When will 'power to the people' be the dominant service-delivery paradigm?

In Aurukun on Cape York, Indigenous families have taken an initiative based on similar principles to deal with alcohol and financial issues. As welfare beneficiaries, the families have negotiated payment of their benefits to an Indigenous credit union, with individually negotiated allocations of money going to education, savings, and daily living expenses. This Family Income Management Scheme has cut spending on alcohol drastically in this previously alcohol-ravaged community.

In Noosa, a non-school community organisation, Noosa Youth Services, has undertaken the management of a state secondary school on a trial basis. This is effectively a "charter school" where control of the school is given to a community organisation with a licence to act independently in educating a mix of students with social and behavioural difficulties along with mainstream students. The school is developing projects and employment opportunities around the environment theme in partnership with businesses and institutions, with a wide variety of community mentoring and voluntary engagement in the school.

The emerging new paradigm in human services is being built around these grass-roots innovations. It shifts the focus away from standardised supply-side delivery to demand-side personalised services accessed for consumers/users by their agents in securing their preferred services. It involves a consumer-directed flow of resources held on their behalf by a budget-holder of their choice. The focus for participation, innovation and decision-making in this paradigm shifts from the provider agency to the end-user or consumer.

Why, then, does the policy debate lag far behind these grass-roots innovations? Part of the answer is that there are no organised consumer voices in education, health and welfare that command serious national attention: all the public voices in these areas are provider voices, and the provider voices have a vested interest in the supply-side delivery paradigm. Budget night discussions have always featured ACOSS, the AMA and a university vice-chancellor or a teacher union - but never a consumer.

The other part of the answer is that the vitally important discussion around social capital and voluntarism has yet to be joined to social policy reform. Education, health and welfare reform should be directed in ways that build social capital, and that means breaking up "top down" bureaucratic structures, empowerment of consumers and communities, and devolution.

The old service-delivery paradigm is one of the key obstacles to civic engagement, responsibility, and reciprocity at grassroots levels of our society. It's time politicians caught up with the wave of the future.