Tasmania's Community Services Industry: Sustainability and Market Failure Risk

Overall, we found that the industry is under considerable financial pressure and that there is significant risk being faced by service users and governments as a result. Additionally, we find that the data required to ensure transparency and good governance, both from a government perspective and a general community perspective, is not available. While we are able to assess those charities that have a head office in Tasmania, the results discussed herein are likely to be conservative as we were unable to access the full picture which means that government, the industry and the community cannot plan or respond to change effectively.

FINDING 1:

Overall, we find that the industry is not financially healthy, and that this situation poses a significant and potentially costly risk to all Tasmanians.

FINDING 2:

There is a need for the ongoing timely collection of quality data that will assist governments, policy makers and others to understand the relative sustainability of the sector. Such a process should be appropriately resourced so that a representative sample of social service organisations are able to contribute their data for analysis thus building transparency and increasing our understanding of sustainability, value for money and service mix attributes.

Service Mix Change
Overall, the analysis led us to discover that, between 2018 and 2020, the following indicators of change in service mix were identified:

•Tasmania’s charity sector grew 5.28% or by 88 organisations
•This growth was predominantly in the Extra Small category with growth also experienced in the Large and Extra Large categories
•Employment numbers grew by 7.7%
•There was reduction reported in the number of activities undertaken by Tasmania’s charities indicative of a contraction in the service mix
•There was upward movement in beneficiary types reported. When analysed against the number of programs reported, it seems that the number of beneficiaries served by Large and Extra Large charities increased while the number of beneficiary types served by Extra Small, Small and Medium charities sizes reduced significantly

The above changes are suggestive of an unplanned reduction in the industry service mix reported.

FINDING 3:

The analysis demonstrates that it is highly likely that the service mix contracted over the period examined. This contraction was unplanned and likely representative of service failure in the form of unmet need.
Contribution to State Employment
The service analysis is reinforced by the analysis of the employment contribution reported by charities with head offices registered in Tasmania. Specifically, during the period 2018 to 20202 we found Tasmania’s charities sector reported:

•Increased the numbers of permanently employed staff by 9% (part time ↑10.6% & full time ↑6%)
•Decreased casual staff by 2% indicates a slight increase in job quality attributes reported
•Total volunteer numbers fell by 14.4% while the cost/benefit ratio remained stable at 3.5:1

FINDING 4:

Job quality has improved slightly during the period under review likely as a result of social service organisations responding to significant recruitment and retention challenges. Total employee numbers rose by 5.28% while total volunteers declined by 14.4%, further reinforcing the likelihood of service mix contraction between 2018 and 2020.

Financial Sustainability
Sustainability in financial terms is a critical element in maintaining service mix sustainability at the individual organisation and industry levels. As a result of our analysis of data for the 2018 to 2020 financial years, we found:

•About 58.77% of charities’ income came from government sources
•Tasmanian charities paid $9m of its own money in order to deliver more services
•Expenditure grew 26% faster than income
•Aggregate profitability fell by 10.5%
•54% of charities failed to maintain financial parity with Tasmania’s Health CPI

FINDING 5:
The analysis showed definitively that costs are rising and income is not keeping pace with expenditure. Pricing is inadequate with Tasmanian charities paying $9m to deliver additional services to the state in 2020. That is, they made a loss delivering these additional services. Aggregate profitability fell by 10.5% and 54% of charities failed to keep pace with the Tasmanian Health CPI. Financial pressure on the industry is significant.