Main purpose of services within the sector
Community services provide support and assistance to help individuals, families, and groups reach their full potential and improve the well-being of their communities.
Services included in the sector
In the context of government service provision, 'community services' include services that provide assistance to specific groups identified as needing additional support. This may include children and young people, families, older people and people with disabilities. Community services may overlap with other areas such as health services and early childhood services.
This report provides detailed performance information on the fairness, effectiveness, and efficiency of the following community services:
Information on other relevant service areas is available elsewhere in this report (Part E, Health (including services for mental health) and Part G, Housing and Homelessness).
Government spending in this area
Total government spending on social services listed in this report is approximately $76.3 billion in 2022-23, an increase in real terms of $45.9 billion over the past four years, primarily due to increased spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). % increased. In fiscal year 2021-22 (the most recent fiscal year for which data is available across all sectors), the community services sector accounted for approximately 18.9% of the total government spending covered in this report.
The largest components of local services spending are the NDIS and specialized disability support services ($37.4 billion, Table 15A.1), followed by aged care ($28.3 billion, Table 14A.3) and child protection services ($9.4 billion). , Table 16A) followed. 8) and Youth Justice Services ($1.3 billion, Table 17A.10).
Industry trends
The community services sector is diverse. Some services are funded and provided by the government. Although some services are funded by the government, they are provided by the not-for-profit or private sector (for example, private residential aged care services or private providers under the NDIS).
Governments regulate the quality and safety of services across sectors (for example, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, the NDIS Quality and Safety Task Force, and various state and territory bodies). Selected information regarding complaints, service quality and safety can be found in service-specific sections.
Community services often work in conjunction with other government services. Although this report presents aged care services, disability services, child protection and youth justice services as separate sections, these sections are interconnected and relate to other sections of the report. doing. For example:
- The disability sector is linked to health services because some long-term health conditions can cause disability, and disability can cause health problems (for example, disability can cause social and physical (AIHW 2022a)
- The aged care sector is linked to medical services. High demand for these services can make it difficult to adequately meet consumer needs. For example, limited availability of elderly care facilities can affect the demand for beds in public hospitals. Australian, state and territory governments offer transitional care programs to minimize inappropriate hospital stays for older people (Aus Gov 2022)
- There is an interaction between homelessness and youth justice services. Youth experiencing homelessness have disproportionate contact with the criminal justice system, and housing instability upon youth release from judicial custody is associated with recidivism (Almquist and Walker 2022).
- There is an interaction between child protection and youth justice services. One study of children involved in Victoria's criminal justice system found that almost a quarter were currently or previously involved with child protection services (Baidawi and Sheehan 2019). Another study found that more than half of youth ages 10 to 17 who were under youth justice supervision in 2020-2021 It was found that there had been interaction with the protection system (AIHW 2022b).
Challenges of population aging in this field
Australia's population is aging due to longer life expectancies and lower birth rates. The 2023 Intergenerational Report identifies population aging as Australia's biggest demographic challenge (Aus Gov 2023). The median age is expected to increase by 4.6 years to 43.1 years in 2062-63. The proportion of people aged 15 to 64 in the population will decline by 3.5 points between 2022-23 and 2062-63, to 61.2%. Over the same period, the proportion of the population aged 65 and over is expected to increase by 6.1 percentage points to 23.4%. These changes will increase demand for government services and affect government spending.
community service employees
Estimates for the community services workforce are difficult to derive because of the overlap in occupations and industries (e.g., health and welfare support in education and child care settings). According to the 2021 Census, approximately 11.5% of the 12 million people aged 15 and older who are employed work in the occupation “community and personal service workers,” up from 10.8% in the 2016 Census. (ABS 2022a). This occupational group includes welfare, disability and family support workers, community workers, and carers of older or disabled people. According to the 2021 Census, 3.0% of employed people work as caregivers for the elderly or disabled, up from 1.2% in 2016. Welfare support workers (including parolees and residential care workers, community, family support and youth workers) rose from 0.5% in 2016 to 0.5% in 2016. In 2021, it is 0.9%.
The role of informal carers across Australia
Carers play an important role in supporting older people and people with disabilities to remain in their homes and communities. While some care is provided formally by paid staff, it is often provided informally by friends and family. According to the 2021 Census, approximately 2.48 million people (9.7% of the population) provide unpaid care, assistance, or assistance to family members or others due to disability, long-term health conditions, or age-related issues. (ABS 2021). The majority (60.2%) of those providing unpaid assistance were women (ABS 2022b).
2018 ABS Survey on disability, aging, and caregivers (SDAC) (ABS 2018) approximately 861,600 people (3.5% of Australia's population aged 15 and over) Major Caregivers of people with disabilities and the elderly. Support one or more of her core activities such as self-care, mobility, and communication. The majority of primary caregivers (71.8%) were women (ABS 2018). Section 15 of this report contains further information on caregivers of people with disabilities.
References
Almquist, L., Walker, SC 2022, Interlinkages between housing instability and youth criminal legal involvement: A scoping study, Health and Justice, 10 (15); https://healthandjusticejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40352-022-00177-7 (accessed October 2, 2023).
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2022a, Occupation (OCCP) by employment (EMFP) and age (AGE5P) [2016 and 2021 Census TableBuilder] (Accessed 18 October 2022).
—— 2022b, Unpaid Assistance to Persons Due to Disability, Health Condition or Old Age (UNCAREP) by Sex (SEXP) [2021 Census TableBuilder] (Accessed 18 October 2022).
—— 2021 Unpaid work and care: census; ABS, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/unpaid-work-and-care-census/latest-release (accessed 2 October 2023).
—— 2018 Disability, aging, carers, Australia: Summary of research findings, 2018. ABS, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/disability/disability-ageing-and-carers-australia-summary-findings/latest-release (accessed 2 October 2023).
Australian Government 2023; 2023 Intergenerational Report, https://treasury.gov.au/publication/2023-intergenerational-report (accessed 2 October 2023).
—— 2022 transitional care program resources; https://www.health.gov.au/resources/collections/transition-care-programme-resources (accessed 2 October 2023).
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2022a, health of people with disabilities, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/health-of-people-with-disability (accessed 2 October 2023).
—— 2022b, Interaction between young people under the supervision of youth justice and the child protection system 2020-21, Cat. no. CSI 29. Canberra: AIHW, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/young-people-under-youth-justice-supervision/summary (accessed 2 October 2023).
Baidawi, S. and Sheehan, R. 2019, “Crossover Kids”: Effective responses to children and young people in the youth justice and statutory child protection systems. Reports to the Criminology Research Advisory Committee. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/Cross-Over-Kids-Report-Dec2019-v2.pdf (October 2023 (Accessed on 2nd)).
