Social services in Australia’s most remote and economically depressed regions are poorly coordinated, duplicated or ad hoc because they are too often delivered by agencies without a physical presence on the ground. That is the implication of a new study into services in Central Darling Shire in the far west of New South Wales.
Conducted in conjunction with Charles Sturt University, the study, Remote Control Communities, commenced in July 2008. It found that up to 46 different agencies were providing services to the Shire’s mostly Indigenous population of 2,000, who are dispersed over an area the size of Tasmania.
With few exceptions, services including health, housing, education, domestic violence support and child protection are provided by people who do not live in the Shire and visit infrequently. The study found this has led to duplication and inhibited coordination of services. It also means that some services are not made available at all in the Shire.
Central Darling Shire General Manager, Tim Hazell, said the study is a wakeup call to the many government and charitable agencies providing services in remote Australia. He pointed to a greater role for Local Government in streamlining service delivery.
“Remote Control Communities is an important contribution to the ongoing debate around how best to deliver services in remote Australia,” Tim Hazell said. “While the study is unique to the Central Darling region, its findings will come as no surprise to many other remote regions. It strongly suggests the current ‘fly in, fly out’ model of remote service delivery is broken, too often resulting in a mishmash of services that lack leadership, long term planning or coordination, and waste money.
“The study reveals the need for a stable presence on the ground to coordinate, and in some cases deliver services in remote areas. There is a strong case for Local Government to play this role. We are the only permanent presence in many remote areas, we live and work in the towns and we know what they need.”
According to the most recent Census data, Central Darling ranks as the second most disadvantaged Local Government area in New South Wales. Average weekly family income across the Shire is $518 less than the national average, and local measures put the unemployment rate at up to 60 per cent. Incidences of social dysfunction among the Shire’s Indigenous population are also high.
The study’s key findings include:
- with few exceptions, services are provided by outreach, or ‘remote
control’ from regional centres, such as Broken Hill, Dubbo, Griffith
and others even further removed; reasons given for agencies not
basing themselves in the Shire include a lack of housing and
available staff - few agencies coordinate their work with other providers, resulting
in duplication, conflict between agencies and confusion among
residents - many services are provided on short term funding cycles, for
example, annually, which inhibits long term planning - some services, such as vocational rehabilitation and disability
employment, are not made available at all, even though agencies
are funded to do so.
A key theme is the lack of a connection between many service providers and the Shire population, owing to the lack of a physical presence on the ground.
Study recommendations include the appointment of a regional human services coordinator to work with service providers; colocating service providers as a way to strengthen a physical presence on the ground; and funding programs over cycles no shorter than three to five years.
The Shire has also called on the Federal Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), the primary funding body for many of the services delivered in the region, to conduct its own study of service delivery in the Central Darling, possibly as a model for other remote and disadvantaged regions.
Tim Hazell said Council now wants to work with FaHCSIA Minister, Jenny Macklin, and her department to undertake further analysis and make necessary changes to address shortcomings.
Copies of the report are available on request. Contact Council’s Manager Community and Economic Development, Kym Fuller, on (08) 8083 8900.
