NGOs face a slow-onset funding disaster in UK (& here?): what can be done?

Brexit is prompting a lot of discussion within the United Kingdom's aid community right now. But while the focus is understandably on EC funding and exchange rates, there’s a less visible and potentially more dangerous funding threat to deal with, argues Michael O’Donnell of Bond (the network of UK development non government organisations (NGOs)).

His article, originally published on Duncan Green's From Poverty to Power blog and republished here with permission, has much of relevance for Australian development agencies and community service organisations that are also under funding and program pressure.

Power to Persuade14 July 2016

Transition to change: lessons from the ACT NDIS Trial

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) began its national rollout on July 1, after being trialled at various sites across the country over the past three years. While there is much to rejoice about this landmark change, it is posing particular issues in mental health.

Simon Viereck, Executive Officer of the Mental Health Community Coalition ACT, has a unique perspective on those issues, with the Australian Capital Terrritory being the only whole-of-jurisdiction, whole-of-population trial.

Power to Persuade13 July 2016

Election 2016: what will a re-elected Coalition government mean for key policy areas?

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has finally claimed victory in the 2 July election, eight days after the poll was held, although there remains uncertainty over whether the Coalition will form a majority or minority government.

So what lies ahead for key policy areas: jobs, welfare, health, environment, science, education, refugees and asylum seekers, housing, urban design, climate change, the arts and more?

Power to Persuade12 July 2016

Citizenship & mental health: looking upstream for solutions to a better welfare system

In this article to be published in the upcoming edition of VICSERV's newparadigm journal, Dr Simon Duffy poses a challenge to the welfare sector, saying it often tries to solve the wrong problems in the wrong way. He says this challenge is particularly important to consider as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) begins its national rollout.

Advocacy, IssuesPower to Persuade11 July 2016mental health, ndis, social welfare, social inequalities

From Zombie Economics to the Public Interest: the challenge for the voluntary sector

With the Productivity Commission inquiry into human services examining 'competition, contestability and informed user choice', the sector faces further transformation as part of a 'marketisation' agenda. Social Policy Whisperer Prof Paul Smyth argues the time is ripe for a 're-invigoration' of the sector.

Social Service Futures Dialogue: From marketisation to inclusive governance: Victoria shows the way

According to Victoria’s Secretary of Premier and Cabinet Chris Eccles, Victoria will take a lead in the development of a new social governance model based not on the ‘consumer’ but the ‘citizen’, while leveraging the distinctive value-adds of the three sectors. This post by Social Policy Whisperer Prof Paul Smyth reflects on what now seems the terminal decline of the Treasury-PC’s 1980s-90s governance model and invites speculation on where the Victorian initiative might lead.

Social Service FuturesPower to Persuade7 July 2016professor paul smyth, social services

Tackling Australian policy’s ‘trauma zone’

It’s been a case of one step forward, two steps back, for Australia’s climate policy in recent times. It’s up to the next parliament to get things moving, Paul Burke writes. This post originally appeared on the APPS Policy Forum blog.

IssuesPower to Persuade6 July 2016climate change

Identity in a time of social sector change

Profound changes are underway in the social sector. In this post, innovation consultant Dale Renner shows how not-for-profit organisations are wrestling with fundamental questions of identity: what to keep, what’s important and what can be changed? This post originally appeared on Pro Bono Australia.

Women’s Policy Action Tank: The gender pay gap persists due to an incorrect framing of the problem

In 1995 the gender pay gap in Australia stood at 16.2 per cent. In 2015, despite targeted policies to redress this inequality, the pay gap had actually risen, to 17.3 per cent. In this analysis, Fiona Macdonald dissects these policies. She explains how the representation of the gender pay gap problem is both faulty in places and too narrow in others to correct this persistent injustice.

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.

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