Dr Elroy Dearn
Since Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme was created nearly ten years ago, its roll out has been closely scrutinised by governments, policymakers, researchers, and advocates. Dr Sue Olney, Dr Amber Mills and Liam Fallon discuss their research into how working-age people with disability without NDIS funding are faring. Their findings reveal a huge gap between talk and action on disability inclusion.
Read MoreThe pandemic has exposed the multitude of dangers in trusting private entities with public data, demonstrating the need for carefully thought out regulation argue Jenna Harb and Kate Henne from the Justice and Technoscience (JusTech) Lab at the ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance.
Read MoreGerry Hamill from UK NGO First Time Inside helps new prisoners prepare for incarceration through ‘rehabilitation’. In this blog, Gerry reflects on the uses and abuses of people with ‘lived experience’ in the social service sector.
Read MoreCalls for management of the NDIS market are increasing rapidly as the scheme progresses. There have been a number of high-profile calls for better market stewardship for the many NDIS markets and sub-markets nationally, most recently the market readiness report from the Joint-Standing Committee on the NDIS. Social researchers Gemma Carey and Eleanor Malbon highlight how the NDIA can detect market deficiencies and what strategies it can use to address them.
Read MoreThe University of Birmingham (UK) has launched a Policy Commission report calling for increased investment in the prevention of poor mental health. The report comes at a time when half of life-long mental health problems show their first signs by the age of 15, and three quarters by the age of 25, and evidence that the rates of mental health problems amongst young people are increasing. The Commission Report, therefore, identifies childhood and adolescence as a critical opportunity to prevent and promote better mental health. In this post, Karen Newbigging discusses the report and implications from this work.
Read MoreValerie Braithwaite, psychologist and professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at ANU takes us back to the introduction of higher education loans in Australia to explain how justice is central to the acceptability and success of social policy in this re-post from The Australian TAFE Teacher magazine.
Read MoreWayne Herbert is a disability professional, LBGTIQ activist and author. This is a lightly edited version of his speech given at TedX Canberra (2017) and to be given at the 2018 Canadian Association of Supported Employment Conference, explaining his experiences navigating life as a self-proclaimed ‘disabled gay’
Read MoreDeveloping strong recommendations is critical to ensuring that policy decisions are informed by evidence. In this post, Leandro Echt, General Coordinator of Politics & Ideas, offers some criteria to consider in developing good policy recommendations for decision-makers.
Read MoreIn recent years, think tanks have been beset by financial constraints, increased competition, and, more recently, a growing questioning of, and popular dissatisfaction with, the role of the ‘expert’ itself. Marcos Gonzalez Hernando, Diane Stone and Hartwig Pautz examine each of these challenges and find that, at a time of huge over-supply of (occasionally dubious) evidence and policy analysis from a variety of sources, think tanks have an opportunity to reinvent themselves as organisations able to discern the reliability and usefulness of policy advice.
Read MorePolicy Whisperer Susan Maury has been the guest curator of the Twitter account @RealScientists this week. The account has global reach and is followed by nearly 40,000 scientists and people who like to learn about science. Today's 'storified' post captures Susan's experience on the account over a single day, with discussion ranging from the work of the Women's Research, Advocacy and Policy (WRAP) Centre, Power to Persuade, the Women’s Policy Action Tank, utilising evidence to advocate for better policy, and how evidence is often misused in the policy debate.
Read MoreThe Director of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science says the ‘big data revolution’ in the social sciences isn’t about data itself – it’s about advances in how we analyse increasing quantities of diverse data to generate ‘usable information’. Professor Gary King contends the emergence of “larger scale, collaborative, interdisciplinary, lab-style research teams” could herald the end of the qualitative-quantitative divide in social science research. This post by Michael Todd originally appeared on the LSE Impact Blog.
Read MoreLinked data sets could shed much-needed light on how different issues and systems affect people accessing social services. However Brooke McKail from the Victorian Council of Social Service reminds us that sharing data has potential risks as well as potential benefits for service users, calling for careful consideration of how to protect individuals from its negative consequences. This post originally appeared on the VCOSS Voice blog.
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