ABSTRACT
The policy and funding landscape in which regional, rural and remote social work operates includes a patchwork of federal, state/territory and local government funding programmes, focus areas and decision-making bodies. A number of reviews and studies have provided evidence for, and recommended the development of, an integrated system including a range of linked service design options (Hunter, 2007; Wakerman et al., 2008), local place-based decision-making (Lenette and Ingamells, 2014) or even regional policy and governance structures (Brown and Bellamy, 2010) and more holistic services which account for local cultural and contextual factors (Alston, 2007a; Cheers and Taylor, 2005). However, the implementation of policy across regional, rural and remote communities continues to pose significant challenges for social workers and other human service and health professionals working outside urban Australia.
