How can we support people’s experience of justice, good health and wellbeing?
The new federal government may bring different opportunities to work towards this objective, but our health justice priorities remain the same. Over a series of posts, our founding CEO Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine shares the work we have been doing with the new government so far and invites colleagues to connect with us in this advocacy and the important work ahead.
You’ve gotta love a minister who wants to be so available that his sector stakeholders get sick of him! That’s exactly how Assistant Minister for Charities the Hon. Andrew Leigh MP introduced himself to the charities roundtable ahead of the Government’s Jobs Summit. His enthusiasm for this portfolio is coupled by his deep knowledge of the sector and his longstanding interest in social capital and community connectedness.
At the Jobs Summit roundtable we drew the Minister’s attention to the risk of burnout across health, legal assistance and social services. Wellbeing is important in its own right and is a welcome commitment of the new government. Practitioner wellbeing is also key to how well services can meet the needs of the communities they support. Through our contribution to the Global Burnout Survey we are developing a baseline of burnout among the services we support. Informed by this data, our work with service practitioners and leaders will be taking on the hard questions about what structures of work can protect against burnout and support practitioner capability and wellbeing.
Other engagement with Minister Leigh has provided the opportunity to explore cross-portfolio policy development and budgeting as critical anchors to improved collaboration across service systems. We have also signalled the importance of NFP sector outcomes data and the critical role government can play in utilising the vast amounts of data reported to it by the services it funds and regulates.
Health Justice Australia participates in a number of NFP sector processes including through our membership of the Australian Council of Social Service, participating in its CEO, health and community service policy meetings; as a member of the Community Council for Australia’s Digital Leaders group. We will continue to raise the vital social and economic contribution of health, legal and social services, and of organisations like Health Justice Australia working in between and across these sectors, in our policy advocacy.
