Sue Olney
Refugee and migrant settlement agency AMES Australia recently published research that looks into the economic and social and impact of the settlement of relatively large numbers of refugees at Bendigo, in Central Victoria.
Its CEO Cath Scarth outlines the findings below. They include a significant net benefit to the region and confirm the necessary conditions for successful settlement.
Read MoreCalls for management of the NDIS market are increasing rapidly as the scheme progresses. There have been a number of high-profile calls for better market stewardship for the many NDIS markets and sub-markets nationally, most recently the market readiness report from the Joint-Standing Committee on the NDIS. Social researchers Gemma Carey and Eleanor Malbon highlight how the NDIA can detect market deficiencies and what strategies it can use to address them.
Read MoreIf you can’t quite get a grip on co-production, you’re not alone. Much of the literature dating back as far as 1984 suggests that it’s something of a greased pig and that efforts to define it end up like a policy pig scramble. Is it democratic citizen involvement public services? Is it individual, ‘responsibilised’ health and social care consumerism? Is it power shifting to communities through participatory governance? Some authors have said that ‘neither on the level of interactions between organisations nor on the level of servicing users, has co-production a fixed meaning’ and others have noted its ‘excessive elasticity.’ Perhaps it’s the ultimate post-modern policy concept. Dr Sarah Carr of the Institute for Mental Health at the University of Birmingham asks can it work for mental health?
Read MoreAn ANZSOG-funded research project is exploring the increasing use of robots in care services to replace or complement the roles of humans. In this article, researchers Catherine Smith, Helen Dickinson, Gemma Carey & Nicole Carey explore how the growth of robots in care services is changing how we think about care, and what we need to do to ensure that the ethics of care are maintained. The full report is expected to be published in the near future.
Read MoreA few weeks ago, the co-occurrence of a ‘twitter discussion’ (initiated by @LukeCraven) and some reading I was doing on policy analysis tools prompted me to start thinking about what Hill (2013) refers to as process advocacy. Process advocacy is concerned with improving the nature of policy making. It is different to policy advocacy in that it concerns advocating generally for ‘better’ policy process rather than the substance or content of a particular policy.
Read MorePost 9/11 Islamophobia and the pathologisation of black people in the UK mental health context should be tackled as part of the ongoing Mental Health Act review, argue former psychiatrist Suman Fernando and researcher Tarek Younis in this post for re-published from Mental Health Today.
Read MoreEverybody wants to improve healthcare in Australia; however, the ways we can do that are as numerous as the drugs that are available to treat disease. Which approach is the most optimal? Is it individuals making lifestyle choices that improve their health? Is it doctors that engage patients in their own healthcare? Or is it hospitals that actively engage stakeholders in a systemic approach to healthcare improvement? In fact the answer is, of course, all of these things and so much more. Underlying all of these is knowledge: its generation; mobilisation; presentation; and discussion. The potential for misunderstanding or misusing evidence, or not using any evidence at all, has significant implications for decision-making, policy development and healthcare improvement.
Read MoreAn increasing number of women in Australia are retiring into poverty and, consequently, experiencing housing stress, housing crisis or homelessness. It is time to demand a national agenda for action to address these appalling realities for far too many older women.
Read MoreSafety and quality are consistently the leading priorities on the healthcare agenda. There is overwhelming evidence of a clear link between healthcare safety, quality and patient outcomes, not to mention the potential financial savings that could be gained through improvements in both. So this leads us to the million dollar question –how do we effectively improve healthcare quality and safety?
Read MoreAshley Baker, General Manager of Werribee Racing Centre in Victoria explores a comprehensive approach to reform implementation and its impact on racing participants.
Read MoreIn 2015, Australia joined 193 other Leaders and Ministers in endorsing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While non-binding, Australia was an active participant in their negotiation and the government reports on progress voluntarily. In today’s post, Policy Whisperer Kay Cook (@KayCookPhD) summarises the government’s analysis of their progress to end poverty (SDG 1) and achieve gender equality (SDG 5), followed by a critique produced by the Academics Stand against Poverty network Oceania chapter. Anti-Poverty Week is an apt time to reflect on how the government frames the intersection of gender and poverty, and what needs to change in order to see real progress.
Read MoreThe concept of social prescribing has been gaining some traction in Australia recently. The King’s Fund defines social prescribing as a means of enabling GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services [1]. This is a broad definition which implies that social prescribing might refer to a General Practitioner (GP) actively encouraging a patient to participate in Parkrun to help them lose weight and meet new people, through to a chronic disease nurse linking a patient experiencing homelessness to a local housing service.
Read MorePerceptions of both the fairness and impacts of gender equality measures can help to either promote greater equity or, conversely, create barriers to their uptake. In today’s post, Pia Rowe of University of Canberra’s 50/50 by 2030 Foundation shares highlights from their recently-released report From Girls to Men: Social Attitudes to Gender Equality in Austria (co-authored with Mark Evans, Virginia Haussegger and Max Halupka).
Read MoreDoes a specific policy focus on older workers overstate and oversimplify the problems they face? Philip Taylor, Professor of Management at Federation University Australia responds
Read MoreUnpaid work, part-time and interrupted work, and the gender pay gap are only some of the reasons women are poor in retirement. A lot of the time the reasons are far more complex.
Read MoreThe National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) began a full national rollout in July, 2016 based on a fundamental principle to give those with a disability choice and control over their daily lives. Participants can use funds to purchase services that reflect their lifestyle and aspirations. Two years on, how is the scheme faring?
Read MoreAs long as the richest and most powerful have the greatest influence over national policy, the interests of our communities will be poorly reflected in many areas of national policy making, writes Community Council for Australia CEO David Crosbie.
Read MoreAs the Royal Commission into Aged Care begins investigating the failures of the residential aged care sector, it is important such a review also considers the broader socio-political factors that have contributed to this crisis.
Read MoreThe Women’s Policy Action Tank was established to place a gender lens over policies, many of which purport to be gender-neutral, because many policies are never subject to such a specific interrogation of gender blindness and effects. In today’s insightful piece, Lisa Carson (@LisaC_Research) of the Public Service Research Group at UNSW provides an overview of her co-authored piece (with Eleanor Malbon (@Ellie_Malbon) of the Public Service Research Group at UNSW & Sophie Yates (@MsSophieRae) of ANZSOG and UNSW), which provides a practical example of why analysing data and forming policy must be approached from the vantage point of those who are disenfranchised. Specifically, they argue that framing data, interpretation and application within the context of robust feminist theory allows for a more nuanced and complex analysis of policy impacts by taking on the flawed data analysis employed by men’s rights groups. You can read their full open access article here.
Read MoreA new oversight report draws attention to the market stewardship of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. In this article Gemma Carey argues that to prevent market failure we need actions, not just principles.
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