Uncertainty holding community sector back: NCOSS report

The research, the first of its kind in the sector, is detailed in a report released by the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS), and funded by the Department of Family and Community Services.

The research, conducted by UNSW’s Dr Natasha Cortis and Dr Megan Blaxland, looks at the characteristics of community services, and the trends in their experiences working within the sector and with government.

“This is the best data we have about how organisations are faring in the current environment,” explained Dr Natasha Cortis.

“There has been anecdotal evidence of many of the trends revealed but now we have the hard data to back it up.

“We will be conducting this research again next year to deliver an annual snap shot of the sector, so this report provides a bench mark for tracking the state of the community sector over time.”

NCOSS CEO Alison Peters said the data would help identify what the sector needs to function most effectively into the future, and what the sector and government can do to support that.

“We’ve got some great news from the research which shows respondents felt their relationship with government had improved in the last five years – however there are some clear areas for improvement.

“Only 20 per cent of respondents felt funding models available encouraged flexible service delivery and only 16 per cent felt funding models were sustainable all or most of the time. Only 34 per cent felt they knew enough in advance whether funding would be renewed.”

Ms Peters said a lack of sustainable funding often left services without the ability to develop middle-to-long term strategies which allow more effective use of resources and better services overall.

“NSW relies on the community sector to deliver crucial services, so we should make sure they are in a position to make the best use of the funding available. This means allowing for planning into the future.

“No business could function effectively without long term financial certainty and community services are no different.

“The sector must now work closely with government to consolidate where things are going well and find solutions where improvement is needed.”