Social Service Futures Dialogue: Issues in market-based reform of human services: lessons from employment services

It has been more than twenty years since the Australian Government opened case management services for the long-term unemployed to the market, laying the foundation for its now fully privatised employment services system. The system is cited as a successful model of outsourced service delivery in the Australian Government’s response to the recommendations of the Competition Policy Review to ramp up competition in the delivery of human services. Yet the employment services system’s measures of success, focused on aggregate outcomes and service delivery costs, mask the adverse impact of its marketisation on ‘hard to place’ jobseekers and on not-for-profit organisations that have traditionally championed those jobseekers (Gallet 2016).

Social Service FuturesPower to Persuade4 July 2016

What Brexit means for Australia

While we wait for a conclusive outcome of the 2016 Federal Election, let's return to everyone's favourite story of the past week--Brexit. In this post, economist Saul Eslake argues that the greatest immediate danger to Australia is contagion in the financial markets. Longer term, there are legitimate grievances to be dealt with. This post originally appeared on Inside Story.

Issues, Finance and economicsPower to Persuade4 July 2016economic policy, social inequalities

Welfare policy: a poverty scorecard

Being in receipt of welfare is the most significant factor in Australians experiencing poverty. Associate Professor Ruth Phillips from the University of Sydney analyses what the three major political parties are claiming they will do to reduce poverty in Australia; their capacity to deliver on their promises; and their welfare policy history. Scoring the parties on a scale of 0–4, where 0 = very low confidence and 4 = very high confidence, her overall scorecard has the ALP in front by virtue of its detailed equality policy that acknowledges issues that affect inequality and social justice in Australian society, but notes it has room for improvement in punitive policies affecting welfare recipients and refugees.

Advocacy, Policy and governancePower to Persuade1 July 2016social welfare

Critical policies for women

In this post, Dr Anu Mundkur, Dr Bina Fernandez and Ms Kara Beavis analyse the policies of the three major political parties in three key areas that impact women’s social, economic and political status – women’s unpaid care work, violence against women, and women’s representation in decision-making. Scoring the parties on a scale of 0–4 (where 0 = very low confidence and 4 = very high confidence), their overall scorecard has the ALP ahead in addressing women’s unpaid care work, the Greens ahead in addressing violence against women and women’s representation in decision-making, and the Coalition lagging in all three areas.

Women’s Policy Action Tank: Bold Leadership Needed for Transformational Change

Neither party provides, nor even alludes to any transformational change capable of achieving gender equality. This analysis of recent women’s policy statements by Yvonne Lay reveals a failure by both parties to address the deep-rooted social structures that reinforce our male-defined society.

Auditing Indigenous Poverty

In today’s post, leading up to the election, Professor Jon Altman analyses what the three major political parties are doing to address Indigenous poverty in Australia. Looking beyond campaign rhetoric he scores the parties’ commitment to ameliorating Indigenous poverty on a scale of 0–4 where 0 = very low confidence and 4 = very high confidence. His overall scorecard strongly favours the Greens and throws the shortcomings of the Coalition and the ALP in this arena into sharp relief.

Women’s Policy Action Tank: Why the Women’s Budget Statement needs to be reintroduced

Gender-Responsive Budgeting improves targeted and effective social change. Despite being an early leader in this area, Australia abruptly ceased issuing a Women’s Budget Statement (WBS) in 2013. Today’s post argues that the WBS ought to be resurrected as an integrated analysis of the budget process itself.

No 'one size fits all' solutions to long-term youth unemployment

Election campaigns tend to reduce complex issues to soundbites. In today’s post, Jesuit Social Services CEO Julie Edwards argues that it takes more than jobs and growth to help some young people prepare for and find sustainable employment. Without the right investment and support, young people with complex needs can be excluded from education and employment and are more likely to cycle in and out of homelessness services, mental health services and the justice system throughout their lives.

Women's policy forum

Power to Persuade25 June 2016

Health and healthcare policies in the 2016 election

A focus on national health and wellbeing as well as on healthcare services is an investment in equity, productivity and prosperity, argues Dr Lesley Russell (University of Sydney). Healthcare policies need to go well beyond the current over-medicalised focus on hospitals, doctors and prescriptions – how do the major parties measure up?

Women’s Policy Action Tank: An “incident” approach to family violence fails both victims and perpetrators

When violence against women is considered an “incident” and handled through the criminal justice system, there is a failure to effectively address the reason why men use violence. Today’s Scorecard provides a much-needed framework for considering effective policy responses to men who perpetrate violence against women.

Counting the cost

A lack of economic analysis expertise in the Australian public sector is costing the country, writes economist Dr Leo Dobes in the wake of his recent cost-benefit analysis research. Government resources are finite, and decisions must constantly be made about where to direct resources so that they will most benefit the whole community. But these are complicated decisions to make - how can we genuinely move toward evidence-based public policy if we don't have the in-house capacity to rigorously analyse policy proposals? Relying on consultants has its risks.

Women’s Policy Action Tank: Promoting girls’ and women’s participation in STEM education and careers

Despite girls’ higher academic performance compared to boys – including science and math subjects – there is a “leaky pipeline” when it comes to keeping women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. Today’s policy analysis provides a comprehensive break-down of the policy statements from the Coalition, Labor, and the Greens parties regarding keeping girls and women in STEM.

Major parties are behind the times – and strangely silent – on social policy

In this piece, originally published in The Conversation, Eva Cox (@evacox) of the University of Sydney argues that the major parties' commitment to fairness and trust doesn't extend to those who are not contributing paid work hours. As more than a third of registered voters are not in the paid workforce, this bipartisan silence on welfare policy and income support seems electorally short-sighted.

Finance and economics, IssuesPower to Persuade21 June 2016social welfare, social inequalities, employment

Contracting for outcomes: simple KPIs not enough for complex problems

David Donaldson (@davidadonaldson) writes about new research that casts doubt on whether outcomes-based contracting solves a fundamental problem: unintended consequences. Listening to stakeholders, although no breakthrough, remains key. The systematic review of evidence on outcome-based contracting was conducted by Emma Tomkinson and published in ANZSOG's Evidence Base journal.

Action and Inaction on Policy that Benefits Women

When a gender lens is applied to government policy, it becomes clear that women experience the consequences of policy differently to men. In this post, Policy Whisperer Susan Maury introduces the Women’s Policy Action Tank and why there is a need for highlighting women’s needs in the policy arena.

Stemming the revolving door phenomenon: the importance of strategic advocacy in the community legal sector

The community legal sector is well positioned to identify need for systemic change, to act upon that need and to generate policy improvements with significant public impact. Jacki Holland of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand discusses how, by engaging in strategic legal advocacy, community lawyers can venture beyond traditional case by case approaches to tackle systemic and common legal problems through novel means generating broad community benefit.

Power to Persuade14 June 2016

The NDIS, markets and self-regulation: If we build it will they come?

Dr. Helen Dickinson, Associate Professor Public Governance, Melbourne School of Government and School of Social and Political Sciences

Social Service FuturesPower to Persuade14 June 2016

Publish and Perish: Why academia needs to accept other ways of showing impact in industry-based research projects

Associate Professor Michael Charles & Professor Robyn Keast, School of Business and Tourism, Southern Cross University examine the long accepted the doctrine of ‘publish or perish’ and explore new ways of valuing academic outputs.

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