It's time to invest in the NSW Social Service Sector

19 February 2025

A key indicator of an industry’s wealth and power is when it has the resources to splash on public campaigns proclaiming how vital it is to the nation.

The mining sector spends millions telling us they put back more than they take out, the construction industry tells us it's building the nation, the superannuation and banking sectors are ubiquitous presences in our mass media.

The playbook is simple, commission economic modelling to ‘prove’ that for every dollar of government support there will be a multiplier of benefits, make a glossy ad featuring real Aussies (preferably in high-vis), come up with a catchy tagline and sponsor a football team.

Meanwhile, in the community sector, we are stretched delivering services with scarce resources, which means we can struggle to meet the varied reporting requirements, let alone trumpet our broader value!

I was thinking about this disconnect when attending the Western Sydney Community Forum a couple of weeks ago; where 150 organisations came together as an, eh, industry to share insights in delivering supports for the state’s fastest growing region.

It was a terrific event, facilitated by NCOSS member Billie Sankovic (who has more to say below), albeit with an undercurrent of weariness and concern as we all face common challenges of doing more with less.

A couple of things stood out for me. The first is that because of the structure of the community sector, where organisations are contracted by multiple layers of government to deliver different services and programs, service delivery can feel fractured and transactional for both the client and the service provider.

For example, in migrant services, providers have a check-list of things they are allowed to do as part of their contract to support a new arrival, but nowhere is there a line item for the broader purpose of connecting them with community to help them feel a sense of belonging or combat loneliness and the subsequent mental health impacts.

This can create what Billie described as a ‘ping pong effect’ where a service provides one program but must refer across to another organisation due to program offerings or capacity. Sometimes that referral works but too often that person is referred back to the initial organisation. It is a cycle that diminishes the trust of our clients and creates an emotional and professional burden for our service providers. On top of these challenges, this situation brings greater cost and complexity for our clients who need to move between different parts of their region and are then confronted with expensive and time-consuming transport challenges.

Despite our name, ‘community services’ can end up feeling more like band-aids than resilient infrastructure embedded in communities, joined up the way we ensure roads or sewage or powerlines are integrated.

The cost of not coordinating services is more than the individual needs. As one of our members told us on the day, we are a sector that moves at the speed of trust; supporting people who almost by definition have lost faith in or connection to the system that is supposed to work in their interests.

When our members act with the rigidities the bureaucracy imposed upon us, we further undermine the connections essential to the mission of the sector.

Last fortnight, I outlined the first element of our Pre-Budget Submission, the need to secure funding certainty for our member organisations delivering the critical services to people across the state.

The second part of our proposition to government is more systemic: how do develop a community sector that is more than simply the specific services we deliver?

In the submission we make the point the sector provides essential care and support for more than 1 million people, employing over 230,000 people with an economic output worth $15.4 billion.

If this is our value, surely, we can find the budget space to develop to a coherent workforce strategy, that’s sees a skilled and well-remunerated workforce as an investment not just a line item.

Working with government, we owe it to the people we support – and the people we employ – to take a broader view of our work and ensure we have the right frameworks to grow as a sector that can meet community where they are and when they need it.

A first step would be to re-instate Justice Connect’s Not-For-Profit Law services, which was defunded in 2022 despite offering 15,000 hours of free legal advice to NSW organisations and training 5,400 NSW board members, staff and volunteers over the previous two years.

It’s that sort of investment, rather than glossy feelgood ads, that will make a real difference in building the capacity of our sector.

NCOSS spoke to Billie Sankovic, CEO of the Western Sydney Community Forum.

What do you love about the western Sydney communities?

I love the richness, the talent, the confidence, the hope, the bravery, and the humility of the people I know in Western Sydney. I am bit partial though – it is and has always been my home. But Western Sydney is vast in people and place, it is not homogenous. It is more than half the population of Sydney metro and close to 40% of the NSW population. It is a social and economic powerhouse. I love that the people I know are modest and unassuming about that power. But at the same time, it is that humbleness that means the region doesn't get equitable access to a fair share of our state and nation's health and wealth.

How did you get involved in the Community Forum?

I would always say to my kids as they were growing up, your goal should be to do what you love to do each day and happen to get paid for it. It is like that for me at the Forum. I spent about 15 years in the grassroots community sector, about 15 years in state and local government, and sprinkles in academia, working across the spectrum of priorities that shape health and wellbeing. Joining the Forum really consolidated my lived and learned experience. I am one of those social workers that landed on building 'fences on the cliff’ and a fairer world. The Forum, as the regional peak social development council, is exactly about that.

How do good social services add to the community?

They are a fundamental piece of life. To be well as people, we need the fundamentals – like somewhere secure to live, income to survive, to be safe, to learn and grow, to feel physically and mentally healthy, to be able to get to where we need to be, to have people around who we love and can rely on, and to get help when you need it. Social services touch peoples lives across all these fundamentals. In an immensely wealthy and peaceful nation like Australia, despite its fragility, universal access to social services should be a given. But the disparities in equitable access to the fundamentals are stark, and I see this in Western Sydney every day. For example, many don’t know that a public school in Western Sydney has 20 kindergarten classes. It blew my mind and would likely blow every parent’s mind in this country of a fair go.

What’s an example of a program making a real difference?

There are so, so many examples. The first that comes to mind is a grassroots youth service that works with young people who are experiencing some significant social and systemic socio-economic barriers, that can seem insurmountable. The organisation is local, place based and embedded in the community. As part of my work at the Forum, I have seen young people from that service do amazing things and grow into incredible local community and civic mentors and leaders. They taught me ‘nothing about us, without us’. The organisation’s model of service is not new or innovative or imported or parachuted in from others or pioneering or groundbreaking. Instead, it is embedded in [and governed by] its local community and the local system, it applies best practice principles like empowerment, human rights, inclusion, self-determination and connection in their approach; and is delivered by people qualified in doing the work they do. And it does this on the ‘smell of an oily rag’.

How has the cost-of-living crisis impacted your community?

What we know is that people who already experience some level of vulnerability or crisis are hardest hit in difficult times, be it pandemic or housing or cost of living. Services across Western Sydney have been reporting for some time that there is a shift in demand towards basic fundamentals like security in housing, safety and food. The evidence supports this. This means the service system has had to shift to meet these needs and we are on the back foot in preventing vulnerability and crisis and building health and wellbeing. The result is not just an immediate and local impact. It increases social polarisation and effects our health, wealth and peace as a nation.

What’s the most important thing the State Government could be doing now?

As a key principle, it is about addressing the [growing] equity gap in the fundamentals across all the Government's priorities, be it services, housing, or infrastructure. Where you live shouldn’t matter in this immensely wealthy and peaceful state [and nation] of ours, but unfortunately it does, and it frames all our collective lived experiences. We have seen some important steps in increasing access in Western Sydney, which has been very welcome. But we are decades behind, and an equity lens will ensure the State Government's investment in its people is directed first where it is most needed.

Building a local universal integrated baseline level of service that is resourced to prevent vulnerability and crisis as well as respond when needed, must be a priority in Western Sydney. There are corridors where a whole generation has been raised without access to fundamental social infrastructure and services. To do this, we need to build on what was brought to the fore during the pandemic – being that people primarily turn to local, trusted, place-based, non stigmatising, community leaders and organisations that are embedded in their community.

NCOSS Regional Member Meetings provide space for organisations that understand the unique experiences and challenges faced by people living in regional and remote NSW to come together. Regional Member Meetings are a chance to connect and collaborate on solutions across ageing, disability, youth, women, families, domestic violence, housing, poverty and justice.

Regional Member Meetings are held online every three to four months. All NCOSS members outside metropolitan Sydney are welcome, and if you are based in Sydney but have regionally-based teams we would welcome your regional staff to attend.

I hope you can join us at the next meeting, which will be on Tuesday 4 March 2025, 10am – 12pm.

Contact Sector and Community Engagement Officer, Michelle Shackleton at michelle@ncoss.org.au for details.

The Department of Social Services is currently examining options to facilitate the transition of services from non-Indigenous non-government organisations to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), in line with commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap to support the growth of the ACCO sector.

They are scoping interest from non-Indigenous organisations who are considering transition of their services, or are currently undertaking steps to do so. This will assist with departmental awareness and forward planning for the processes that will be involved with supporting transitions over the coming months and years.

This work will be a continuation of the Stronger ACCOs Stronger Families (SASF) Project, which aims to increase the number of ACCOs delivering services funded under the department’s Families and Children Activity, and increase the number of genuine partnerships between ACCOs and non-Indigenous organisations delivering Commonwealth-funded child and family services.

SASF has aimed to support self-determination within community on how services are delivered and who they are delivered by, including through partnership approaches, which requires working with communities to determine their needs in ways that are culturally sensitive, respectful and safe. We are currently examining how we can support this aim in the facilitation of transition processes.

If you are interested in transitioning services to the ACCO sector, please reach out to the SASF team at PEP@dss.gov.au with some brief information on your current situation, and what you are currently doing/would be looking to do in the transition of services.

The recipients of the inaugural First Nations Cancer Scholarship have been announced.

Aurora partnered with the Australian Government through Cancer Australia to facilitate a $5.9 million investment over three years to get more Indigenous people into cancer care. Five Indigenous scholars will be supported with funding to undertake full-time postgraduate study or research in a cancer-related field.

Among the recipients are Balarnu, Waluwarra and Wangkayujuru man Brodie Seymour, Gundungurra woman Eden Slicer, Ngarkat woman Kayla Vitale, descendent of the Wiradjuri and Ngemba Wayilwan people Khwanruethai Ngampromwongse, and descendent of the Kulburri-warra clan of the Kuku Yalanji, Guugu Yimidthirr, Yidnji and Barbarum nations Kasarina (Kas) Mann.

Each of these scholars will be supported over three years, and will also receive academic, wellbeing and community support.

Liquor & Gaming NSW has released consultation papers on third-party exclusion and facial recognition technology in pubs and clubs via the NSW Government Have Your Say platform.

Members of the public and stakeholders are being invited to have their say on these initiatives and we encourage you to provide feedback and share the two consultations in any communication with your members.

The consultations will close on Friday, 14 March 2025.

NCOSS will be preparing a submission in response to this consultation.

Webinar: Natural Disaster-Related Legal Assistance
Law and Justice Foundation of NSW
26 February, Online
Free | Register here

This webinar will explore how the legal assistance sector prepares for and responds to natural disasters. Key findings from two recent research reports will be presented.

A state of the evidence report including a data-driven analysis of disaster-related legal need in Australia, including insights from Legal Aid service data.

A qualitative study exploring community legal centres’ experience of disaster preparedness.

Webinar: Families with Children and Centrelink
Welfare Rights Centre
4 March, Online
Free | More info here

Our free webinar outlines Centrelink payments targeting families with children.

Speakers address eligibility requirements, income and assets tests, mutual obligations relating to work, and the way that the number and age of children affects different payments.

They will also explain how people needing further support can access a Centrelink Social Worker, and what to do if a claim is rejected, payment is stopped, or a debt is raised.

Gambling Research Capacity Grants 2025
Closing Date: 28 February 2025

Gambling Research Capacity Grants aim to improve the quality, diversity and impact of Australian gambling research by supporting talented and committed researchers.

In 2025, the Responsible Gambling Fund is offering two PhD scholarships and a post-doctoral fellowship. Each PhD scholarship is for up to $60,000 per annum for three years. Top-up scholarships of up to $30,000 per annum will be considered for students receiving other stipend funding, such as Commonwealth Research Training Program (RTP) scholarships. The post-doctoral fellowship is for up to $160,000 per annum for three years.

For more information, please visit the grant information page.

Disaster Ready Fund
Closing Date: 2 April 2025

The Disaster Ready Fund Round 3 is open for applications from eligible applicants delivering disaster resilience and mitigation projects.

The objectives of the program are to:

increase the understanding of natural disaster impacts, as a first step towards reducing the risk of future natural disaster impacts,
increase the resilience, adaptive capacity and/or preparedness of governments, community service organisations and affected communities to future natural disasters to minimise the potential impact of natural hazards and reduce the risk of future natural disasters, and
reduce the exposure to risk, harm and/or severity of a future natural disaster’s impacts, including reducing the recovery burden for governments, cohorts at disproportionate risk, and/or affected communities.

For more information, please visit the grant information page.

NAIDOC Local Grants
Closing Date: 20 February 2025

The NAIDOC Local Grants provide a co-contribution to the cost of activities and events being held around National NAIDOC Week (6 to 13 July 2025) that celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, achievements and continuing contributions to our country and Australian society. Activities and events should align with the annual National NAIDOC Week theme The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy.

For more information, please visit the grant information page.

Some of the latest from our Jobs Board:

Paralegal Homeless Persons' Legal Service (Sydney CBD) - Justice and Equity Centre - VIEW JOB

Senior Receptionist (Sydney CBD) - Kaleido Health Centre - VIEW JOB

Program Coordinator MyTime (Sydney Wide) - Playgroup NSW - VIEW JOB

Neighbour Aid Coordinator (Hawkesbury, Western Sydney - Richmond Community Services Inc - VIEW JOB

Youth Worker (Liverpool) - Anglicare - VIEW JOB

Senior Receptionist (Sydney CBD) - Kaleido Health Centre - VIEW JOB

Youth Worker (Inner West Sydney) - Detour House Inc - VIEW JOB

Rural and Regional Counsellor (Northern Rivers) - STARTTS - VIEW JOB