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The Impact of Public Sector Reform Models on Aged Care Services and Employee Outcomes
Book chapter

The Impact of Public Sector Reform Models on Aged Care Services and Employee Outcomes

Esme Franken and Yvonne Brunetto
Societal Value of Welfare Politics, Policies and Services, pp.323-343
Palgrave Macmillan
27/12/2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70969-2_15

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Abstract

Over the past fifty years, public sector reforms have impacted the ways in which public services are managed, and how public values have been interpreted and delivered. Such reforms have impacted countries differently depending on the extent to which they have been implemented as well as on their driving principles. Australia’s public sector has been the subject of austerity-driven reforms for decades, resulting in widespread resource scarcity and the contracting out of services. The aged care sector in Australia is a primary case of the degree to which reforms have shaped patient, worker and system outcomes. In this chapter, we contextualize the issues associated with public sector reforms and employee experiences in Australia in relation to the aged care sector, uncovering the implications of Australia’s approach to aged care over the past decades. In particular, we examine how employees themselves are coping within this system by leveraging from evidence in two key Australian aged care studies. As part of this examination, we evaluate the purported strategies for the future, which were brought to light through the most recent Royal Commission of Inquiry. The chapter concludes with considerations for the future of aged care and the effective delivery of its services.

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