Summary
Australia's welfare is the AIHW's biennial report that presents reliable information on population factors that underpin the demand for welfare services, welfare spending and the composition of the community services workforce. This report examines the welfare of Australians through the life course, starting at childhood, then moving through youth to working age and the later years of growing older.
This edition combines analytical feature articles on a variety of contemporary welfare issues with short statistical snapshots following a life-course approach.
It covers:
- understanding welfare
- Australia's welfare spending and workforce
- child wellbeing
- young people
- working age
- growing older
- diversity and disadvantage in Australia
- indicators of Australia's welfare.
Both Australia's welfare 2015, and Australia's welfare 2015—in brief are available to purchase in hard-copy, as PDF downloads free of charge, and in HTML formats.
Additional material includes educational resources, supplementary tables and feature articles and snapshots.
1. Understanding welfare
- Introduction
- Welfare in Australia
- Who we are
2. Australia's welfare spending and workforce
- Introduction
- Welfare expenditure
- Labour force participation in Australia
- The changing face of the welfare workforce
- Informal carers
- Volunteering
3. Child wellbeing (0-14)
- Introduction
- The role of the family in child wellbeing
- Children in child care and preschool programs
- Transition to primary school
- How are our children faring at school?
- Adoptions in Australia
- Child protection in Australia
- Young people aged 10–14 under youth justice supervision
- Wellbeing of Indigenous children
- Closing the gap in Indigenous education
- Children with disability
4. Young people (15–24)
- Introduction
- Pathways through education and training
- School retention and completion
- Apprenticeships and traineeships
- Tertiary education
- Opposite ends of the spectrum—participation of young people in education and work
- Transitions to independence
- How are young Australians coping?
- Vulnerable young people (aged 15–24)
5. Working age (25–64)
- Introduction
- The welfare of our working-age population
- Who is looking after our children?
- Home alone
- Bricks and mortar-changing trends in home ownership
- Working-age support: financial assistance for families with children
- Working-age support: assistance with employment and training
- Working-age support: housing assistance
- Labour force participation of people with disability
- Older Australians staying at work
6. Growing older
- Introduction
- Australians aged 85 years and over
- Ageing and the welfare system: pressures, opportunities and responses
- Older Australians and the use of aged care
- Mental health of older Australians
- Palliative care: a welfare perspective
7. Diversity and disadvantage in Australia
- Introduction
- How are Indigenous Australians faring?
- How are people with mental illness faring?
- A profile of people with disability
- The diversity of Australia's homeless population
- Domestic and family violence
8. Indicators of Australia's welfare
End matter: Methods and conventions; Acknowledgments; Symbols; Acronyms and Abbreviations; Glossary; Index