Funding of Non-Government Welfare: Agencies Serving Disabled People in Western Australia

Abstract

The Social Welfare Research Centre is involved in an extensive study of social welfare provision through non-government welfare organizations in Australia. Non-government welfare organizations have long been a part of the Australian scene and have had the reputation of being innovative, humane and indispensible. In recent years government has begun to play an active role in the funding of many agencies and in so doing there are costs and benefits to the agencies, to government, and to the clientele. In Australia there is a remarkable paucity of information about the agencies, their relationships with their clientele or with government -- in short about the size, structure and functions of the non-government welfare sector. Other studies under way in the Centre will focus on different aspects of these relationships. This study is about the funding relationship between agencies and government in a functionally and geographically limited area. It examines processes by which funding is obtained and documents the reliance of agencies on government and discusses some of the associated costs. While the agencies studied all deal with disabled people in Western Australia this is not a study about disability, nor is it an evaluation of the performance of these agencies. It is a study which documents a process in a vitally significant part of our welfare system. The paper has been prepared in order to report some relevant findings and in order to contribute to the debate about how the funding relationship has developed and can develop further. It is primarily a discussion paper and should not be thought of as a definitive report on a number of organizations.