OPINION: SA’s lifesaving services crumbling as govt fails front line
As long-standing disability services Bedford Industries and the MS Society succumb to “all-consuming financial pressures”, Dr Catherine Earl says funding is failing South Australians in need.
In recent months two long-standing and important South Australian-based disability service providers, Bedford Industries and most recently the MS Society, have succumbed to all-consuming financial pressures and gone into administration.
Bedford was fortunate enough to secure a government-supported assistance package; the MS Society at this stage may not.
While the individual circumstances for Bedford and the MS Society may be different, it is important not to lose sight of who stands to lose the most in situations like this: the thousands of South Australians living with disability who directly receive vital services and support from these two providers.
As they and their loved ones find themselves grappling with the doubt and uncertainty that comes with such challenging situations, we as a society we owe it to them not only to find short-term solutions that allow them to continue leading lives of purpose and dignity, but longer-term and systemic changes to ensure that recent events do not keep re-occurring.
As the peak body for community and non-government health services sectors in South Australia, SACOSS is acutely aware of how much stress our entire social services system is under.
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Disability service providers like Bedford and the MS Society face challenges unique to their sector, but there is no doubt they represent the broader challenges all community service providers – mental health, drug and alcohol, housing and homelessness, aged care and many more – are navigating.
The fundamental problem we face is simple: as demand for community services continues to go up, the associated cost base for providers also rises – but the funding required to meet those increases has not risen by nearly enough to meet increasing need.
There are pressures around the cost of ongoing rising wages, superannuation guarantees and insurance. And next week the long-awaited Portable Long Service Scheme will commence – a scheme SACOSS has argued for and supported in the interests of worker fairness, recruitment and retention – which will also carry additional costs for providers.
These pressures can then be felt by staff working at the frontline, delivering these services in the form of feeling stressed, overworked and undervalued.
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These pressures can be very challenging – but not insurmountable – for the sector to navigate.
Part of any ongoing and meaningful solution involves an honest appraisal of the kind of work our sector provides. This is not a ‘market’ where providers act like businesses. The sector provides life-changing, and indeed even life-saving, support and services for hundreds of thousands of South Australians who need it. To reduce this care to that of a solely transactional or economic nature does a great disservice to everyone involved.
Another part of a solution does revolve around funding. To help the sector meet its challenges, the state government can do much more, particularly in areas such as applying appropriate indexation rates that much more accurately reflect the rising cost base.
Underfunding community services impacts on many people. It means, most importantly, that the people who need support don’t receive enough – or even any – where and when they need it.
For example, one in four people needing accommodation in South Australia don’t receive it. That’s nearly 2,400 people identified by homelessness services as being in need of a place to stay who aren’t provided with that service. On its own, this is bad enough – but it can be compounded by other needs, such as drug and alcohol or mental health services. This in turn requires even more nuanced and resource-intensive responses from providers.
But insufficient funding has broader effects across the whole sector. It impacts on the nearly 750 organisations in South Australia who provide these services. It impacts on the more than 77,000 paid and volunteer staff working at these organisations, who know better than anyone how important these services are for the people who need them.
Next month SACOSS will host a special event looking at funding and workforce issues for the SA community services sector. It is called Vital Supportand this title has extra resonance considering recent events.
It is vital that our community service organisations are able to meet the growing demand for their support services. And in turn, it’s just as vital that the state and federal governments acknowledge and act to provide the financial support that our sector needs.
Dr Catherine Earl
Chief Executive Officer, South Australian Council of Social Service
