select policy measures. In practice, these measures tend to trigger different reactions in society. How might a government avoid bad reactions, such as the tuition fees protests and ‘bedroom tax’ campaigns? Peter van Wijck and Bert Niemeijer present a conceptual framework to which looks to align the perspectives of policymakers and citizens. This post originally appeared on the LSE Politics and Policy Blog.
Read MoreAt the Jesuit Social Services annual fundraising dinner on Saturday 19 March, CEO Julie Edwards talked about the organisation staying true to its purpose in a changing service environment. This edited version of Julie’s speech continues our dialogue on the future of social services and the community sector, and will interest anyone contemplating the role and resilience of not-for-profit organisations in civil society.
Read MoreThis post by Ruth Levine, director of the Hewlett Foundation’s Global Development and Population Program, challenges the assumption that the slow pace of research diminishes its value for policymaking. The post originally appeared on the Hewlett Foundation’s Work in Progress Blog.
Read MoreLet’s tell the story of health. And let us start at the end, because that – for reasons that will become apparent in the remainder of my argument – is how we do things in academia. ‘How we do things in academia’ is unspoken and intrinsic to curriculum design and implementation (and the tools we maintain to keep things as they are – rather than shake them up) and funding our research.
This post by Professor Evelyne de Leeuw was originally posted at the Global Health Consultants blog.
Read MoreTo celebrate the launch of the new website, we have included today a review of the book written by Power to Persuade founder Gemma Carey: Grassroots to Government: creating joined-up working in Australia. This review was written by Power to Persuade moderator Luke Craven and is reposted from the Croakey site.
Read MoreAs speculation mounts about the possibility of an early budget announcement--and with it, a potential early Federal Election--debates about the Government's social and economic priorities have intensified. In this post by Dr Veronica Sheen, we take a look at the importance of social protection and the example of how the Greek economy responded to austerity measures.
Read MoreRosie Williams (@Info_Aus), who runs the OpenAus project in financial and political transparency, has developed a short (free) introductory course for people who are unfamiliar with open data as a concept and with the open data eco-system. She explains below.
Read MoreAs we head towards the next Federal Budget and Federal Election, this post below from the London School of Economics and Political Science blog (@LSEpoliticsblog) provides a timely challenge to the term 'welfare dependency'. Paul Michael Garrett's post is focused on the United Kingdom but has much to offer the Australian context amid comments like 'the poor don't drive cars' from the former Treasurer Joe Hockey.
Read MoreAmid continuing talk of burgeoning health costs, particularly in the lead-up to the 2016 Federal Budget, Dr Lesley Russell says it is time to look at the impact of extended hospitalisation, on patients, carers and the health system. She warns we should not be so consumed with technological and surgical wonders that we miss their adverse impacts on the very patients whose lives they save.
Read MoreOn International Women's Day 2016, this post by UK academic Marie V. Gibert (@marievgibert) resonates across sectors and time as she prepares to leave formal academia. In the post, the first of two originally published on the PSA Women and Politics Group blog, she reflects on the combined challenges of parenthood and womanhood in academia, and how they strongly affect the career chances of academic mothers - and constrain the work they can do.
Read MorePower to Persuade aims to improve understanding and communication between the main groups involved in the policy process: government, academics and the community sector. Often that is done, or fails to happen, through the media.
Read MoreEvidence-based policy only works if the evidence base itself is robust enough to inform decisions. Joseph Borlagdan (@borlagdanj), Iris Levin and Shelley Mallett of the Brotherhood of St Laurence started their review for ANZSOG's Evidence Base journal aiming to evaluate the evidence for the effectiveness of the youth foyer model. But after their literature search revealed an overall lack of rigour in evaluation studies, they realised they needed to take a different tack.
Read MoreThe marketisation of health, education and welfare is one inquiry the Productivity Commission may well wish it had never been given, reflects Policy Whisperer Paul Smyth of The University of Melbourne.
Read MoreHelen Dickinson (@DrHDickinson) of the University of Melbourne argues that investments in disability services are long overdue. The creation of the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an important step, but on its own will not necessarily secure human rights for people with disabilities. If we are to secure human rights for people with disabilities, a broader set of reform processes will need to be considered that go beyond the funding of care services.
Read MoreWith a Royal Commission about to report in Victoria; a second Australian of the Year in a row listing family violence as a priority topic; a Family Violence Index on the cards; a new national evidence-based framework for prevention with bipartisan support; and significant commitment at the political level in both countries, family violence has never been more topical for Australian and New Zealand public servants. Sophie Yates (@MsSophieRae) reports here on insights from a family violence learning and leadership challenge conducted by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).
Read MoreThe Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee chaired by Senator Cory Bernardi is holding an Inquiry into the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Community Development Program) Bill 2015. Our Social Policy Whisperer Jon Altman made a submission number 8 to the Inquiry in January and was invited to give further evidence in a public hearing on 19 February 2016 at the Monash Conference Centre, Melbourne. The opening comments to his evidence are reproduced in this blog.
Read MoreThe Power to Persuade blog tackles policy change from many angles. In today’s post, Ina Mullin, Communications Specialist with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, tracks the change in public perception on the government’s asylum seeker policies which has culminated in the high-profile #LetThemStay campaign.
Read More
As we continue to turn our attention to preventing and addressing family and domestic violence, we are identifying areas where our understanding is still limited. Robust policy and practice interventions require a solid foundation of definitions, concepts and frameworks based on evidence. Dr Peter Streker writes here of the need to understand psychological and emotional abuse better, a theme explored more fully in his book I Wish that He Hit Me: Working with psychological and emotional abuse.
Read MoreThis guest blog is written by Tony Greenham, Director of Economy, Enterprise and Manufacturing at the RSA (The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) in London, and was originally posted on the RSA blog site on 2 February 2016.
Read More
