Can randomised control trials deliver a more equal world, one coin toss at a time?

Federal Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh, a former professor of economics at the Australian National University, has just published a new book: Randomistas: How radical researchers changed our world.

He argues that across medicine, business and government, there’s no simpler or more powerful tool for finding out what works than a randomised experiment. Yet, he says, when it comes to social policy, "the vast majority of programs designed to help the most vulnerable are grounded more in greybeard beliefs than empirical evidence".

Power to Persuade17 April 2018

Meaningful consumer-led or co-produced research. Are we there yet?

The phrase ‘Nothing about us, without us’ has long been proclaimed in the disability movement, and is highly applicable in mental health research.

In the article below, Dr Katherine H Gill, Chair of the Consumer-Led Research Network, outlines gaps in understanding and practice around consumer involvement in mental health research.

Offering 12 tips for improving that practice, she sounds a big warning: that while the input of consumers in a well-designed and supported co-produced or consumer-led project can be transformative, it can be disempowering and potentially harmful for the consumer when it is not.

Power to Persuade16 April 2018

Look beyond Super to close the gender retirement gap

The alarming gap in retirement savings between men and women has led to several proposed policy solutions. In today’s analysis, Brendan Coates of The Grattan Institute explains why many of these proposals will worsen the problem. Two policy reforms are suggested which could improve retirement incomes for women. This policy analysis piece was originally presented at the inaugural Australian Gender Economics Workshop, held in Perth on 8 and 9 February, 2018. Access the working paper, “What’s the best way to close the gender gap in retirement incomes?” on the Grattan website.

The un-intended consequences of the bizarre incentives catalysing the referral of mental health patients as radicalisation threats

One has to stretch the imagination to conceive that a new policy might result in health professionals in Britain considering whether to refer patients with mental health needs as radicalisation threats in order to gain quicker access to necessary support and services. In this post, Dr Chris Allen examines the un-intended consequences of the bizarre incentives catalysing the referral of mental health patients as radicalisation threats.

New counter-terror rules give UK GPs bizarre incentives to refer mental health patients as radicalisation threat

Mental health trusts in England are now to play a vital role in processing the huge number of citizens referred under the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, known as Prevent. A new policy announced in November by the Home Office means urgent psychiatric care will now be provided by mental health trusts to those people with psychological problems who are referred to Prevent. But this will remove them from a pipeline of support under a programme called Channel, aimed at those suspected of radicalising. In this blog re-posted from The Conversation, Charlotte Heath-Kelly and Erzsebet Strausz debate GPs bizarre incentives to refer mental health patients as radicalisation threat.

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade11 April 2018health, policy problem, terrorism

My experiences of the Cashless Debit Card

Nothing illuminates policy in the same way that individual stories of lived experience can. The Cashless Debit Card Symposium was held at both the University of Melbourne and the Alfred Deakin Institute on Thursday, the 1st of February 2018, and the Power to Persuade is running a series of blogs drawn from the presentations made on the day. In this piece, Jocelyn Wighton, a citizen of Ceduna and one of the many who were forced onto the Cashless Debit Card, shares some of her experiences and frustrations with the CDC.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade10 April 2018indigenous issues, social welfare, welfare reform

Promoting women’s participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics: Who wins?

There has been a push to increase the number of women in STEM-related jobs, and this comes with an assumption that it’s a win-win situation: Society benefits from increased numbers of STEM specialists in the workforce while women reap the benefits of higher-status employment. However, labour economists Michael Dockery and Sherry Bawa of Curtin University report that women in STEM are experiencing a surprising number of barriers compared to other women with degrees, including higher levels of unemployment and higher levels of job dissatisfaction. This policy analysis piece was originally presented at the inaugural Australian Gender Economics Workshop, held in Perth on 8 and 9 February, 2018.

Improving Mental Health Support for Children in the Care of the UK State

There are complex policy and practice issues as well as tensions in where responsibility lies in relation to mental health needs of children in the care of the state in the UK. Collaboration across many organisations and leadership from key individuals in the system are essential for the needs of these most vulnerable children to be better met. There is a moral imperative and a financial incentive to getting this right. Alison O’Sullivan explores the role of corporate parenting at a time of increased focus on meeting the mental health needs of children in the UK, making the case for improved mental health support for children in the care of the state as an important part of the solution.

Cross-sector collaboration and working: How much time do we have to do things right?

Effective cross-sector collaboration and joint working among practitioners remains a Holy Grail that continues to elude us within health care. Networks such as clinical networks, alliances, taskforces and clinical leadership councils are examples of mechanisms that facilitate shared solutions design and implementation. Jade Hart challenges us to examine the goals of cross-sector collaboration and assess acceptable time horizons for the realisation of those goals.

Power to Persuade6 April 2018

Unintended consequences: why a ‘no harm done’ approach to sexual violence prevention in universities might make things worse

Prevention of sexual violence has been identified as a shared priority among universities and colleges in Australia and internationally. Ruth Liston examines Consent Matters, an online prevention module, and questions the merits of this approach and the underlying intent.

Power to Persuade5 April 2018

Boiling the workforce frog

What does workforce data reveal about the state of the nation? Stephen Gow, Open Advisory, explores the growth and evolution of the Australian workforce through recent periods of social and economic reform, and highlights key insights into where the Australian workforce (both current and future) is likely to be heading going forward.

Power to Persuade3 April 2018

The new politics of financialised social policy: re-thinking HECS

Finance is changing our lives. Through mortgages and super we now have more debt, and more savings, then ever before. In this article Ben Spies-Butcher explores how financial ways of thinking are changing the way policy makers think and make policy, particularly in relation to HECS.

Finance and economicsPower to Persuade28 March 2018economic policy, funding models

Straightjacketing evaluation outcomes to conform with political agendas – an examination of the Cashless Debit Card Trial

The Cashless Debit Card Symposium was held at both the University of Melbourne and the Alfred Deakin Institute on Thursday, the 1st of February 2018. The Power to Persuade is running a series of blogs drawn from the presentations made on the day. In this piece, Susan Tilley of Uniting Communities shares the findings of a discourse analysis of the ORIMA evaluations of the Cashless Debit Card Trials (CDCT), reporting that the evaluations are deeply imbued with government ideology.

Indigenous public servants need better career pathways

Governments will only be able to deliver better outcomes for Indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand if they embrace Indigenous knowledge and culture, collaborate better with communities and ensure that Indigenous people are appropriately represented at all levels of the public service. A new report from ANZSOG explores what can be done to improve the position of indigenous persons in the public sector. We present a summary below. This post originally appeared on the ANZSOG website.

IssuesPower to Persuade27 March 2018indigenous issues

Serious threat to our right to speak out for a healthy community

As many of you will no doubt know, the federal government wants to change a number of laws and regulations, all of which will limit the ability of charities to advocate on behalf of their communities. In this post cohealth's Lyn Morgain explores these changes and the disastrous impact they would have on the sector.

AdvocacyPower to Persuade26 March 2018social justice

For women in the academy the fight for equity and justice has only just begun

Associate Professor Gemma Carey, Research Director. Centre for Social Impact. University of New South Wales.

After taking part in the Australia Day protests in Canberra, I found myself in the ethically questionable position of attending an Australia day BBQ thrown by a friend of a friend. Yeah I know, January was a while ago. I've been digesting this personal reflection for a while and whether I wanted to speak out. Again... again... on this issue.

Womens Policy Action TankPower to Persuade24 March 2018

We are creating new inequities around PrEP HIV Prevention

When the debate about public funding for PrEP started up, I was concerned that it would go down the same path as PEP — with a set pool of funding, left to state/territory governments to administer, with de facto rationing based on sexual risk, and only available from a set number of locations. So my own position on PrEP was that it needed to be funded via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and not rationed.

Human Rights and the Cashless Debit Card: Examining the Limitation Requirement of Proportionality

The Cashless Debit Card Symposium was held at both the University of Melbourne and the Alfred Deakin Institute on Thursday, the 1st of February 2018. The Power to Persuade is running a series of blogs drawn from the presentations made on the day. In this piece, Shelley Bielefeld from Australia National University analyses the Cashless Debit Card initiative to ascertain whether the concept of proportionality can justify the curtailing of certain human rights for communities subjected to the CDC.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade23 March 2018indigenous issues, social welfare, human rights

The Issue of Equity in the Market

Markets are all well and good, but with the NDIS, we have to be careful that we don’t sacrifice equity in the name of efficiency, writes Associate Professor Gemma Carey.

Policy and governance, IssuesDr. Gemma Carey22 March 2018Disability, ndis, markets in public services

Why does Housing First work?

Housing First is an approach to address homelessness that prioritises providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness. Here Professor Sarah Johnsen from Heriot Watt University in the UK reflects on what it is about Housing First that fosters such positive housing (and other) outcomes.

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