Social Policy Report: Definition, Impact, Youth Homelessness in NSW

This report provides an analysis of social policy, defining its core principles and impact on society, with a specific focus on youth homelessness in New South Wales (NSW). It examines the key actors involved in policy making, including government agencies, special interest groups, and legislators. The report emphasizes the importance of critical thinking in the formulation of social policies, particularly when addressing complex issues such as unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. It delves into the causes of youth homelessness, including demographic risk factors, family issues, and school-related problems, and presents an overview of the youth homelessness situation in NSW. Furthermore, it outlines the social policies implemented by the NSW government, such as the Rent Choice Youth Subsidy and investments in social housing and homelessness services. The report concludes by referencing relevant sources and provides a comprehensive understanding of social policy and its practical application.

SOCIAL POLICY
AND ITS
IMPLEMENTATION

 CONCEPTUALIXZATION
 FORMULATION
 IMPLEMENTATION

DEFINITION OF
SOCIAL POLICY
• Social policies are policies that are created at any
government setting such as the welfare state
(www.nsw.gov.au 2018).
• Social policies usually have guidelines, principles
and legislation that affect the conditions of human
living (Fischer and Miller 2017).
• These policies try to secure certain human needs
such as education, medical care, among others.
• Social policy examines the dissimilar roles of
governments, family, society, market, and
international administrations in providing facilities
and backing across the life from childhood to old
age (www.lse.ac.uk 2019).

People involved in policy
making
 There is a policy analysis community that usually make the
policies.
 These decisions are made under the influence of the lobbyist,
special advisors and investors.
 There are officials at the government agencies that make the
decision about the policies.
 Special interest groups also make the policies, these are the small
groups that have power to influence the decision taken up by the
members who make the policy.
 The final decision lies with the legislators who pass the policies in
the parliament.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL
POLICIES ON CRITICAL
THINKING
 Critical thinking is characterized by the comprehensive examination of
issues, artifacts, ideas and events before accepting or formulating an opinion
or conclusion.
 While creating social policies, it is important to encourage critical thinking
because these policies are created by the government to benefit the lives of
the general public, hence these issues such as unemployment,
homelessness, poverty need to thought upon before enacting any policy on
them.
 The social problems are complicated issues they impact the lives of many
but mostly the economically downtrodden groups.
 So while formulating these policies the intersectional groups have to think,
the way these policies have affected those groups.
 The policies are long term and because of these they need to implemented
in a proper manner so that in the long run they do not have a negative
impact on any group.

SOCIAL POLICY ON
YOUTH
HOMELESSNESS
IN
NEW SOUTH WALES

CAUSES OF YOUTH
HOMELESSNESS
The demographic risk factors for becoming homeless includes
being Hispanic or being a person of color (www.ncsl.org
2019)
There are risk of bad parenting or children coming for single
parent families.
Children belonging to the LGBTQ community also have the
risk being homeless.
Problems at school might lead a person to be homeless.
Sexual assault victims and consensual sexual activities might

Youth Homelessness in New
South Wales
In the year 2018, more than 18,108 young people were
homeless in the territory of New South Wales (Crawford
2014).
Some of the youth were living in unstable homes, did not
have proper place to sleep and were living in rough
conditions and they were not getting the proper support
that they need to continue their education.
There are a number of government sponsored services
that can be used by the homeless youth of New South
Wales (Chamberlain, Johnson and Robinson 2014).

SOCIAL POLICIES ON YOUTH HOMELESSNESS IN
NEW SOUTH WALES
 The government of New South Wales have implemented
“The Rent Choice Youth Subsidy”.
 The Rent Choice Youth helps the homeless in getting a
rent at the private market.
 Under the subsidy they pay rent which is 25% of their
income.
 In 2018-19, the Department of Family and Community
Services (FACS) are supposed to invest more than $1
billion in social housing and homelessness services.
 The Premier's Youth Initiative will model a new method
that funds vulnerable young people leaving out-of-home
care.

REFERENCE
S
Chamberlain, C., Johnson, G. and Robinson, C. eds., 2014.
Homelessness in Australia. UNSW Press.
Crawford, B., Yamazaki, R., Franke, E., Amanatidis, S., Ravulo, J.,
Steinbeck, K., Ritchie, J. and Torvaldsen, S., 2014. Sustaining
dignity? Food insecurity in homeless young people in urban
Australia. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 25(2), pp.71-78.
Fischer, F. and Miller, G.J. eds., 2017. Handbook of public policy
analysis: theory, politics, and methods. Routledge.
www.lse.ac.uk (2019). What is social policy?. [online] London School of
Economics and Political Science. Available at:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/social-policy/about-us/What-is-social-policy
[Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
www.ncsl.org (2019). Youth Homelessness Overview. [online] Ncsl.org.
Available at:
http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/homeless-and-
runaway-youth.aspx [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
www.nsw.gov.au (2018). Reducing youth homelessness. [online] NSW
Government. Available at:
https://www.nsw.gov.au/improving-nsw/premiers-priorities-2015-
2019/reducing-youth-homelessness/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].

THANK YOU