FEBRUARY 2024
Welcome to the first edition of the SPARC Spotlight for 2024. We’ve had a busy start to the year, with everyone hard at work on our upcoming projects.
This month you can sign up to attend our BSL Talks for International Women’s Day: ‘Counting women in’, featuring an panel of experts on women’s equality, facilitated by SPARC Director Dr Nicole Bieske; read our latest report on the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis on people living on low incomes; read submissions to the Disability Employment Centre of Excellence and the blueprint development for the not-for-profit sector.
You can read more about our current work at www.bsl.org.au/research and also browse our policy submissions.
Please share this social policy and research update with your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe.
A special edition of BSL Talks for International Women’s Day
Counting women in: breaking poverty cycles through economic security
Wednesday 6 March 2024 at 12 pm
The 2024 theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Count her in: invest in women, accelerate progress’. We know that women – particularly single mothers and older women – are over-represented in people facing poverty in Australia. However, even in the current cost-of-living crisis, there is an absence of a gendered lens to address this over-representation.
What does it take for women’s economic security to be viewed as a serious issue, what are the priorities and how do we get them on the national agenda?
Join BSL’s Director of Social Policy and Research, Dr Nicole Bieske, who will moderate a panel discussion on the real priorities for women’s economic equality with Dr Anne Summers AO, Professor of Domestic and Family Violence, Business School, University of Technology Sydney; Terese Edwards, CEO National Council for Single Mothers and their Children; and Dr Margaret Kabare from BSL/SPARC’s Work and Economic Security team.
REPORT: MAKING ENDS MEET
Over the past five years, Australia has faced unprecedented uncertainty, worsening underlying inequalities. This has left many households having to cut back spending or take on more work just to stay afloat, with many going backwards. To better understand financial stress in times of crisis, we interviewed 43 low to middle-income people across urban, peri-urban and regional areas. Most reported multiple indicators of financial stress.
A theme that emerged strongly in this research was the collision of the cost-of-living crisis with the existing long-term drivers of financial stress, such as insecure work and inadequate income support. Soaring costs and unaffordable housing expose low and middle-income households to a web of intersecting risks. Those most exposed include people relying on uncertain incomes, those experiencing unemployment, as well as those locked out of the labour market due to ill-health, disability or caring responsibilities.
This research has provided insights that can inform policy reform that moves beyond tightened belts and narrow horizons. It was reported on in the Guardian on 4 February.
Read the report by Dina Bowman, Emily Porter and Margaret Kabare, Making ends meet: fostering dignity and security in tough times (PDF, 620 KB)
SUBMISSION: DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
Using knowledge from our research, networks and practice in both disability and employment service systems, BSL prepared a submission to the Department of Social Services consultation for the Disability Employment Centre of Excellence.
The anticipated economic benefits of boosting the employment rate of people with disability that underpinned the creation of the NDIS have not been realised. Despite more than 30 years’ economic growth, and record low unemployment, the gap in outcomes between people with and without disability in Australia has widened.
Engagement with people with disability and with employers is essential to the Centre’s development and governance. At the core of the Centre's development, we recommend building sector capability, government capability, innovation, continual improvement measures and cross-sectoral, place-based networks and approaches.
Read our Submission to the consultation for the Disability Employment Centre of Excellence (PDF, 331 KB)
SUBMISSION: DEVELOPING AN NFP SECTOR DEVELOPMENT BLUEPRINT
We welcome continued opportunity to provide input on the Blueprint Expert Reference Group’s development of a not-for-profit sector blueprint. Our submission draws on our Submission to DSS for a stronger, more diverse and independent community sector. It focuses on community sector organisation issues and asks for a better relationship between government and the community sector.
BSL’s vision for the blueprint is multifaceted. It needs to aim to reduce disadvantage; sustain meaningful, evidence-based partnerships between government and community sector organisations; include community voices; and be committed to enabling self-determination. The blueprint also needs to recognise the real cost of service delivery over time and minimise unnecessary administrative burden. To this end, the blueprint should be easy to navigate and inclusive of all community sector organisaions and community members.
Read our Developing a not-for-profit sector development blueprint submission to DSS (PDF, 393 KB)
BSL LIBRARY TIMELINE: CHILDREN’S EARLY YEARS SERVICES
BSL undertakes significant and influential work on children’s early years to understand and mitigate the impact of poverty on the lives of children and their families.
This dates back to our earliest community work and includes: employing social worker, Miss Imrie, to work with women and children at Carrum Downs in 1941; opening the Fitzroy Social Service Centre, to provide counselling and services for families in 1943; establishing a Guidance Centre in Fitzroy for families in 1945; children’s summer holiday camps in 1948; a free milk program for school children at Fitzroy’s George Street Primary School in the mid-1950s; and our radical approach to family welfare in the 1970s with the innovative Family Centre Project headed by Connie Benn.
Nowadays, BSL sees parents as their child’s first teacher and works to build access to and inclusion in early childhood supports. BSL’s early years work focuses on policy, advocacy and family support which places children, parents and families at the core of program delivery.
You can find policy submissions, program evaluations and resources to support early years practice in our Social Policy Library.
Dr Ursula Harrison joined the Work and Economic Security team in May 2019. She holds a PhD in community development from Victoria University.
Her previous work has been in the community sector, for many years as manager of a women’s neighbourhood house and more recently in conducting research on adult education and community development practices in neighbourhood houses.
Currently, Ursula is working as the Life Chances research fellow. The Life Chances study, commenced in 1990, is a unique research project that examines how family income, social class, ethnicity and gender affect the lives of individuals.
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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
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