MARCH 2022
Welcome to the latest news from the BSL Social Policy and Research Centre (SPARC).
Our Centre's new name captures our focus on sparking significant and lasting change that improves economic and social participation for those living in poverty.
The reform of disability employment services features in this issue. Other topics include the impact of COVID-19 on people's financial wellbeing and the potential – and limitations – of vocational education in aiding economic recovery.
You can read more about our current work at www.bsl.org.au/research and also browse our policy submissions.
Please share this issue of Spotlight (formerly Policy and Research Update) with your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe.
Join our special International Women's Day edition of BSL Talks
Enabling women's economic security in 2022 ... and beyond
12 noon – 1 pm, Thursday 10 March 2022
At both national and state levels, there is a growing awareness of the need to foster women’s economic security. After countless reviews, the issues are well known – so what is needed now, and in the future, to tackle the persistent gender pay gap, unequal responsibility for paid and unpaid work, and an inadequate and punitive social security system?
Join Dr Dina Bowman and our expert panel as they discuss how to tackle the stubborn issues that undermine women’s economic security in Australia.
- Professor Margaret Alston AM OAM – Professor of Social Work, University of Newcastle & Emerita Professor, Monash University
- Kristin O’Connell – Spokesperson, Antipoverty Network
- Dr Leonora Risse – Economist, RMIT University
POLICY: ADOPTING CO-DESIGN OF DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT SERVICES
Designing employment services that will enable many more Australians with disability to gain decent work requires collaboration between employers, educators, all levels of government and, critically, people with disability. Our policy submission calls for change at system, policy and program levels.
Read our Submission re the New Disability Employment Service Model
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In case you missed it:
Our recent report proposes 10 strategies that are keys to effective reform of multiple systems that shape employment opportunities for people with disability.
Read the report by Andrew Thies, 10 strategies for improving employment outcomes for people with disability (PDF, 1.4 MB)
REPORTS: SCANNING THE DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT LANDSCAPE
Our strategic proposals for disability employment build on findings from the Economic Participation and Employment Project conducted by researchers at the Brotherhood of St. Laurence and the Disability and Health Unit at the University of Melbourne.
Read the longer reports:
Environmental scan part 1: Current research and evaluation to promote economic participation of people with disability (PDF, 1.2 MB)
Environmental scan part 2: Views of experts on effective employment interventions for people with disability (PDF, 378 KB)
WEBINAR: LESSONS RE COVID-19'S IMPACT ON FINANCIAL WELLBEING
Our webinar on COVID-19 and financial wellbeing featured a panel led by Dina Bowman:
- Fiona Guthrie AO – Chief Executive, Financial Counselling Australia
- Dan Nahum – Economist, Centre for Future Work
- Katherine Boyle – Executive Director, Welfare Rights Centre
- Dr Emily Porter – ANZ Tony Nicholson Fellow, BSL
Watch the recorded webinar
Catch up on our reports from the Financial lives in uncertain times study
ESSAY: THE ROLE OF VET IN POST-COVID ECONOMIC RECOVERY
The potential and the limitations of recent policies enlisting vocational education and training (VET) as a key to economic recovery are explored in a recent essay by BSL researcher Kira Clarke. She also traces the social and economic conditions that have shaped the current role of VET.
Read 'All things to all people: VET as a vehicle of post-Covid recovery' Griffith Review 75: Learning Curves
OTHER POLICY AND RESEARCH ITEMS
ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS FOR RENTED HOMES
The BSL strongly supports minimum energy efficiency standards for rented homes, which we see as a vital policy that will lower the cost of living and improve health and comfort for renters, particularly those on low incomes.
Our recent policy submission was to the ACT Government.
Read our Submission re Minimum energy efficiency standards for rental homes in the ACT (PDF, 282 KB)
TELEHEALTH IS ABOUT MORE THAN TECHNOLOGY
Even before the CIVID-19 pandemic lifted the profile of telehealth, researchers pointed to the need to understand the social dimensions of health in order to make such services more effective and responsive across rural Australia.
Read more in the article by BSL’s Deborah Warr with Georgina Luscombe and Danielle Couch, ‘Hype, evidence gaps and digital divides: telehealth blind spots in rural Australia’, in Health: an Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine.
Dr Deborah Moore joined the Research and Policy Centre in January 2022 and leads the Early Childhood Education team, whose work includes a focus on research related to HIPPY (the Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters).
Deb has a PhD in Early Childhood from the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne). She has lectured at Monash and Deakin universities in early childhood and primary education, and spent 20 years as a kindergarten teacher and preschool field officer.
Her research has included young children’s imaginative play and their symbolic and physical construction of place. Deb is committed to young children’s right to participate as valued co-researchers through the stories they tell of their lived experiences.
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BSL Social Policy and Research Centre
67 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy Vic. 3065 Australia
Phone: (03) 9483 1183
Email: research@bsl.org.au
Web: www.bsl.org.au/research
© Brotherhood of St. Laurence 2022
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The Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL) is a social justice organisation that works to prevent and alleviate poverty across Australia. You are receiving this email as you have previously subscribed to the BSL Research and Policy Centre e-newsletter. To unsubscribe, please click on the link below.