Marketisation of human service delivery : implications for the future of the third sector in Australia
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Date
2012
Authors
Carson, E.
Kerr, L.
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Conference paper
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Democratization, marketization and the third sector : 10th International Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR), 2012, pp.1-14
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10th International Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) (10 Jul 2012 - 13 Jul 2012 : Siena, Italy)
Abstract
While the worst effects of the recent Global Financial Crisis have been avoided in Australia, it is by no means immune to shocks to the economy and society. Of particular interest here is the squeeze on resources of not-for-profit human service agencies at the same time as increasing complexity of needs among their clients. This is against a backdrop of growing disparity in wealth and disproportionate rise in housing costs when compared with wages/benefits, with demand for emergency assistance outstripping capacity for agencies to provide, posing a threat to social cohesion and exacerbating social and economic exclusion. These issues are arising simultaneously, and against a backdrop of Australian Federal and State governments being innovative in contracting-out of service delivery and responsibility to Non-Government Welfare Organisations (NGO) over the past two decades. The need for NGO capacity building is evident.
Moves to outsource human services have, we argue, seen a hollowing out of government departments, with a concomitant reduction in capacity of those governments to adequately develop, monitor and evaluate the contracts with which they engage with NGOs. At the same time, increased demands on NGOs have reduced the opportunities for agencies to strategise and develop their own capacities. Nominal strategies to manage complex service delivery commissioning and monitoring, including Relational Contracting require more resources than are made available, often exacerbating third sector/government relations rather than facilitating them. Adding to this is that the quasi-market model itself has fragmented the Third Sector in Australia to the extent that it currently does not have a unified voice, vision or plan for its own future, is suffering from problems with morale, staff attraction and retention, and indeed a degree of inertia to change its modus operandi in ways that will challenge the current policy and funding regime and ultimately achieve better outcomes for its client groups.
The paper outlines three major Sector Reform initiatives in Australia over the past two years (covering contract negotiation and monitoring, financial reporting and wages) and reflects on their likely implications for the sustainability of the Third Sector in Australia within a continuing market model underpinning government funding of services by non-government organisations delivering human services.
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Copyright 2012 International Society for Third Sector Research