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In 2017 paediatrician Dr Peter Jones called for a policy debate on the need for some people in Australia to have fewer children. His call came in response to unacceptably high numbers of children and young people in out-of-home care in Australia and resulting adverse outcomes for these children and young people. This paper challenges this call from a critique of neoliberal society which is characterised by increasing socio-economic disadvantage and rising inequality. It uses Standing's notion of a social construction of a precariat grouping to understand what is happening in many vulnerable families where children's safety and well-being needs are compromised. The argument posed in this critique is that societally we need to promote policies that tackle poverty, inter-generational disadvantage and associated social ills in an attempt to address the causes of these unacceptably high statistics on children in the statutory care system. The paper examines the responsibilities of a critically informed social work approach to posit an alternative social policy approach. Such an approach is based in particular philosophical beliefs about the need for social change to benefit vulnerable citizens. The author concludes that we need to do more to challenge dominant negative discourses about those families. Only when all has been done in the active provision of support should we be having discussions about policy restrictions on family choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the small size of the sub program, Social Worker Assessed Vulnerable Welfare Payment Recipients Income Management is often cited as a preferred approach to this type of initiative, being tightly targeted at a group of people with identified high needs, and demonstrated poor outcomes. Although the program was considered in the two recent major evaluations of income management, specific findings relating to it have tended to be overshadowed by the more general finding of an absence of positive outcomes, and indeed potentially negative effects, from compulsory income management. While the size of the sub program has made evaluation difficult, the two major evaluations of income management have nevertheless made specific findings which suggest that the program has had some positive outcomes for a highly marginal participant group. These findings, along with aspects of the operation of the program, including the role played by social workers, and a proposal to abolish the program, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifiable marginalised groups can be vulnerable to the impact of government intervention programs. As such, Australia's remote Indigenous social policy is better focused upon "client" needs than upon the neoliberal policy frameworks that some observers see as dominant. Ideological approaches to Australian governance are here considered as are policy implications for remote Indigenous people. Since these approaches have different strategic intentions, there is exploration of their social objectives against logic and Indigenous needs. As national policy implements macro-level change, the critical analysis contraindicates confident ideological interventions and recommends sensitivity and humility regarding policy development which maximises Indigenous quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides insight into the experiences of six people who completed a Clemente university unit in the second semester of 2009 at the Mission Australia Centre, Sydney. Clemente Australia is a community embedded university humanities course providing higher education opportunity in collaboration with social agencies for people experiencing multiple disadvantage. Each person participated in a semi-structured conversational interview in early 2013 which explored their life journeys since 2009. The responses confirm what is known from the literature regarding the complexity of the lives of people experiencing disadvantage, the immediate and short term value of humanities education, as well as the importance of structures and processes which support this learning. Significantly, the interviews provide a vantage point from which former Clemente students reflected at some distance and considered how participation in Clemente affected their lives. These interviews provide detailed insight into the way each person wove what they encountered in their own way. The findings highlight a shared pattern of Clemente students raising new possibilities, planning on these new possibilities and acting upon them. Together, these insights speak to increased personal self-determination, and offer significant practice and research learnings for Clemente Australia, the higher education sector and social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a wealthy country, Australia nevertheless has pockets of poverty which remain resistant to anti-poverty policies. After describing the dimensions and demographics of poverty with emphasis given to Indigenous Austalians, the paper describes how Australian governments have responded, particularly in terms of the system of income security. Within that system, social work plays a unique role; one which illustrates how social workers can contribute in a pivotal manner to poverty alleviation. Their role also illustrates how the Australian government has positioned social work as a key profession to its social policy agenda. The paper also notes that while social work is central to the government's response to poverty, its role in the system of emergency relief payments funded by government and delivered by the non-profit sector is more muted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health research, policy, and service provision over the last 50 years have constructed families and their connections with mental illness in various and contradictory ways. Three distinct but intersecting perspectives derive from the clinical mental illness literature, the family advocacy movement, and mental health policy. Within the clinical literature, the perspective of families is largely one of blame and pathology. By contrast, the family advocacy movement has generated the perspective of the burdened family, whereas mental health policy has created the perspective of the obligated caregiver. The result is an ambiguous understanding of the role of the family in both contributing and responding to mental illness. Implications for policy and practice include the need for a commitment to the principles of partnership with families, a recognition of diversity within families, recognising the difference between carer and family positions, and a need for policy to reflect the position of family as both intimately concerned, but not necessarily responsible, for patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Using aggregated national data, this paper compares outcomes of Australian 'child protection' (CP) and Norwegian 'child welfare services' (CWS). We highlight each nation's context and key elements of their CP/CWS organizations, with emphasis on policy and programme orientation. System outcomes are examined along with the implications of their different approaches. The main policy focus in Australia is protection and risk, while Norway's systemic approach stresses prevention, early intervention and support. These differences influence practitioner's intervention strategies and how the needs of children and parents are met. In Norway, approximately 80% of the children in the CWS receive some sort of supportive services. In contrast, Australian services for supporting families are narrowly targeted. Both countries share the 'best interest of the child' principle and an increased focus on children's rights, and have experienced increased service demands and rates of children in out-of-home care. The paper explores the relative merits of these systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Northern Ireland, one local Health and Personal Social Services (HPSS) Trust has appointed staff to act in the role of Local Area Coordinators to work with people who have disabilities. The model which was first developed in Western Australia in 1988 combines the role of case manager and community social worker and it is currently an established arm of their services for people with a disability. In 2001 the model was introduced in Scotland and the learning from this is discussed. This article explores the extent to which this model has been transposed to a HPSS Trust in Northern Ireland. The radical changes in social policy beginning in the 1980s affected both the UK and Australia in terms of the adoption of neo-liberal principles of welfare and the subsequent retrenchment from government-led welfare in both countries. In the UK this hastened the loss of community social work. Alongside changes to social policy the influence of ideological shifts in the place and the role of people with disabilities in Western democracies are examined. The context of statutory social work in Northern Ireland is discussed as a barrier to the full implementation of the model in HPSS Trusts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares policy and practices for engaging older people in community life in Sweden and Australia. Barriers and support for active engagement through paid work, social activism, volunteering and aged services are compared. Both countries face issues of ageing populations, services for rural areas and people with small needs. Issues for Sweden were the absence of age discrimination legislation, availability of funds and lack of recognition of the growing levels of volunteering. Issues for Australia concerned the new managerialist approach to services, with associated complexities of access and limited social activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, government is both concerned with improving the performance of public services, including higher education, and with ensuring that the public is aware of improvements in services, to convince the public of the effectiveness of the current regime. Success is both an effect of and a dynamic in the process of evaluating performance, and increasingly 'excellence' is established as a performance outcome. Drawing on a critical review of relevant theory and research, primarily from the UK, Australia and the USA, and illustrated by the author's experience of winning a National Teaching Fellowship, this paper examines teaching excellence in the context of two recent schemes: the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme and the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The performance culture in the public sector and the use of excellence as a success criterion are critically analysed. Assumptions about the transfer of excellent practice are explored. Questions about the interaction of competition and equalities issues are raised. The paper ends with arguing that if excellence schemes are to be an established feature of public sector systems, then we must develop strategies to enable them to be implemented equitably, transparently and fit for purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) not only has a mandate, but also an important role to play in influencing social debates for the benefit of the users of social services and, further, that as a professional association, it is ideally positioned to do so. However, the AASW has been criticised for failing to meet this mandate and have any lasting impact on the formulation of social policy. In the present article, the author considers the process by which the AASW engages in social policy debates and speculates on the historical, cultural, and structural factors that may impede its ability to do so. From this analysis, strategies are suggested for the AASW to increase its impact on the formulation of social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the prevalence of grandparent-headed families in Australia, which is considered as one of the fastest growing forms of out-of-home care for children in contact with the public welfare system. The author highlights the fact that information regarding the characteristics and experience of the grandparent-headed families is important in building a policy or service framework to address the health and wellbeing of these grandparents, as well as ensure quality and safe care of children and young people who are no longer able to live with their biological parents.

Outcomes of social policies have always been mediated by the discretionary agency of front-line staff, processes which nevertheless have received insufficient attention in policy evaluation and in the social policy literature more broadly. This article takes the case example of the policy reforms associated with the Australian government's welfare-to-work agenda. Drawing on two discreet research projects undertaken at different points in the policy trajectory, the practices of social workers in Centrelink - the Commonwealth government's primary service delivery agency involved in welfare-to-work - is examined. Centrelink social workers have been and remain one of the core groups of specialist staff since the Department's inception in the late 1940s, working to improve the well being of people in receipt of income security. Their experiences of the recent past and their expectations of the future of their professional practice as welfare reform becomes more entrenched are canvassed. In summary, the discretionary capacity of the Centrelink social workers to moderate or shape the impact of policy on income security recipients is steadily eroding as this group of professionals is increasingly captured by the emerging practices of workfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the shift to workfare in Australia and its impacts on and implications for social work. Workfare Oz-style is the Australian model of social protection and exceptionalism. Social work has retained a central role in public welfare, promoted the Australian version of citizenship rights and had developed in statutory child welfare, health and disability and corrections.

The Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme is an unusual labour market and social development program for Indigenous people. Currently the CDEP scheme employs around 36,000 Indigenous Australians and accounts for over one-quarter of total Indigenous employment. Despite the significance of the CDEP scheme, in recent times, relatively little attention has been given to the potential for the scheme to be used as an instrument for economic and social development in remote areas of Australia. This article present new evidence on the impact of the CDEP scheme on economic and social outcomes for Indigenous people in remote areas of Australia. It is concluded that the scheme has been successful in generating positive economic and community development outcomes at minimal cost to the Australian taxpayer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Policy & Politics is the property of Policy Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on various social themes dealt by the "Australian Journal of Social Issues." The journal's writers have not necessarily understood each paper as situated within a tradition of concerns about issues that are inescapably part of democratic social policy, concerns about professional authority, academic representation and the encouragement or inhibition of various kinds of individual and collective agency. One of the earliest themes identified in the journal was professional representation. That is, there is much comment on the process by which social phenomena become social issues and thus enter the domains of academic commentary and of the human services professions. In a variety of ways, the journal's writers have considered how social policy could or should be an expression of the values of Australians. A third theme called citizens and social capital, the relationship between state and civil society agencies, and how they interact to construct the agency of individuals and communities.

Social capital and community capacity have become key concepts in social policy responses to marginalised individuals and communities. Policy making has occurred in the context of heated debate about the roles of government and business institutions in strengthening community capacities. In this paper, we wilt explore theoretical positions about the role that these institutions play in building local social capital. We argue that the dominant conceptions of social capital in Australia fail to recognise the potential for non-local institutions to strengthen local community capacity. Drawing on a study of four geographically diverse communities we show that a substantial proportion of community members were disconnected from non-local government and business institutions. We conclude with some initial suggestions for extending the social capital discourse to recognise and build the role of non-local institutions in strengthening local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care is a fundamental condition of human existence, an inherently social activity. Yet surprisingly, care has only recently begun to receive serious attention from social researchers and the public. Despite the fact that care has become a public issue over the past twenty-five years or so, current thinking in policy and advocacy for carers has developed an overtly narrow and self-limiting focus with a strong emphasis on the plight of primary or sole carers, with care being seen predominantly as a burden, From looking at Australian policy on carers, it may be concluded that care is essentially understood as a private, individual concern, a one-way activity in which the active agent, the carer, does something to the other, passive, recipient. The challenge posed in this paper is to move beyond this approach to that of a more social conception of care. Following a review of the uses of the terms 'care' and 'carers' in the current Australian policy context, a discussion of the meaning of the term 'care' is presented and an. alternative understanding of the term, with the potential of recognising and promoting care as a complex, social outcome is advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses (a) the content and teaching methods of social policy subjects taught to social work students in Australia; (b) the factors that affect the development of social policy curricula; and (c) a model for developing the social policy curriculum for training human services professionals. It examines the objectives and topics, reading material, and teaching and assessment methods employed in social policy subjects. The analysis suggests that the subjects had a wide range of objectives and to achieve those objectives the subjects covered several relevant topics and prescribed a variety of reading materials. A combination of multiple teaching and assessment methods was employed. The author identifies factors that influence the development of social policy curricula and suggests a rudimentary and flexible model for developing comprehensive social policy curricula. The analysis and the model are intended to aid practitioners and educators who are interested in developing new subjects or revising the existing ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local and international evidence suggests that professional social work education often fails to effectively prepare graduates to implement social policy objectives within their everyday practice. This paper critically analyses the development of social policy subjects within one particular Australian social work course. Particular attention is drawn to subject objectives, content, reading material, teaching methods and assessment. Some suggestions are made for new educational initiatives that could potentially lead to more effective social policy practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers questions of the nature, extent and role of the third sector in the development of welfare strategies in Australia. Based upon both qualitative and quantitative data, a typology of third sector welfare organisations is discussed together with the identification of current operational models of welfare: charity; activism; welfare state industry and market. The organisational types of third sector welfare organisations in Australia are outlined and the field characterised as being large, diverse and growing. The paper reflects on the claims that the third sector provides a site for the establishment of active, pluralistic forms of welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents survey of school welfare provisions in Australia that adds to the understanding of the impact of new policies on an existing system as well as a system's capacity to respond to changing needs. This critical study reveals that research opportunities which might have clarified and potential social work roles and those of other school personnel, were lost because of lack of proper planning. As well as being institutionalized setting for all manner of structured learning activities; the school is also the center of a network of welfare services that has progressively increased during the past decades. Guidance officers, counselors, school social workers and immigrant welfare officers, school health personnel, and youth employment officers are among the various specialists now to be found in and around secondary schools in many western countries, a team that has grown up piecemeal by a largely unplanned process of agglomeration. In Australia, a first attempt to map the scope and efficiency of school welfare provision offered in each of the seven States of the Commonwealth was recently completed, as one of a number of studies commissioned by the Australian Government Commission of Enquiry into Poverty. The most significant feature of school welfare provision across the country is the almost complete lack of coordination at every level.

This article discusses various issues surrounding the field of social service in Australia. The sector has witnessed some major changes in the social workers' approach to professional practice from an emphasis on particular methods of operation distinctly labelled and operating within specific organizational contexts with an antipathy towards work with unwilling clients, to a more generic approach in an organizationally complex environment. Federal and state bureaucracies are probably more dominant and powerful and in some areas the unwilling client is the major group for the social workers' attention. New needs requiring service delivery have emerged and there is a general dialogue over the distinction between the ideas of consumer and citizen participation. Social policy and its necessary inherent contribution to the broad social welfare arena is now an excepted part of social work education as well as practice and academic endeavor. Looking at both the number of professional social work courses and the range and extent of kinds of knowledge approaches available, is a fairly quick way to gauge the growth of the field and the growing demand for social workers. From 13 full time professional social work courses in the early 1980s, the sector, as of 2004, has about 25. Some based on multi campuses, and offering their programs on campus and by distance education.

This article presents an overview of the March 2004 issue of "Australian Social Work." Apart from the first article by Manohar Pawar on developing a model for social policy curricula, the remainder of the contributions, articles and book reviews deal with some aspect of children and parents. Leah Bromfield and Daryl Higgins' contribution draws attention to the problems which arise in trying to quantify phenomenon within social policy and social work practice standards. Robyn Gilbertson's research into foster care points to inadequate levels of care. Complementing on this, but on a more positive note, Jane Thomson's article describes a model of group work with parents of children in care and considers the meaning of empowerment. Julaine Allan looks at the work of professional social workers providing therapeutic intervention for sexually violent children and their families. In particulr, she examines the roles attributed to mothers in the therapeutic context. The theme of violence is also taken up in the final article by Judy Taylor, who has undertaken research with an aboriginal community looking for ways of reducing the levels of family violence. Arising from this, the community devised a holistic development approach.