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Participatory evaluation gives primacy to the experience of people affected by the policy. How realistic is it for researchers to persuade government of its benefits, given the gap between participatory policy theory and government evaluation practice? We apply this question to the Resident Support Program evaluation. The program coordinates support for people living in boarding houses and hostels in Queensland, Australia. We found that a participatory, longitudinal, formative evaluation process facilitated service user contribution to research outcomes, service experiences and policy implementation. In addition, the values position of participatory research can contribute to managing interest conflict in policy implementation.

In Australia and many other countries, government regulations require that children's services, such as long day care centres and preschools, employ certain numbers of qualified early childhood teachers. This recognises that training and experience of staff are the most significant factors determining the quality of care. At the same time Australia is facing a shortage of qualified early childhood teachers, and governments are grappling with how staff requirements can be met. In this article we examine the New South Wales Government approach, which waives temporarily the requirement to employ qualified teachers if children's services providers can show that they have made all reasonable effort at recruiting the required staff. We consider the impact of the temporary waiver on quality of care, and whether it is necessary to compromise government standards in this way. Our research concludes that most providers committed to good quality care do not resort to using the temporary waiver.

This book investigates how NGOs in authoritarian states, such as China, craft accountability and legitimacy to ensure their survival. It explores this through the lens of child welfare organisations from 2007 to 2017. The authors provide a fresh approach to accountability that is more attuned to the particular conditions of authoritarianism. The project explores the effects of power relations in shaping the hierarchies of accountability and participation that emerge and the attention given to different voices such as those of donor, government, and users. Essential reading for researchers and policy makers interested in development, NGO, social policy, political science, and child welfare studies. Jude Howell is Professor in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom. Xiaoyuan Shang is Professor at Beijing Normal University, China and Associate Professor at University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia. Karen R Fisher is Professor in the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia.--

AbstractIntroductionAccess to health information is a right for all people. Easy read information is one strategy used to make information accessible for people with intellectual disability. This research explored how easy read is used and the ways accessible information can address access barriers, with a focus on Australian mental health services.MethodsSemi‐structured interviews were conducted across four sites to explore how easy read was used. Participants (n = 49) were easy read users, health practitioners and staff from services providing mental health care in New South Wales, Australia. An integrated health literacy framework was used to analyse data.ResultsMost mental health staff did not use easy read or other accessible information, and did not consistently offer people with intellectual disability opportunities to understand, appraise and apply health information. This investigation confirmed the limited availability of accessible information resources, including easy read, and the importance of relationships of support when accessing health information.ConclusionPeople with intellectual disability did not routinely have access to mental health information. Substantial change is required to address this disparity.ImplicationsAgency policy and processes require change to support staff practices that uphold the right to information. Inclusive practices that incorporate using easy read in health contexts, including mental health, are needed to facilitate change.

AbstractBackgroundPeople with intellectual disability do not have adequate access to mental health services and have worse mental health outcomes than the broader community. Access to information about mental health, treatment, and services has been advocated as one strategy to address these inequities. This article presents findings from a policy analysis of how the right to accessible information is represented in Australian mental health policy, with a focus on information access for people with intellectual disability.MethodAn analysis of Australian and New South Wales state policies relevant to mental health services 2007–2017, in current use and available online (49 documents) was conducted. Principles in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability 2006 and an integrated health literacy framework were used to frame a content analysis. NVivo 11 (QSR 2015) was used to search the policy documents and themes were identified according to the policy type and purpose.FindingsThe right to information is expressed in Australian and New South Wales state policy documents. However, the mental health policies do not refer to the communication needs of people with intellectual disability or incorporate strategies to address their needs. Many of the mental health policy directives incorporate the need for tailored communication. Some documents mention the needs of other groups of people with specific communication needs, but not people with intellectual disability.ImplicationsThe inconsistency between the right to information expressed in policies and processes to communicate information with people who have intellectual disability needs to be addressed. The longstanding disparities in health outcomes, and difficulties accessing mental health service experienced by many people with intellectual disability underline the pressing need for policy to require accessible information practices.

AbstractEveryone has the right to employment. Work is important for health, well‐being, and social, economic, and financial inclusion. However, it is often difficult for people with intellectual disability to find and maintain work, especially in the open labour market. Policy challenges remain about who can access open employment (also sometimes called competitive or supported employment) and how often people with intellectual disability do so. Greater understanding about the barriers that people with intellectual disability encounter when they try to find and keep work in open employment is needed.Drawing on research with 51 people with intellectual disability in Australia, this paper examines the systemic barriers they report to finding and maintaining work in open employment. The findings highlight that the barriers they experience stem from narrow, dismissive, and discouraging attitudes to their work in open employment and from a spectrum of experiences of stigma and discrimination in open workplaces. The paper thus provides new knowledge about reasons that people with intellectual disability may either reject or not continue in open employment and take up less inclusive work options. The paper discusses the implications of the findings, including the need for policy development for attitudinal change, designing more varied roles for employees with intellectual disability, ensuring access to industrial relations protections, and increasing and better regulating and funding requirements on support to people with intellectual disability who are seeking work in open employment.

PurposeSome social policy theorists assert that East Asia has a distinct social welfare regime that due to the influence of Confucian values relies on families more than in other countries. This theorisation has been questioned, partly because it is a static, reductive generalisation. The purpose of this paper is to ask whether this characterisation is relevant to aged care services in Shanghai.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses data from ageing profile statistics, policy documents and ethnographic fieldwork to examine Shanghai aged care services.FindingsThese data show a growing reliance and preference for state aged care service provision to complement family care. It finds that changes in Shanghai aged care services in the last ten years have moved towards a model with similar patterns in high-income countries. It suggests that differences in the service system that were attributed to Confucian values were more likely due to the degree of economic development and internationalisation.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by re-examining the structure of Shanghai's welfare regime in the context of the dynamic nature of aged care services and preferences of older people.

While self‐directed support for people with disabilities and their families represents a welcome shift toward self‐determination and increasing control, the risk of managing with insufficient funds remains. This article examines whether different types of case management can mitigate that risk by providing support when people have only a small direct funding package. It applies the question to an evaluated program of self‐directed support in Queensland, Australia that allocated A$4000 with one of two approaches to case management: program‐focused or organizationally oriented. Case management contributed to the effective use of limited budgets and addressing goals when it promoted choice and control, built relationships, and enabled flexible fund use. Program‐focused case management seemed to be less constrained in enhancing social participation than organizationally oriented case management, which tended to restrict some participatory opportunities. These findings are consistent with earlier research, which indicated that case management can interfere with participation. Even in the context of a small funding allocation, a case management approach that promotes flexibility and person‐centered planning, control over funding, and capacity building can improve the effectiveness of self‐directed support; however it does not overcome the inherent limitations of insufficient funds for adequate support, or the cost of case management itself.

AbstractThe Delphi method has been previously used to define and reach consensus on core workforce attributes. However, limitations of the traditional Delphi method have been identified. A modified online Delphi method, which aims to address these limitations, was used as one part of the intellectual disability mental health core competencies project. The authors assess the utility of a modified online Delphi method to define and reach consensus on the core intellectual disability mental health workforce attributes and the lessons learned from using this approach. Thirty‐six intellectual disability mental health experts from across Australia participated in a modified online Delphi. At the end of each Delphi round the research team completed descriptive analyses for the quantitative data, and content and thematic analyses for the qualitative data. The research team subsequently critiqued the method in terms of its utility in defining workforce attributes. Authors identified several lessons from using this method to define core workforce attributes. In particular, it has highlighted the potential benefit of initiating the Delphi process with a developed framework that is familiar to the workforce; the benefit of using quantitative and qualitative methods; and the need to reconsider how to define participant consensus. This study confirmed the utility of a modified online Delphi method to identify and describe core workforce attributes, provided insights into the benefits and challenges of this method, and identified strategies for overcoming some of the commonly documented limitations of the Delphi method. However, it has also highlighted some additional challenges of the Delphi method that researchers have not commonly described within the published literature. The lessons provide useful insights for others planning to use the Delphi method.

The accountability of children's services organizations is a current challenge in China as its social service system expands. The government is beginning to fund children's services organizations directly; however, the accountability practices remain weak. This has created a credibility crisis with the public about the use of donations and quality of services. Some organizations are starting to engage with their service users to address this problem. User participation is an important approach for China, since government regulation of nongovernment organizations is limited. This qualitative case study applies a multidimensional accountability framework (managerial and democratic) to examine participation practices in a child disability organization founded by parents. We found that the governance and operational structures attempted to provide accountability to all stakeholders, but top‐down accountability to government and donors was prioritized over accountability to children and families. Accountability for professional and technical quality was supported by international professional organizations, which is an option only available to some NGOs. Government support for multidimensional aspects of accountability needs to extend beyond funding, to training and technical support to achieve quality service provision by NGOs.

The recent United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) reframes how policy responds to disability, difference, interdependence and rights. We examine how Australian disability activists used the CRPD to advocate for the intersectional rights of women with disability. We applied a framework from Zwingel's conceptualisation of mutually constituting global norms to analyse the intersectionality of rights represented in three stages of the CRPD process – during the drafting, the wording in the Convention, and the periodic review. We found that disability activists were able to shape the gendering of disability through their targeted representation as people with lived experience. This expertise filled a knowledge gap in the policy process valued by the actors at other policy levels. Extending Zwingel's concept of global discourse translation, it also suggests that the dynamic contribution continues in the international interpretation of the CRPD itself.