Prof. Tony Vinson

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  www.catholicsocialservices.org.au/node/977 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/28/2007    Last Visited: 10/30/2007  

  They should compel sustained remedial action," said Professor Tony Vinson, researcher and author of the report.
  
  "Services including post natal outreach, parenting support programs, children's diagnostic services, and adolescent health services can and do make a huge difference to the well being of the most vulnerable communities.And accessible, affordable community transport is essential if people are to take advantage of available services," Professor Vinson said.
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  PROFESSOR TONY VINSON

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  www.socialpolicy.org/index.php?id=1878 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/11/2008    Last Visited: 9/25/2008  

  This article documents their most successful campaign - a two year Independent Inquiry into Public Education, led by Emeritus Professor Tony Vinson.
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  The Independent Inquiry (often called the Vinson Inquiry, named after the Inquiry's head Tony Vinson) was organized through a tight formal partnership between the NSWTF and its key parent ally, the Federation of Parents & Citizens (the P&C).According to the union, this Public Education Coalition:
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  These representatives appointed the Inquiry head, Tony Vinson, an Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, who had previous experience in reviewing government services.He established a separate organization to undertake the Inquiry, with its own offices and a research team.He had access to discretionary funds provided mainly by the NSWTF's Public Education Fund, but were also complemented with contributions from the P&C.
  
  The Inquiry's independent status gave it authority within government and amongst the partner groups.Vinson independently sought out a constructive relationship with the ALP Government and the Department of Education and Training, requesting their support as a condition for the Inquiry proceeding.
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  I contacted the schools, I contacted the media … I picked him up, Tony we're going over to this school, now we're going to visit the Area News … At 11, you have a television interview with WIN … And then we're visiting another school and by the way, we have got a meeting at the RSL Club this afternoon at 6 o'clock, and we've invited the P&C and local parents and community groups (author interview, Irving: NSWTF, 2005).
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  Furthermore, the separate structure that Tony Vinson created assisted to build relationships between the organizations and with government.
  
  Secondly, the alliance was based on the common concern of parents, principals and teachers for public education.

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  www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=1&newsstory - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/15/2005    Last Visited: 3/4/2007  

  Tony Vinson | MoreNews & Events - The University of Sydney
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  Policy development should be targeted to the communities suffering the greatest disadvantage, said Professor Vinson.Policy development should be targeted to the communities suffering the greatest disadvantage, said Professor Vinson.
  
  Extreme social disadvantage in Australia is concentrated in a small number of locations, according to the University of Sydney's Professor Tony Vinson.
  
  The report, the most comprehensive national study of its kind, finds that 1.7 per cent of postcodes and communities across Australia are more than seven times more likely than average to hold top rank positions on the major factors that cause intergenerational poverty.
  
  "Our findings demand recognition of a common pattern associated with inadequate education and training - unemployment, low income, poor health and 'making ends meet' by criminal means, resulting in high rates of convictions and imprisonment.Where these characteristics are concentrated there, too, we find high levels of confirmed child maltreatment," said Professor Vinson.
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  It is the third in a series of reports on the issue written by Professor Vinson.
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  Policy development should be targeted to the communities suffering the greatest disadvantage, said Professor Vinson.

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  www.usyd.edu.au/news/83.html?newscategoryid=9 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/27/2005    Last Visited: 3/4/2007  

  Disadvantaged areas need comprehensive community-building programs lasting at least seven or eight years, Professor Tony Vinson will argue in a speech at Parliament House Canberra today.More
  
  A web of disadvantage26 February 2007Tony VinsonExtreme social disadvantage in Australia is concentrated in a small number of locations, according to the University of Sydney's Professor Tony Vinson.More

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  www.news.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=2175 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/14/2007    Last Visited: 9/6/2008  

  For these children, the circle seems closed," says Professor Tony Vinson.
  
  Two years ago Tony Vinson embarked on a national project to map the distribution of factors leading to social disadvantage in Australia.The project, called "Dropping off the Edge", is a key step in acknowledging the country's incredibly uneven social ecology, says Professor Vinson.
  
  His research found, for example, that 2.1 per cent of Victorian postcodes account for 25 per cent of Victorians jailed over the course of a year.His work has helped bring about a national Social Inclusion Unit, a think tank of social and economic experts that aims to connect the Government's social policies with economic feasibility.
  
  But when Professor Vinson speaks about his findings, it's clear that this is more than just a research project."For me, there's one burning social justice issue that Australians cannot afford to forget," he says.
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  After a five-year stint as a parole officer, Vinson became a tutor in sociology at UNSW.From there he moved up the academic ladder, gaining lecturing positions at UNSW and then at the University of Sydney.His career, though, has also been concerned with practical outcomes.One of the first social policy projects he contributed to was as Foundation Director of the Bureau of Crime Research and Statistics.In this role, he was responsible for establishing a system to record and analyse court statistics for the first time in New South Wales history.
  
  The system - still in place today - was more than just a database of facts and figures.Rather, it provided valuable information about the intersection of social variables and crime statistics.For Professor Vinson, one of the most rewarding aspects of collating the data was the ability to see the effects of social disadvantage on crime rates.
  
  "By setting up a system of social variables we were able to generate crime reports that focused on social factors.For example, we found that at the time, around 30 per cent of people being jailed in NSW prisons were vagrant, homeless drunks.The futility of the 'revolving door' - that is, the cyclical nature of being in and out of prison for these people - had been acknowledged almost a century before - but we were the first to gather the data to address the problem effectively."
  
  From 1979 to 1981, Vinson chaired a Royal Commission on prisons.Charged with the task of "humanising" the prison system, he set about making almost 200 recommended changes."The system was just barbarous and consisted of a great many things that embarrassed the social consciences of everyday citizens," he says.
  
  Today, most of the changes that Vinson and his team instituted are liberties that prisoners take for granted.
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  To this end, Vinson established prisoners' forums, improved prison lighting, and introduced sniffer dogs into prisons.These changes, he says, also improved conditions for prison guards.However, many saw the overhaul as too liberal.
  
  "Almost none of the changes we implemented were taken seriously - and even fewer were welcomed.By the end of the three years, though, the media had divided itself into two camps: a rather large contingent who thought we'd 'gone soft' on prison reform, and a smaller lot who thought, 'Thank God this is finally happening'."
  
  In the past decade, Vinson has turned his attention to disadvantaged children and social ecology.The 2002 Vinson Inquiry reviewed the quality of public education in New South Wales - a feat not tackled since the Wyndham Inquiry of the 1950s.Vinson and his team of researchers visited 200 public schools across the state, including those in regions as remote as Broken Hill.
  
  "Some of the findings were just astounding.We discovered that, on average, school counsellors had about 1000 kids under their care.But once we released that information, I'm pleased to say that another 130 counsellors were employed and dispatched to NSW schools.
  
  "We also increased the Professional Development Allowance for teachers from $30 to $700 annually, and were able to reduce class sizes from kindergarten to Year 2."
  
  Professor Vinson, a robust-looking 72, shows no signs of quitting.
  
  His latest raison d'être - freeing highly disadvantaged children from the cycle of poverty and neglect - occupies his time and his conscience.And though he's hopeful that the new Labor Government will make good on its promise to improve social justice, Vinson's not one to leave the hard work to others.

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  asu-sant.asn.au/news/1211507206_19073.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/23/2008    Last Visited: 9/17/2008  

  Other members of the Board include KPMG's Global Healthcare practice leader Patricia Faulkner as Chair, Catholic Priest and Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Adelaide Monsignor David Cappo as Vice Chair, Chief Executive Officer of the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council Dr John Falzon, former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley, media figure and President of the Collingwood Football Club Eddie Maguire and University of NSW Emeritus Professor Tony Vinson.

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  taree.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=g - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/2/2007    Last Visited: 3/2/2007  

  'Dropping Off The Edge', published on Monday by Tony Vinson, emeritus professor of social work at the University of NSW, examines social indicators for 647 postcodes in NSW, 726 in Victoria and 768 in other states.
  
  While Taree, Harrington and Forster appear (in no particular order) in NSW's 40 most disadvantaged, Kempsey is singled out as one of the 12 poorest in Australia, along with neighbouring Bowraville, and also the Newcastle suburb of Windale.
  
  Professor Vinson labels them as areas of 'high national priority', saying the economic boom has failed to improve residents' lives, leaving them locked into communities of deep disadvantage.
  
  Along with Taree, Harrington and Forster in the State's worst, he classifies centres including Brewarrina, Lightning Ridge.Casino, Urunga, Wellington, Nambucca Heads, Tweed Heads, Walgett, Kurri Kurri, Toukley, Wilcannia, Boggabilla, Lake Cargelligo, South West Rocks, Tenterfield, Bourke, Broken Hill, Iluka, Inverell, Mount Druitt, Sawtell and Warrawong.
  
  "People's lives have not been favourably touched by the income growth and employment rates of the majority of the society," he says in a Sydney Morning Herald report.
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  Professor Vinson used as indicators the towns' unemployment rates, household income, educational qualifications, computer use, child maltreatment and domestic violence.He named Kempsey as among the most disadvantaged five per cent of NSW postcodes for rates of domestic violence, disability/sickness pensioners, prison and psychiatric admissions.

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  northernstar.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyID= - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/27/2007    Last Visited: 4/6/2007  

  CASINO, Bonalbo, Coraki and Woodenbong are named as disadvantaged areas in a report by University of NSW emeritus professor Tony Vinson.

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  www.usyd.edu.au/news/83.html?newscategoryid=8 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/27/2005    Last Visited: 3/4/2007  

  Tony VinsonExtreme social disadvantage in Australia is concentrated in a small number of locations, according to the University of Sydney's Professor Tony Vinson.More

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  www.socialinclusion.gov.au/inclusion_board.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/29/2008    Last Visited: 6/29/2008  

  Professor Tony Vinson Emeritus Professor (UNSW) and Honorary Professor (University of Sydney) Tony Vinson has worked with disadvantaged communities to strengthen the problem solving capacities of individuals and groups.Since the mid-1960s, he has researched the priority needs of communities and has taught social workers and trainee doctors how to work effectively with them.Tony has extensive experience researching social disadvantage, which culminated in his book Dropping Off the Edge (2007), on the distribution of social disadvantage in Australia.He has direct involvement in community development projects, was Chair of the Independent Inquiry into NSW Public Education in 2002, a Foundation Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics in the 1970s, and one-time Head of the NSW Department of Corrective Services.

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