An empirical look at citizen co-production in Australia

Co-production – the contribution of time and effort to the delivery of public services by service-users and  citizens, prompted by or in concert with public sector organisations – is attracting increasing attention from governments and communities. The literature identifies numerous initiatives in the United States, Britain, Germany, Indonesia, Sweden and Latin America, with co-production reported in disaster management, social protection, economic affairs and education – among others.  Yet despite this interest in more than a few services, its ‘big society’ appeal, and the substantial scholarly endeavours devoted to it, there is still much to uncover about co-production. Large groups of co-producing clients have not yet been asked about what they actually do. This paper is a contribution to developing some answers. Drawing from a large-sample (1,000) survey of co-production in Australia, it looks at what co-producers do (in what kinds of services, and how often) and what motivates them to co-produce. It is part of a co-published Occasional Paper series from ANZSOG and the Victorian Public Sector Commission. &nbsp

Leading with political astuteness: A study of public managers in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Combining quantitative survey data from over 1000 middle and senior public managers, as well as qualitative data from 42 in-depth interviews, the study sheds light on how managers understand politics in their work; how they rate their own and their colleagues’ political skills; how they use their political skills; and how these skills were developed. The report also sets forth recommendations to improve the development of managers’ political astuteness at the level of the individual, the organisation, and the professional body/training provider

Episode 11: Susannah Howe, DC Director

This episode features an interview with Susannah Howe, the Design Clinic Director at Smith College. The interviewers are recent graduates Harriet Wright and Sophie Yates from the Zipline-DC2122 team

Enantiospecific behaviour of chiral drugs in soil.

The importance of stereochemistry on the behaviour and effects of chiral pharmaceutical and illicit drugs in amended agricultural soils has been over looked to date. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the enantiospecific behaviour of a chemically diverse range of chiral drugs including naproxen, ibuprofen, salbutamol, bisoprolol, metoprolol, propranolol, acebutolol, atenolol, chlorpheniramine, amphetamine, fluoxetine and citalopram in soil microcosms. Considerable changes of the enantiomeric composition of ibuprofen, naproxen, atenolol, acebutolol and amphetamine were observed within 56 d. This is significant as enantiomer enrichment can favour the pharmacologically active (e.g., S(−)-atenolol) or less/non-active forms of the drug (e.g., R(−)-amphetamine). Single enantiomer microcosms showed enantiospecific degradation was responsible for enantiomer enrichment of atenolol and amphetamine. However, naproxen and ibuprofen enantiomers were subject to chiral inversion whereby one enantiomer converts to its antipode. Interestingly, chiral inversion was bidirectional and this is the first time it is reported in soil. Therefore, introduction of the less active enantiomer to soil through irrigation with reclaimed wastewater or biosolids as fertiliser can result in the formation of its active enantiomer, or vice versa. This phenomenon needs considered in risk assessment frameworks to avoid underestimating the risk posed by chiral drugs in amended soils

Successful school interventions for students with disability during Covid-19: empirical evidence from Australia

Children and young people with disability are a “vulnerable” population within a pandemic context as they face structural inequities and discrimination as a result of their impairments. In this paper, we report research that sought to examine the learning experiences of children and young people with disability during the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to understand how this group fared and whether different interventions impacted on these experiences. Data were collected from an online survey organized by Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) that garnered responses from more than 700 families. The study contributes empirical evidence to the growing literature about COVID-19-related impacts on learners already recognized as experiencing multiple disadvantages in schooling. We find some significant gaps in supports offered to students with disability and their families. Notwithstanding that some students did not receive any support from their schools, where supports were offered, social supports had the greatest positive impact on feelings of learner engagement. Our findings support key propositions in the social and emotional learning literature, namely that particular resourcing should be dedicated to social interaction and feelings of belonging as these are crucial to learners engaging in learning processes. There are clear implications of these findings in terms of what educational institutions might do to help engage students with disability in remote learning

Women’s experiences of accessing individualized disability supports: gender inequality and Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme

Background Care services in industrialized nations are increasingly moving towards individualized funding models, which aim to increase individuals’ flexibility, choice and control over their services and supports. Recent research suggests that such schemes have the potential to exacerbate inequalities, however none has explored gendered dimensions of inequality. The Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a major individualized funding reform, and has a female participation rate of only 37%, despite women and girls making up half of the disability population. Methods The objective of the study is to explore possible gendered barriers to applying for and receiving adequate support through the NDIS, and to suggest directions for future research. We report on semi-structured interviews with 30 women with disability and explore their experiences with the NDIS and their perspectives on challenges associated with being a woman seeking disability support in Australia. We analyse the results using thematic analysis. Results Most women in our sample reported differences between the experiences of men and women seeking disability support in Australia. Commonly reported gendered barriers to women being able to access the right supports for their disability involve a) confidence, negotiation and self-advocacy, b) gendered discrimination in diagnosis and the medical system, which has implications for disability support access, and c) support for and recognition of caring roles. Conclusions These results suggest that women are not receiving equitable treatment with regard to the NDIS, and that further research and policy reform are needed to ensure that women with disability are not further disadvantaged as a result of the move toward individualized funding models

“Most people don’t like a client group that tell you to get fucked”: Choice and control in Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme for formerly incarcerated people

Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a substantial policy reform aiming to radically transform the design and delivery of disability services. Choice and control are key tenets of the scheme, however challenges and limitations exist with respect to inequities and difficulties posed by boundaries between the NDIS and mainstream services. People with disability who have been incarcerated are particularly at risk of experiencing these limitations. However there has been little academic exploration of these issues for this group. This paper explores whether NDIS services are readily accessible for people with disability who were formerly incarcerated, outlining some of the challenges this group encounters. The research is based on interviews with 28 stakeholders from government and non-government organisations that interact with and provide support or services to people with disability within the criminal justice system. Our findings confirm the importance of a functioning NDIS plan to help prevent some individuals encountering the criminal justice system, outlining several challenges that formerly incarcerated people with disability experience with the scheme. We conclude that ideas of choice and control are inhibited for some formerly incarcerated people with disability and highlight actions that can be taken regarding specialist support coordination, advocacy services and market stewardship to address these issues

Where specialist and mainstream service systems collide : The National Disability Insurance Scheme in prisons

The coordination of specialist with mainstream service systems is prone to role delineation and implementation difficulties worldwide. In the case of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), this specialist/mainstream interface is complicated by federalism and funding responsibilities held by different levels of government. People with disability, especially cognitive or intellectual disability, are over-represented in Australia's prisons. Through semi-structured interviews with professionals working at the interface of disability and criminal justice, we explore some of these interface issues with regard to NDIS services (specialist) in prisons (mainstream). We find that policy permits some NDIS-funded services to be delivered inside prisons, such as transition services related to a person's disability, but in practice there is significant variation in how policy is understood and implemented, leading to exclusion and service gaps. This case study shines light on longstanding debates about service coordination across organisational and jurisdictional boundaries