Could it happen to us? Government approaches to learning from the Robodebt crisis
Could it happen to us? Government approaches to learning from the Robodebt crisis

The literature on policy diffusion is replete with examples, theories and frameworks about how ‘good’ policy travels. Many industries (such as healthcare and air transport) are built around learning from others’ mistakes and near-misses. Yet in public policy, the literature is more despondent about the ability of lessons from crises to successfully travel. This is the issue that Dr Maria Maley and I explore in Robodebt and the limits of learning: exploring meaning-making after a crisis

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Policy and governancePower to PersuadeLearning, public service, Government
The Quiet Crisis: Challenges, changes and co-production to hear the voices of healthcare staff
The Quiet Crisis: Challenges, changes and co-production to hear the voices of healthcare staff

In complex healthcare systems, staff voice is vital for ensuring healthcare professionals and service providers uphold safe, ethical and high-quality care. When staff are unable to voice concerns about patient safety or their own wellbeing, mistakes and misconduct are more likely to go unaddressed, allowing scandals to happen or last longer. Organisations such as the National Health Service (NHS) have been long aware of these risks and currently use “speaking up” policies to combat the silencing or neglect of staff concerns. After 9 years of speaking up policy many NHS staff still find themselves unheard or silenced. Now, the U.K. government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which oversees the NHS, proposes new plans to remove these existing policies and introduce new staff voice policy under the NHS Fit for the Future strategy (NHS England, 2025). In this blog post Sukhwinder Essie Kaur unpacks the failings of Speaking Up and explores how co-production research may be a key player in designing new policies and mechanism that better support NHS staff to voice their concerns.

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Creating using evidence, Issues, Policy and governance, Advocacy, 21stC Policy and RightsPower to PersuadePolicy making, Policy Research, healthcare
Is more mental health awareness really what we need? 

Is more mental health awareness really what we need? 


The boom in mental health awareness can be seen all around us – from branded ad campaigns (think Maybelline’s “Brave Together”) to celebrities and movies addressing mental health issues (think Prince Harry; Joker) – it’s hard to avoid content urging us to be knowledgeable of what mental health struggles are like, and to be unafraid to come forward and talk about them.  However, alongside this wave of heightened awareness has been an enormous rise in rates of mental health diagnosis. Anxiety, depression, ADHD and autism rates have all risen substantially for UK youth in the last 20 years, according to one study by Cybulski et al. (2021), and many other studies report similar findings from around the world. So, in this post, Shayna Weisz asks ‘what is going on?’ 

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Issues, Lived experience, AdvocacyPower to Persuademental health
Police contact deaths for those with poor mental health
Police contact deaths for those with poor mental health

The role played by the police in our wider mental health system has never been truly resolved. In both Australia and the United Kingdom, as across the world, discussion is at its most intense when considering police contact deaths involving those of us affected by our mental health. In this blog, Michael Brown explores the complex issues behind tragic outcomes and starts to think about how to embed “lessons learned” into policy.

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21stC Policy and Rights, Creating using evidence, Human Rights, Policy and governancePower to Persuadepublic policy, police, mental health
Measuring the hidden costs of disability in Australia
Measuring the hidden costs of disability in Australia

Australians with disability and their families are well aware that living with disability can be very expensive – and yet our national poverty statistics and indicators do not take account of the hidden costs and earning barriers of being disabled in Australia. In their new article for a special issue of the Australian Economic Review, Sue Olney and Sophie Yates discuss the links between disability and poverty. They also explore why we need to think about using both monetary and non-monetary indicators (drawing on the knowledge of people with lived experience of both disability and poverty) to capture the full picture of inequality between people with and without disability in Australia.

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Finance and economicsPower to PersuadeDisability, Poverty, Wealth inequality
Connection and stories as a model for empowering communities
Connection and stories as a model for empowering communities

In this post, Karina Harback shows why “Inspire Connections” offers more than just time with horses—it’s a striking example of what becomes possible when communities are empowered to respond creatively to children’s needs. Partly funded by Communities for Children in Southern Tasmania, this equine-facilitated learning program shows how intelligent support can unlock locally driven, strengths-based initiatives. As a teacher and Equine Facilitated Learning Practitioner, Karina continually adapts the program to create a responsive, safe, and relational space where students develop emotional regulation, self-awareness, and confidence—skills often out of reach in traditional classrooms. At its heart, this is a story about what happens when community, care, and connection come together - and why enabling place-based responses is key to supporting all children to thrive.

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Lived experience, Innovation, Community engagement, Service DeliveryPower to PersuadeEquine-facilitated learning, Community, Learning with horses, Children
No Wrong Door: Why Every Family Deserves a Wendy in the First 1,000 Days
No Wrong Door: Why Every Family Deserves a Wendy in the First 1,000 Days

Bernadette Black AM, CEO and Founder of SEED Futures, shares her deeply personal journey from teenage motherhood to national systems change advocate. Reflecting on the transformative impact of one woman’s care and belief in her, she makes a powerful case for reimagining the way Australia supports families in their earliest, most vulnerable days. With warmth and urgency, Black argues that kindness must not depend on chance—it must be built into the system. Through SEED Futures and the Incremental Reform Catalogue, she offers a clear, practical path to make that vision real.

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Lived experience, Service Delivery, Policy and governance, Issues, Human Rights, Gender, 21stC Policy and Rights, AdvocacyPower to PersuadeSEED Futures, Family support, 1000 days, Young parent, Incremental Reform Catalogue, National Primary Preventative Framework
What counts as learning? Rethinking out-of-school time with Children’s University
What counts as learning? Rethinking out-of-school time with Children’s University

In a world where even after-school chess is expected to polish a child’s critical thinking résumé, the pressure to prove every moment's utility has reshaped how we talk about education. But what if children themselves have a different idea? This post by Megan Lang explores how Children’s University challenges narrow definitions of learning, and what happens when we start listening to children’s own accounts of joy, curiosity, and connection beyond the classroom.

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Education, Lived experience, Community engagementPower to PersuadeLearning, Children, Children's University, Participation, Evaluation