Raising an umbrella organization?: Countering government and industry neglect of professionals

As professional bodies representing workers and educators in the field of social and community services, we need to stand united against a tendency to ignore or dismiss us by some representatives of government and industry. The Productivity Commission report on the research into Australia's Health Workforce emphasised the increasing blurring of roles, but ignored the great overlap between health and community services work in its proposal for over-arching health accreditation and regulation boards. In this paper Negative Licensing is suggested as an alternative to additional regulation of professions. A broad concept of ‘professional’ is used as a basis for a proposed umbrella network involving the whole community services sector. This could counter neglect by government bodies and provide a focus for resources, identity and organisation within the sector.