Recommendation
21. Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of regional social services and infrastructure by developing regional social services and infrastructure models that are more responsive to the changing needs of communities across regional WA, including those caused by population growth and decline, by:
- applying integrated, place-based approaches that allow social service state agencies such as health, education, justice, policing, housing and emergency services to better coordinate and co-locate services and infrastructure and ensure the service mix is tailored to changing community needs
- investigating the application of a hub-and-spoke approach aligned to WA’s settlement network to coordinate social services and infrastructure
- piloting potential regional social service and infrastructure models in a remote Aboriginal community, a small town and a regional centre
- undertaking a social services and infrastructure needs assessment to understand how needs will change in response to long-term population growth and decline and demographic change.
The WA Government responded to Foundation for a stronger tomorrow in February 2023. Recommendation 21 is partially supported. For further information please refer to the response document.