The Personal Support Programme (PSP), funded by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and delivered by non-government and private contractors, provides two years’ intensive case management to job seekers facing multiple personal barriers. Recent research by the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne Citymission and Hanover Welfare Services found that after involvement in PSP participants...

This is the final evaluation of PACTS (Parents As Career Transition Supports), an innovative Brotherhood pilot project that aims to empower parents to better support their childrenÆs transitions from school to work and/or further education by building their knowledge of post-school pathways and the contemporary job market. Lois Bedson and Daniel Perkins found clear benefits...

Interim findings suggest that the Personal Support Programme (PSP) is a vital program for assisting people with multiple non-vocational barriers to employment, but that several factors reduce its effectiveness – notably, inadequate funding to help clients access services such as education and counselling. While PSP’s recognition that some participants cannot engage in employment-related activities before...

In the United Kingdom and the European Union, social policy is losing its economic rationalist spots at an increasingly rapid pace. Today a number of writers have been searching for a way to name just what it is that is taking its place. In this paper Daniel Perkins, Lucy Nelms and Paul Smyth introduce the...

This discussion paper examines the change in values informing public policy in Australia over the last 25 years, and its negative impact on society. The authors argue that since the neoliberal policy framework is unable to effectively balance economic and social goals, governments need to go beyond the present short-term economic outlook and be more...