Community Services Unite to Call for Better Funding
More than 50 community service sector organisations have signed up to a SACOSS-led Sector Statement calling on the major parties to commit to an immediate funding boost for services, coupled with better planning to cover future cost increases.
The Sector Statement details how funding levels have not kept pace with the increasing cost of service delivery. Award wages, superannuation levies, and business costs like rent and insurance have all gone up by more than the government funding increases provided through indexation.
The Statement calls on the major parties to commit to:
- An immediate funding boost to assist in covering cost increases over the past year; and
- Adoption of a new indexation formula to adequately cover future cost increases.
Last year SACOSS provided evidence to government of the shortfall in funding and called for additional funding in the mid-year budget review. That call was not answered, so the sector has now come together to make public the need for more funding – because without it the community will lose vital services.
The Sector Statement and the logos of the 50+ organisations which have signed up are at: sacoss.org.au/sector-statement/
Quotes attributable to Dr Catherine Earl, SACOSS CEO
The community services sector is facing unprecedented financial pressures. Increasing cost pressures aren’t being matched by an equivalent increase in government funding.
As the statement notes, our organisations can’t just pass on cost increases to customers, and we don’t have a profit margin to absorb the higher costs.
But behind the sector’s concern about increasing costs is the knowledge that vulnerable South Australians may have services curtailed or cut entirely unless an incoming government moves to lift funding to appropriate levels.
SACOSS knows that many organisations in the sector are already making very tough decisions so as to minimise the impact of this lack of adequate funding. They are having to choose to reduce the frequency or breadth of their services, or to reduce the hours of staff – all to ensure the least amount of impact on the people they are supporting. We have heard a mental health service having to divert resources to fundraising, and a regional service provider saying that have less capacity to plan and focus on service improvement. That translates to longer waiting lists and fewer opportunities for early support.
With more than 50 organisations signing on to the statement, it demonstrates just how significant the challenges our sector is facing are. These challenges will still be there on the 22nd of March and we need whoever is in government to step up and work with us to address them.