Community organisations across the ACT warn that rising burnout, pay inequity, and chronic underfunding threaten the sustainability of essential services, according to new research released by the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS).

ACTCOSS’s latest factsheet, Workforce and Wellbeing in the ACT Community Sector, draws on findings from the 2025 State of the ACT Community Sector Survey and paints a picture of a highly skilled but increasingly exhausted workforce.

The survey found 76 per cent of organisations reported staff exhaustion and burnout, while more than half of workers said they were personally experiencing emotional exhaustion.

Community sector workers earn, on average, more than $22,000 a year less than their ACT public sector counterparts, a gap that disproportionately affects women, who make up around three-quarters of the workforce.

ACTCOSS chief executive Dr Devin Bowles said the sector was being stretched to breaking point.

“Effectively, the government is relying on the goodwill of an underpaid, highly feminised workforce to keep delivering essential services under conditions of growing burnout,” he said.

“Staff are working unpaid hours every week just to keep services running because they can see the human cost of underinvestment in their clients. They are filling the government’s funding gaps.”

The survey found more than 80 per cent of respondents held a bachelor or postgraduate degree, reflecting the complexity of work supporting clients with overlapping needs such as housing insecurity, mental health challenges, family violence and trauma.

Demand for services is also rising sharply. Eighty-three per cent of organisations reported increased demand in 2024, more than half experiencing longer waiting times, and 52 per cent were unable to support some clients.

Dr Bowles said continued underinvestment risked broader consequences for the community.

“At a time when the ACT Government is investing billions in built infrastructure like tram extensions and theatres, our social infrastructure is fraying,” he said. “If the people who care for our community are burning out, the entire community is at risk.”

ACTCOSS is calling on the ACT Government to commit to fair and sustainable funding models, address pay and conditions inequities with the public sector, and invest in workforce wellbeing and retention.

In response, the ACT Government said it recognised cost-of-living pressures were increasing demand for community services. It pointed to more than $250 million in funding for not-for-profit community sector organisations in the 2025–26 Budget, along with a $10 million funding boost over two years to 140 organisations.

The government said it looked forward to considering the full State of the Community Sector Report when it is released later in 2025.

“We will continue working in partnership with the community sector to strengthen capacity to meet ongoing demand for community service supports.”

Peter Cain MLA, Shadow Minister for Community Services and Disability, said the findings showed a workforce “at breaking point”, and called on the government to address pay gaps, staffing shortages and burnout.

ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury MLA said the survey showed a sector in “survival mode” and urged the government to urgently deliver outcomes from a promised review of community sector funding. The Greens secured a review of community sector funding that accounts for growth in salaries, population and complexity of client need, and want to see the outcome now.

Independent MLA Thomas Emerson said it was unacceptable for workers to put in unpaid hours due to underinvestment, and has called for a sustainable funding model for the community sector.

“It’s no surprise that our community sector is under immense strain,” he said. “We can all see the growing gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in the ACT. A genuinely progressive jurisdiction would show more urgency in supporting the community sector in its work to keep Canberra from becoming a two-tiered society.”

Fellow independent Fiona Carrick said the findings highlighted the need for fair, sustainable funding and a plan to retain staff in the largely female workforce. “These are the people holding up the safety net for vulnerable Canberrans.”