Australian Government report: Rebuilding Employment Services

A parliamentary inquiry into the employment services system which commenced on 2 August 2022 has released its final report today, recommending major reform:

“The significant and numerous issues identified in this inquiry simply cannot be addressed by mere tweaks to policies and programs. They demand wholesale, large-scale reform in the coming months and years to fundamentally rebuild the Australian system.”

Social enterprise has been called out as one part of the solution:

“Successful reform will require genuine partnerships between government, employers, service partners and communities, informed by the lived experience of unemployed people and service users. That does not necessarily mean consensus and not everything can or should be co-designed. Government needs to lead and take bold decisions and set parameters and culture for reform within which co-design, experiments and trials can occur. To be clear, the Committee’s firm view is that rebuilding a public sector core to the system is a question of how, not if. Not everything should be subject to trials—major decisions need to be made with government leadership.

Significant funding can be repurposed, and efficiencies gained, achieving better value for money from current investment. However, government should not be scared to make targeted investments to get long-term unemployed people back into work. Australia spends more than the OECD average on the operating core of the system, but only half the OECD average overall as we underinvest in things like paid work experience, effective wage subsidies, active labour market programs and social enterprises.”

We look forward to seeing how the reforms unfold and bringing the incredible work that Work Integrated Social Enterprises (WISEs) do to the fore, to train, support and employ people who would otherwise be locked out of the labour market in a way that builds their confidence, connections and skills.

Read the full report here.