This book emerged from the second symposium of the Australian Paid Care Research Network, which we co-convened in November 2007. The symposium included papers from academic researchers and presentations from industry experts. The theme of ‘for-profit provision of paid care’ built on an earlier workshop that focused on more general issues relating to paid care. (Papers from the earlier workshop have been published in a special issue of the Australian Journal of Social Issues, volume 42, number 2.)
The focus on for-profit provision of care acknowledged the significance of the expansion of the private sector into social service provision, to the extent that, in sectors such as child care and residential aged care, for-profit providers are now major players. This development raises some fundamental questions about the goals and capacities of the social service system in Australia, which the symposium sought to canvass and debate.
Debate at the symposium was enriched by the participation of a diverse audience, which included academic researchers from a variety of disciplines, representatives from unions, peak bodies and government, and providers of paid care (from for-profit and non-profit) services. There was little doubt that the issues we discussed were relevant to those providing paid care and making policy on care provision, and the opportunity to air them in a public forum was valuable. The array of interests in paid care is reflected in the book, chapters of which were first presented as papers at the symposium. (The original papers have undergone a rigorous process of review and revision by the editors and anonymous referees.)
Although the symposium placed no boundaries around the sector of paid care to be discussed, it eventuated that the papers presented focused on two sectors: child care and aged care. This is not entirely surprising, since it is in these two care sectors that for-profit provision xivhas been most prominent, and we have maintained this dual focus in the book.
We would like to thank the Social Policy Research Network of the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney for sponsoring the symposium and the publication of the book. Sponsorship for the publication of the book was also received from the National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University. We are grateful to a number of people who helped us to bring the book to fruition. Maria Bruzzese and James Burke of the Division of Professional Learning in the Faculty of Education and Social Work assisted with organising the symposium. The referees, who provided careful, constructive feedback on the chapters, have contributed significantly. Assistance with copyediting of the final manuscript was provided by Denise Thompson. Thanks are also warmly extended to Sydney University Press, to Susan Murray-Smith, for her confidence in the project and to Agata Mrva-Montoya for her very patient, competent and efficient work with us on the manuscript.
Debra King and Gabrielle Meagher