Our annual Emerging Issues Forum offers a valuable opportunity to explore current and significant trends that will affect the sector. It serves as a space for reflection on the changing landscape and supports forward-thinking planning.

Join us as we examine the emerging challenges and developments, focusing on the following key areas:

Harmful Sexualised Behaviours

Speaker: Michael Salter – Director, Childlight East Asia & Pacific Hub, UNSW

Schools and frontline services are reporting a concerning increase in harmful sexual behaviours among young people and rising rates of peer-on-peer abuse – linked to access to harmful content online. Michael Salter has been working on these issues for many years with his recent work identifying that 1 in 10 Australian men admit offending against children, and 1 in 6 admit having sexual thoughts about children and would offend if they knew they wouldn’t get caught. What more can the sector be doing to address this growing challenge?

Speaker: Nicole Lambert – CEO, Allambee Counselling

Allambee Counselling in Mandurah are one of two frontline WA services currently developing and delivering specialised counselling services and support to young people experiencing the impacts of harmful sexual behaviours as part of a service pilot funded by the Department of Communities and evaluated by the Australian Centre for Child Protection. The program seeks to develop evidence-based therapeutic responses to children and young people displaying HSB, and to implement and extend the WA Framework for Understanding and Guiding Responses to Harmful Sexual Behaviours.

Market Failures

Speaker: Professor David Gilchrist – Director, UWA Centre for Public Value

David is well-known to community services in WA for his work on the sustainability of community services and his insights into the sector landscape. In this session he reflects on the issues arising due to the competitive tendering strategies taken by Federal and State governments and the ‘marketisation’ of services in aged care, childcare and the NDIS. What is the best way to ensure public services are efficient and effective in delivering quality outcomes and value for money? Is competition the best driver – or should we be focusing instead on collaborative commissioning strategies to develop more effective place-based systems? What does a better future look like for our community … and the services that support them?

Productivity with Purpose

Speaker: Toby Phillips, Economic Director, Centre for Policy Development

Productivity with Purpose is a report from the Centre for Policy Development that lays out practical reforms for tying productivity to outcomes that Australians value: time with our families and friends, better health, stronger connections with our communities, and more leisure time.

Like many measures of economic growth, productivity is often treated as a means to improve living standards. But unless we deliberately make that the goal, those benefits don’t automatically follow.

If we do not connect productivity to purpose, we risk pursuing productivity in a way that worsens the overlapping crises we face as a society: climate breakdown, inequality and housing shortages. But if done right, we can channel productivity into the things people truly value, such as time with our families and friends, better health, stronger connections with our communities, and more leisure time.

This is a free webinar for WACOSS members but is open for anyone to join.
Cost for non-members is $40 per person (paid during checkout).

Become a member from as little as $15 per year and get access to critical sector events and news.

Register now by clicking the ‘Register’ button. This webinar will be held online via Zoom – the Zoom link to access the webinar will be provided in the registration confirmation email immediately after registering.

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