Paid Care in Australia

Care for Australia's children and elderly is provided in a mixed economy, in which for-profit providers are playing an increasingly important role alongside more traditional government and non-government organisations. Does the growth of for-profit provision affect the quality of services or of jobs in paid care? Does it change the political dynamics of the social care sector in contemporary welfare states? How might service users, their families, and organisations work together to sustain and improve the quality of care services? What theories and evidence help us to understand the process and consequences of the shift toward for-profit provision of social care? In nine chapters by leading researchers, this book explores these and other questions, to inform policy and practice in this key field of social policy.

Debra King is an associate professor of sociology at Flinders University.

Gabrielle Meagher is a professor of social policy at Macquarie University.

About the authors
Preface and acknowledgements

1. Introduction: politics, profits and practices in child and aged care
   Debra King and Gabrielle Meagher
2. The political economy of for-profit paid care: theory and evidence
   Gabrielle Meagher and Natasha Cortis
3. For-profit organisations in managed markets for human services
   Bob Davidson
4. Outsourcing of elder care services in Sweden: effects on work environment and political legitmacy
   Rolf Å. Gustafsson and Marta Szebehely
5. Caring for profit? The impact of for-profit providers on the quality of employment in paid care
   Debra King and Bill Martin
6. Blurred boundaries: how paid careworkers and care managers negotiate work relationships
   Jane Mears
7. Parents as consumers of early childhood education and care: the feasibility of demand-led improvements to quality
   Jennifer Sumsion and Joy Goodfellow
8. Improving quality in Australian child care: the role of the media and non-profit providers
   Bronwen Dalton and Rachel Wilson
9. The giant in the playground: investigating the reach and implications of the corporatisation of child care provision
   Frances Press and Christine Woodrow

'The editors of Paid Care in Australia: Politics, Profits, Practices set out an ambitious agenda: to explore in‐depth the processes and consequences of the shift to for‐profit provision of social care. The text focuses primarily on Australia, though in several of the chapters, the authors make comparisons to similarly situated highly industrialised countries, specifically the United States and Sweden. The editors substantially achieve their goal in this timely and thorough examination.'
Mary Carlsen   Health and Social Care in the Community

Format: paperback
Size: 210 × 148 × 16 mm
266 pages
15 b&w illustrations and 20 b&w tables
ISBN: 9781920899295
Publication: 10 Dec 2008