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Assessment is said to drive student learning, though the value of a 'grade' within work-integrated learning (WIL) is still not clear and most field placement students do not want their learning to be assessed beyond a pass/fail grade. Is then, the 'learning' in WIL as important as 'learning' in non-WIL courses? The focus of this paper is on the 'value' stakeholders place on the academic standards and grading practices in WIL. Data from a small qualitative constructivists grounded theory study undertaken in the Human Services sector will be used and how to grade 'reflection' will link learning, assessment and grading practices, identifying the difficulties and challenges to mainstreaming WIL. The importance of employability from a WIL experience will be the focus of a future paper.

Neighbourhood Houses in Australia are community place-based organisations that provide education, support services, and develop responses to local issues with local communities. The practices within Neighbourhood Houses are informed by community development. Yet knowledge, understanding and practices of community development vary across the workforce. In 2019, Neighbourhood Houses Victoria commenced a programme of professional learning for the workforce. This paper draws on data from an impact evaluation and examines the benefits and barriers to embedding a professional learning programme in community development within its workforce. Using practice theory to examine the tensions and contradictions inherent in delivering professional learning in neoliberal times of managerialism and accountability in not-for-profit organisations. The contradictions of practice will resonate with organisations seeking to implement a professional learning across a broad range of human service organisations such as settlement houses, human services and community education settings. We claim most not-for-profit workforces are impacted by the discursive practices of neoliberalism such as contractual arrangements and the adoption of business practices to comply with funding requirements. These compliance requirements contrast with the philosophy and practices of community development and have the potential to impact on professional learning and the practices within these workplaces.

Over the last twenty years or so the number of international students in Australia has grown rapidly. At the same time, official responsibility for providing support to international students has been devolved from governments to educational institutions. In this paper we argue that while education institutions have a significant role in supporting international students, there is a large gap in social support provided to them when off-campus. This is a gap which we believe could be filled by local government, to provide international students with greater integration and security when they are off campus. The ideas outlined in this paper are based on a critical examination of international students' experience in Australia and are intended to contribute to and advance recent debates about the safety, security and value of international students to Australian society. We argue that international students' status as temporary visitors creates the conditions for social exclusion, that is, an inability to engage fully in the economic, cultural, social and political aspects of Australian life. In light of this, we suggest that local government, especially as it relates to the provision of human services, has a role in helping international students access social support services. We argue that local government can be instrumental in ensuring the social inclusion of international students in our communities. This, we suggest, would improve international students' overall study experience and contribute to their greater integration and participation in the Australian community.

This paper explores the contribution of a physical learning space to student engagement in social work education. Drawing on a constructivist methodology, this paper examines the findings of a survey conducted with students and staff in a social work and human service programme about their experiences of a Social Work Studio learning space. The analysis identified that students and staff who used the Studio reported that students were emotionally, cognitively and behaviourally engaged in the space, which enriched their development as social work and human service practitioners. The researchers concluded that the Social Work Studio is a useful tool for enhancing social work student engagement and increasing their confidence to address the "real-life" challenges they may face as social work practitioners.

The article discusses a content analysis of papers on social work in Australia published between 2002 and 2005. Balance is seen in papers reporting original research or evaluation which comprise 43% of the 112 papers published within the period. Twelve percent focused on describing new or innovative service developments. Sixty-six percent discussed the nature of social work, social work skills, community programmes and knowledge about the characteristics of particular client groups. Calls for papers are also made.

Relationship‐based practice refers to approaches within human services which centralise inter‐personal relationships—either those between clients and workers or between clients and their own network—as a way to achieve positive service outcomes. Relationship‐based practice is increasingly recognised as a critical component in many areas of human services, particularly youth services. Despite increasing policy intentions for programs to adopt a relationship‐based approach, it is not always clear how services can implement this in practice. While relationship‐based skill training can be offered to individual workers, a question remains as to what can be done at an organisational and policy level to cultivate relationship‐based practice. Within this context, this paper explores how programs can be designed to foster relationship‐based practice. The paper draws on the evaluation of an intensive and tailored service for addressing long‐term youth unemployment in Australia: the your job your way pilot program run by yourtown. A key success of the program was strong relationship‐based practice, and this paper explores five features of the program's design that enabled this: (1) small caseloads, (2) intensive support, (3) staff with complementary skills and a professional and 'youth friendly' demeanour, (4) staff discretion about some aspects of program implementation, and (5) support delivered through social and group activities. The paper draws implications for how service provider organisations and governments can cultivate relationship‐based practice in human services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering essential health, education and human services in rural and remote communities remains a critical problem for Australia. When professionals have mandatory responsibilities (e.g. in child protection, law enforcement, education or mental health), tensions can arise between workers and the communities in which they live. This paper reports on part of an Australian Research Council Discovery project which is exploring the management of tensions in work-life balances for professionals in rural and remote communities, as well as investigating the views of community members impacted by the work. In this paper we present findings from the state wide survey of professionals (N [approximately] 900) who lived and worked in small communities and who had statutory responsibilities in their role. These data provide valuable insights into practitioners' views about their roles, their preparation for rural practice during education and training, major tensions in juggling allegiance to work and community and the strategies they employ to address these. It is hoped that the study in the long term will offer solutions to the complex medical, legal and social issues that arise for different professional groups in the discharge of their duties. This 3-year project uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to map the terrain of rural and remote statutory work, to explore the nature of the relationships between professionals and communities and examine how professionals manage ethical and allegiance conflicts which arise. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Using Moxley's (1997) program development framework as an agenda for a dialogue that juxtaposes an academic perspective with that of a seasoned youth program manager, this paper focuses on the relatively unexplored terrain of case management programs. In doing so, it exposes the convergences and divergences between academic and program manager perceptions of the issues of importance in case management service with young people. The paper identifies barriers to and necessary conditions for the development and maintenance of quality service delivery in youth support programs. It concludes with a shared view on the importance and feasibility of good case management programs in the contemporary service environment.

This paper outlines the findings of an exploratory study conducted in a small rural community in South Australia in 2006. Human service providers, experienced in working with victims and/or perpetrators of domestic violence, were asked about their experiences and perceptions of perpetrator programs in small rural communities. Specifically, questions about the value of, and the factors impacting on, the availability of perpetrator programs in the rural context were explored. Alternative intervention options to address domestic violence perpetration were also discussed. The key findings of the research were that concerns about anonymity, and community attitudes, which condoned male control of female partners, would prevent men from using behaviour change programs in small rural communities, and therefore impact on their viability. The implications for human service providers are outlined in the paper. (Contains 1 table.)

The once common use of restrictive interventions (the use of restraint and seclusion) for controlling the behaviour of people with an intellectual disability is now coming under greater scrutiny by government and community sector services. Questions are being raised with respect to the clinical efficacy and ethical appropriateness of such interventions. In Victoria, Australia, the Senior Practitioner was established in 2007 by the Disability Act (2006) to protect the rights of people with a disability who are subjected to restrictive interventions or compulsory treatments, and who are in receipt of a disability service funded by the Department of Human Services' Disability Service. Among other functions, the Senior Practitioner is mandated by the Disability Act (2006) to monitor and review the use of restrictive interventions in Victoria. The data included in this paper summarise findings from the first 12 months of operation of the Office of the Senior Practitioner's Restrictive Intervention Data System (RIDS) as collated at March 2009. The collection and analyses of these data are important because people know little about the prevalence of the use of restrictive interventions in disability services in Australia and, consequently, have a paucity of evidence to inform the development of policy and monitor practice. (Contains 4 tables and 1 note.)

Attempts to Indigenise the curriculum run the risk of implying the application of an "impoverished" version of "Aboriginal pedagogy" and the promotion of corrupted understandings of Indigenous knowledge (Nakata, 2004, p. 11). What is required, Nakata (2004, p. 14) argues, is a recognition of the complexities and tensions at cross-cultural interfaces and the need for negotiation between "Indigenous knowledge, standpoints or perspectives" and Western disciplinary knowledge systems such that meanings are reframed or reinterpreted. Attending to these cross-cultural negotiations and the pedagogical practices they imply are profoundly challenging for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators. This paper focuses on a project at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) which seeks to embed Indigenous perspectives in Humanities and Human Services curricula. It outlines the curriculum framework which was developed to guide the curriculum redesign in its initial phases. This is followed by a discussion of current research that has been concerned to identify material that can support the renegotiations of curricula endorsed by Nakata's work. The research findings indicate that it is possible to identify a number of pedagogical approaches that can assist that process. Such approaches recognise various levels of engagement beyond the "intellectual"; they insist on a consistent unsettling of Western authority; they acknowledge Indigenous positions/positioning; and require critical self-reflection. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

Arguably, living and working in rural communities can pose significant challenges for human service practitioners--challenges that are different from those encountered by their urban counterparts. Human services employers, like many other employers in rural areas, have difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. There is now considerable evidence to support the notion that rural and remote practice constitutes a different and distinct form of practice and has undergone significant changes over the past decade. Living and working in rural communities means that practitioners are not only influenced by the rural and remote context of practice, they are also part of that context. Given the difficulty encountered in attracting and retaining rural practitioners and the changes in this area, an important question which emerges is: How can practitioners best be prepared for this work through largely urban based social work and human service education? The multifaceted and multilayered complexities in rural practice requires creativity, improvisation and a capacity for "integrative thinking" (Martinez-Brawley 2002) This paper discusses six elements of newer forms of rural and remote practice and how they might be most effectively addressed through social work and human service curricula. An education model which integrates these elements and other principles for rural practice is proposed.

Nearly a decade ago, the Australian Federal Government introduced a Digital Service Standard (DSS) for new and redesigned government services. This was an opportunity to encourage digital services and disruptive innovations to help the government improve citizens outcomes, and indeed there was a significant uptake in the digital services assessments offered by the program with key government agencies across health, human services, taxation, and education on board. However, by the 2020s the number of publicly visible assessments had significantly reduced. The initial broad adoption and recent reduction in numbers present an opportunity to explore the effectiveness of this government innovation management program that was ahead of its time. This paper reviews the impact of the DSS in fostering public service innovation and presents lessons learnt from the program. To perform this analysis, this research evaluates to what extent the DSS applied common private sector innovation management approaches of Innovation Process Management and Innovation Portfolio Management in the public sector. It also looks at the impact of these programs in encouraging specific types of modern digital innovations. The analysis draws on DSS assessments from 2015 to 2021 and considers how the program demonstrated public sector innovation leadership. This paper proposes a framework to improve the DSS by tailoring its approach for new and existing services, adopting specific standards to encourage incremental and disruptive innovations, and promoting more transparent reporting and funding of innovation management programs. This evaluation found that the DSS exemplifies Innovation Process Management in its use of stages and gates, and Innovation Portfolio Management in its use of targeted assessment criteria across innovation portfolios of various government agencies. The analysis also identified design limitations in the DSS as a whole of government innovation management approach due to its limited uptake in multiple large agencies and lack of specific standards to encourage different types of innovation. The impact of this research is to increase the adoption of the DSS and increase the innovation outcomes delivered by this government program. We conclude by reflecting some of the unique considerations in applying private sector innovation management practices in the public sector. Points for practitioners: Innovation management techniques are emerging but remain immature in the public sector.Australia has shown leadership in Government Innovation Process and Portfolio Management.Government must remain committed to innovation management programs and sharing the outputs of these programs.Government Innovation Management Programs should build in flexibility to encourage different types of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implications of an Australian national study on services for older people with intellectual disability include the importance of individual needs in planning recreation and leisure activities, planning future residential placements, and considering medical and health needs as they age. Choice and involvement in decision making for this population are emphasized. (SW)

This paper discusses a case-finding process for identifying all people 55 years and over with an intellectual disability living in 2 regions of Victoria (Australia). Results indicated that, although not all 215 people located were registered with specialist services, they were known to the generic system, suggesting the value of greater collaboration between the 2 service systems. (JDD)

Australian laws and regulations such as the Disability Services Act reflect the importance of ensuring that persons with disabilities receive appropriate services. A tension exists, however, between policy formulation and service provision, which is influenced by disagreements on government's role in service funding, lobby groups, and the tendency to move disability services into generic services. (JDD)

In Australia, a children's services advisor (CSA) makes regular visits to all providers of children's services in a particular area, identifies and advises on provider problems, and makes recommendations on provider licensing and funding. A college senior describes his experiences as an intern with a CSA in rural New South Wales. (SV)

Contemporary manifestations of race are dynamic and elusive in the forms and shapes they take. "Colourblind" racism is effective at drawing on seemingly objective and race‐neutral discourses to obfuscate racialized forms of structural exclusion. Framed by Critical Race Theory and Critical Narrative Analysis this paper presents an example from the Australian context that examines the relationships between a grassroots initiative developed by creatives from the African diaspora and two not‐for‐profit human services organizations, to illustrate how ideologies of race are enacted and obscured by managerialist ideologies and discourses of risk. Specifically, it shows how harmful dominant cultural narratives of deficit and danger transforms racialized Africans in Australia into "risky subjects." In a managerialist organization, risk must be controlled, and thus risk becomes the rationality for the control of racialized and risky subjects. Resistance to control by those subjects produces forms of organizational defensiveness that are mobilized through managerialist discourses and practices that work to structurally exclude. These findings illustrate the ways ideologies of race work alongside and through other ideological discourses and practices which render racialized dynamics of oppression race‐neutral. Highlights: Contemporary and color‐blind manifestations of racism are evasive.Ideologies of race are obscured by discourses of risk.Risk discourses contribute to racialized forms of control and structural exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Trauma-informed care and practice (TICP) has gained international attention since the mid-1990s, but its recent adoption in Australia has been met with various barriers, including a lack of training and education opportunities to enhance professional knowledge and practice. This paper aims to identify and further understand what is occurring in TICP training and education for health and human service professionals in Australia; specifically, what is known about TICP content and training strategies being used. Design/methodology/approach: A scoping methodology was used to undertake a systematic search of the literature to identify and map the scope and nature of research activity on TICP training and education for professionals in Australia. Based on the predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria, removal of duplications, abstract review and full-text screening, six studies met the inclusion criteria for content analysis in this review. Findings: The studies showed that TICP training and education was occurring predominantly in the Australian health sector for nursing professionals and improved knowledge, confidence to respond to disclosures of trauma and approaches to care. Training was commonly delivered through one-day workshops and brief Web-based approaches. The findings suggested that there is a need for consensus on TICP content to ensure that fidelity to the principles of TICP is promoted in unique workplace settings and for ongoing commitment by relevant stakeholders and funding bodies. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first review exploring what is happening across disciplines and sectors for trauma-informed education. The findings have implications for clinicians, professionals, educators and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighbourhood Houses in Australia are community place-based organisations that provide education, support services, and develop responses to local issues with local communities. The practices within Neighbourhood Houses are informed by community development. Yet knowledge, understanding and practices of community development vary across the workforce. In 2019, Neighbourhood Houses Victoria commenced a programme of professional learning for the workforce. This paper draws on data from an impact evaluation and examines the benefits and barriers to embedding a professional learning programme in community development within its workforce. Using practice theory to examine the tensions and contradictions inherent in delivering professional learning in neoliberal times of managerialism and accountability in not-for-profit organisations. The contradictions of practice will resonate with organisations seeking to implement a professional learning across a broad range of human service organisations such as settlement houses, human services and community education settings. We claim most not-for-profit workforces are impacted by the discursive practices of neoliberalism such as contractual arrangements and the adoption of business practices to comply with funding requirements. These compliance requirements contrast with the philosophy and practices of community development and have the potential to impact on professional learning and the practices within these workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work field education is under pressure across the globe, including in Australia. Current application of neoliberal principles to education and human services policy and service delivery impact on social work practice, social work education and the availability and delivery of practice placements. Social work educators are concerned about delivering quality social work education so that students can engage in supervised service delivery in preparation for professional social work practice. Field education staff in universities across the country experience significant challenges in ensuring and organising increasing numbers of quality student placements. The formation of a national leadership group was triggered by a collective realisation that all university field education programs were facing similar challenges. The purpose of a national group was to better respond to the identified challenges and identify directions for research. Collaboration has been effectively used across university-based field education programs as a leadership approach, in the development of the Australian National Field Educators Network (NFEN). This paper reports on the formation of the NFEN and the resulting identification of six themes affecting provision of social work field education as an example of collaborative leadership. The paper concludes with an appraisal of the opportunities and challenges of taking a collaborative approach in developing a national response and working as a unified national organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disability support is often provided at the interface with other human services such as health, education, and employment agencies. This can present many organisational problems for people receiving support and the organisations that provide it. Individualised funding is one attempt to ease problems of fragmentation and unmet needs, but perversely, it introduces further interface complexities as organisations consider how to manage their service provision and financial structures. Drawing on interviews with 28 managers, the focus in this paper is on organisational and interface changes and challenges following the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia, and the adaptive strategies of organisations to provide individualised and coordinated supports. The three themes derived from the thematic analysis, adopting a commercial mindset, finding a business niche, and working across complex interfaces, epitomise the benefits, constraints, and consequences of new market mechanisms for the delivery of supports, and how organisations are adjusting to a more commercial‐orientated sector while also creatively negotiating multiple funding and governance systems. The findings contribute to understandings of how individualisation is creating new dynamics of local disability support governance and collaboration in service provision. Whereas much of the literature on individualised funding has focused on the fragmentation of services, this study of organisation managers contributes to understandings of how individualisation also generates new dynamics of collaboration and tension in local disability support governance and service provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infestation of the head louse Pediculus humanus var capitis DeGeer (Phthiraptera: Pediculidae) is an important public health problem in Australia, with up to a third of children infested in some primary schools. Insecticide resistance and inadequate attention to the application instructions of topical pediculicides are common reasons for treatment failure. This study evaluated six popular Australian over-the-counter products against head lice, primarily comprised of different botanical extracts, and compared them with permethrin 1% (Quellada®) and a non-treatment control in order to assess their in vitro efficacy. We also assessed commonly used criteria for evaluating pediculicide efficacy in vitro. All tested products failed to demonstrate high levels of efficacy with the exception of Tea Tree Gel®, which outperformed 1% permethrin. Permethrin had a high level of efficacy, but using stringent criteria 18% of lice were not dead at 3 h, indicating some resistance to Quellada®. Commonly used less stringent criteria were shown to overestimate mortality of head lice as a result of the protective phenomenon of stasis or sham death observed in exposed lice that may recover after some time. Using two different levels of stringency resulted in different rankings of efficacy for most products, with the exception of the first ranked product, Tea Tree Gel®. Rankings of efficacy also varied over time, even within the different assessment criteria. Government regulatory agencies should require standard in vitro tests using stringent mortality criteria, with an observation period of ≥ 6 h, to determine the efficacy of new pediculicides, and only products that cause a minimum mortality rate (e.g. 80%) in head lice collected from the target population should be licensed for sale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the findings of a qualitative study comparing social work and human service practice with people who have sought asylum in Germany and Australia. Globally social workers are concerned with the record high of people forcibly displaced worldwide and the Global North host-nations' increasingly hostile, discriminatory and restrictive policies towards people seeking asylum. This policy context is antithetical to the professional values of social workers and human services practitioners. The findings of this study reveal how the policy directly impacts social work and human service practice, creates unique ethical challenges and dilemmas and, subsequently, diverse practice responses. The paper also suggests that the country of practice influences how practitioners perceive and respond to ethical challenges and dilemmas. Through doing so, the findings challenge traditional understandings of critical practice theories that suggest that practice focused solely on the individual level is inadequate for work with people seeking asylum. Due to the diversity of contexts and their influences, we encourage social work and human services to view practice on a personal-political continuum when working with people seeking asylum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over two-thirds of Australians are owner-occupiers and a majority of the population holds most of their wealth in housing. Australian taxation privileges homeowners and retirement income policy is built around the assumption that state pensions can be kept low because an overwhelming majority of older Australians are outright homeowners and therefore have a considerable asset base and low housing costs post-retirement, a situation often referred to as ‘wealthfare’. However, ageing of the population and falling housing affordability mean that the number of asset-poor older Australians unable to rely on ‘wealthfare’ – lifetime renters or those who drop out of homeownership – is likely to grow in the future. In this paper we look at housing career pathways into precarious housing in older age, its impact on older Australians’ ontological security and coping strategies as they grapple with the housing circumstances that typically accompany asset poverty. Based on 30 interviews conducted with older Australians, the paper reports qualitative findings from a mixed methods research project conducted in Melbourne in 2009–2010. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper seeks to examine current policy reforms that situate education as a means of addressing social inclusion. Borrowing from the work of Popkewitz and Lindblad, the paper takes the form of a cross-disciplinary literature review that informs understanding of the relationship between educational governance and social inclusion/exclusion in policy research in Australia. To do so, the author examines the assumptions, omissions and contradictions in policy direction via two problematics - the engagement problematic and the early intervention and prevention problematic - to emphasise how policy discourse produces ways of thinking about inclusion/exclusion. The author argues that discourses of engagement and intervention and prevention reinscribe each other, acting as a palimpsest which produces notions of the 'proper' family and 'proper' participation. These notions of propriety ironically exclude particular types of individuals and families by situating them outside of possibilities for 'success' in social and systemic participation. Therefore, the author seeks to examine the 'systems of reason' that enable these discursively produced notions of propriety to become normalised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an aged-care system that provides a wide range of residential and community-based aged care services to elderly men and women that are appropriately monitored and audited, homeless people in Australia have historically found it difficult or impossible to access those services. It remains an appalling blight on the aged care industry in general, and the social work profession in particular, that this apparent selective exclusion of the most vulnerable of elderly people should continue with little or no comment, criticism, or action. The present article is a policy commentary rather than an academic research paper that aims to alert readers to the plight of elderly homeless people. The paper provides some insight into the life of an elderly homeless person; describes the interaction between elderly homeless people and the aged care system; discusses services provided by Wintringham, a welfare company specialising in providing aged care and housing services to aged homeless people; and explores some of the policy responses suggested by Wintringham. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the question of optimal duration of maternity leave through the lens of Australian mothers' perceptions of satisfaction with their leave: specifically, whether and why they returned to work earlier than they would have liked. Analysis of The Parental Leave in Australia Survey identifies financial need and limited access to paid maternity leave as the most common reasons for returning 'early'. Mothers taking leave for less than 9 months were significantly more likely than those taking longer periods to report that they had returned earlier than they wanted to, although leave periods over 12 months were not consistently associated with further declines in dissatisfaction with duration. Overall, the analysis highlights the financial pressures underpinning women's decisions, and suggests that enhanced availability of paid leave is more likely to be welcomed than further extension of leave duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just as several authors have written about the limitlessness of globalisation, so too does the practice of paucity management reach across all boundaries of society. Its practice relates particularly to the way that rural community welfare managers operate within an environment of resource poverty. Increasingly, the private sector creep of financialisation across the human services profession has had an impact on the roles of people within those organisations whereby their services are being scrutinised continually to show value for-money in a market-driven environment. Managers are constantly trying to balance and 'trade off actions and activities, in order to manage ethically and professionally. Paucity management is management in complex situations, which at its best addresses ways to deal with potentially limiting situations such as rigorous accountability regimes that could debilitate service delivery. It involves a series of innovative and creative practices such as subtle partnership arrangements to counter the effects of operating within resource-poor situations. In this paper I discuss my PhD research conducted with community welfare managers from the Central West Region. of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Drawing upon an eclectic theoretical foundation, the paper will discuss aspects of the phenomenographic research process and minimal findings that relate to several limit-situations of human services delivery, as well as implications of paucity management to address those situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a brief history of Catholic social services in Australia. The underlying theological base has beenCatholic Social Teachings. The paper outlinesCatholic Social Teachingsand its impact on the development of distinctive Catholic social services. Catholic social services is an umbrella term, which includes the diocesan based services– Centacares, religious orders and lay associations such as St Vincent de Paul Society. A condensed history is presented, which highlights the various stages of the development of Catholic social services. These stages have been identified as the early years of the colony– charity for those in need, Industrialisation and‘Rerum Novarum’– the right of all people to live in dignity, Catholic Welfare Bureau– improving coordination, training and expertise, Conservatism/Innovation and Advocacy– 1949–1986 and Restructuring of human services– the recent period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper defines the state's apparatus as a site of power and contestation. This view enables contingency in the realm of government to be taken seriously. Accordingly, the paper takes a critical view of the idea of neoliberalism as a general global process. The paper reviews Paul du Gay's history of the state's apparatus, including his nostalgia for bureaucracy and his disdain for entrepreneurship. The paper contrasts du Gay's stylised take with a study of shifts in institutional structures and behaviours in Australia's state apparatus since the mid 1970s leading to the present period of Howard neoliberalism. The paper positions these shifts in the context of Coombs-led institutional reform in Australia; it examines the potential for institutional resistances and responses; and draws implications for how we view institutions as having agency in the political processes of state apparatus reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implications of welfare reform for the meaning of social citizenship in Australia. Australian welfare reform has been under way since the late 1980s, and reflects the themes of activity and participation that are shaping social policy in many advanced industrial nations. The paper suggests that Australian welfare reform is following a liberal trajectory of change which places a continuing emphasis on market and family as the preferred institutions for social support with a newly salient appeal to moral ideas about the responsibility of citizens to be self-sustaining. The paper argues that welfare is being transformed from a limited social right to support provided on condition, and from treating the claimant as a sovereign individual to a subject of paternalistic supervision. Together, these changes are redefining the meaning of equality in Australian social citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objectives. To analyse the short- and long-term costs and benefits of alternative models of primary care for the management of patients with type 2 diabetes in Australia. The models of care reflect differential uptake of primary care-based incentive programs, including reminder systems and involvement of practice nurses in management. This paper describes our study protocol and its progress. Methods. We are undertaking an observational study using a cluster sample design that links retrospective patient data from a range of sources to estimate costs and intermediate outcomes (such as the level of glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c)) over a 3-year time horizon. We use the short-term data as a basis to estimate lifetime costs and benefits of alternative models of care using a decision analytic model. Initial report. We recruited 15 practices from a metropolitan area (Adelaide) and allocated them to three models of care. Three hundred and ninety-nine patients agreed to participate. We use multilevel analysis to evaluate the association between different models of care and patient-level outcomes, while controlling for several covariates. Discussion/conclusions. Given the large amount of funding currently used to maintain primary care-based incentives in general practices in Australia, the results of this study generate the knowledge required to promote investment in the most cost-effective incentives. What is known about the topic? Collaborative models of care can improve the outcomes in patients with chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes (T2D), and the large amount of funding is currently used to maintain primary care-based initiatives to provide incentives for general practices to take a more multidisciplinary approach in management of chronic diseases. What does this paper add? There are few model-based studies of the cost-effectiveness of alternative models of care defined on the basis of the uptake of financial incentives within Australian primary care settings for diabetes management. Using routinely collected data, this project evaluates the effectiveness of alternative models of care and estimates long-term costs and benefits of various models of care. What are the implications for practitioners? This study explores opportunities for the use of linked, routinely collected data to evaluate clinical practice, and identifies the optimal model of care in management of patients with T2D, with respect to differences in long-term costs and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the applicability of relational contract theory in situations where government departments contract with non-government welfare organisations to deliver human service programmes. Its limits are highlighted by an assessment of programmes for domestically violent men that epitomise "management of incomplete contracts" central to the theory. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an evaluation of contracted-out programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence in Australia that set out to compare and contrast distinct models of service delivery by documenting programme logic, service delivery effectiveness and effects on programme participants. It reflects on the difficulties of monitoring such programmes and considers the implications of this for contracting theory and for human service practice. Findings – In contrast to critiques of contracting-out in a neo-liberal environment that emphasise how accountability and reporting requirements limit the autonomy of contracted agencies, this paper highlights considerable variation in how programmes were managed and delivered despite standardised service delivery contracts developed by the government department funding the programmes. This leads to a consideration of "incomplete contracts" where service delivery outcomes are hard to measure or there is limited knowledge of the contracted agencies by the contracting government department. Originality/value – The paper highlights a situation in which the recommendations of relational contracting theory can exacerbate the difficulties of quality assurance rather than minimise them. It then argues a need for workforce development in the government departments and the contracted agencies, to enable a nuanced monitoring of the programmes' service delivery and promotion of quality assurance processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of evidence-based practice, there have been calls in social work for practice research that examines the efficacy of its interventions. For the present paper, the authors conducted a content analysis of all articles published in Australian Social Work in the period from 1998 to 2007 to examine the nature of published research and evaluation. Of the 313 articles, 138 (45%) reported on research findings. Of these, only six articles involved practice evaluation or testing of an instrument, but there were positive signs of a developing empirical research culture primarily utilising a qualitative approach or mixed methods studies. The authors suggest that there is a need for more research on social work interventions, a more conscious decision by the profession about its attitude to evidence-based practice (EBP), specific directions for research education, and greater rigour in reporting all types of research studies, but particularly qualitative studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, systematic and widespread provision of family-support services is just 30 years old. The present paper traces some of the developments, recurrent tensions, and themes in family-support services, principally in Victoria, over those decades, drawing attention to challenges for social workers' continuing participation in the development of family services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper reviews some of the major governmental policy directions that are shaping Australian universities in terms of funding, teaching and learning, research and community engagement, and international development, and draws out the implications of these for social work education and its relationship to the social work profession and the wider human services field. The paper is designed to provide an Australian context for the discussion of higher education policy. However, it recognizes that, given the pace of change in Australian government policy in higher education, such analyses are merely a snapshot at a point in time and that social work educators need to be constantly monitoring the higher education policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the results of the first year of a four-year study of the relationship between indigenous' people and the welfare system in two communities: Kuranda in North Queensland and Yuendumu in Central Australia. The work has been conducted by a group of researchers at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University and partially funded by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services. The broad objective of the research has been to document the nature and extent of the relationship between indigenous people and the welfare system and to draw out the implications for family welfare policy and for the delivery of welfare services. A fuller discussion of the methodology and results is available in the monograph "Indigenous Families and the Welfare System: Two Community Case Studies" edited by Diane Smith.

To date, people with intersex variations have been mainly studied via small-scale clinical research, with only a small amount of reflective commentary contributed by sociocultural scholars. This paper reports on findings from a 2015 online Australian survey of 272 people with intersex variations, which aimed to redress the gap in research on this groups’ experiences and perspectives concerning education. Participants ranged in age from 16 to 87 years, and represented all Australian states and territories. Most had experienced two medical treatment interventions related to their intersex variation: commonly reported interventions included hormonal treatment and genital surgery delivered to participants when they were aged under 18 years of age. Participants reported various physical and psychological impacts from these treatments. Well-being risks were high; most of the group had engaged in suicidal ideation, particularly when individuals first found out about their variation. This impacted on their schooling – almost one-fifth of survey respondents had received no high school certification due to their early dropout and the overwhelming majority did not attend schools with inclusive puberty/sex education provision or counselling. Most survey participants had not disclosed their intersex variation to staff, although more than half had done so to their classmates. Many had experienced bullying. Only one-quarter of participants rated their overall education experiences positively. Participants suggested improvements to schools’ information provision and support features. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]