Around the turn of the millennium, Australia began a profound societal transformation. The nation moved away from exclusion to inclusion in how we manage mental illness, intellectual disability, autism, addiction, and behavioural disorders.
For most of the 20th century, people with complex mental health or behavioural needs were often locked away. Institutions became a catch-all response for anyone who didn’t fit society’s narrow norms, whether due to mental illness, neurodivergence, trauma, addiction, or developmental challenges. These facilities were often punitive, isolating, and prison-like.
By the early 2000s, public sentiment and policy began to shift. Australia started dismantling its large-scale institutions, favouring inclusion over isolation. The intent was to reintegrate those previously marginalized back into community life – into homes, workplaces, and most notably, schools.
Schools on the Front Line
With the closure of mental health and disability institutions, schools became the de facto support system for many children and young people with complex needs. Education, perhaps our most flexible and adaptive social institution, took on a role it was never designed or funded to fulfil.
Children with trauma histories, behavioural disorders, neurodivergence, or undiagnosed mental illness were now part of everyday classrooms. Teachers suddenly found themselves grappling with challenges far beyond the academic – managing dysregulation, family instability, poverty, and unmet health needs, all without the specialized training or support such situations require.
As mental health systems grew more rigid, often only admitting those in acute crisis, young people who didn’t meet strict diagnostic thresholds were left in limbo. Many were caught between overstretched child protection agencies, underfunded youth mental health services, and police response units. Some ended up in insecure housing or on the streets. Many more showed up at school each day carrying invisible burdens that teachers had no means to unpack.
Inclusion Without Infrastructure
The philosophy of inclusion is not just a noble idea – it is a legal and moral imperative. But when inclusion isn’t matched with investment, training, and inter-agency collaboration, it becomes a burden for frontline workers and a disservice to those it intends to help.
This is the dilemma facing our education system today. Statistics reported by the Australian Catholic University regarding principal health, safety and wellbeing in 2024 reveal an alarming 53% signaling their intention to leave the profession. Schools are absorbing the social fallout of institutional closure without the systemic recalibration needed to support it. The question isn’t whether schools should be inclusive, but how we equip them to meet this unprecedented level of complexity.
The more complex the need, the more multi-system support is required. These cases often involve overlapping jurisdiction from education, child protection, justice, and health. And with this complexity comes higher risks – violence, legal threats, complaints, and burnout among school leaders and staff.
Educators are being asked to make decisions with legal, ethical, and clinical implications – often without access to the information or the attendant authority. Misunderstandings between systems, unclear boundaries, and disputes over responsibility are now common features of daily school life.
This is where bower(schools)™ and bower(note)™ come in.
A New Approach: bower(schools)™ and the bower(note)™ Protocol
Developed by the team at Bower Place, bower(schools)™ addresses both whole-school complexity and the acute needs of individual students in crisis. bower(schools)™ trains schools in a structured, contractual, and protocol-driven approach designed specifically to support schools in managing multi-system, multi-problem complexity and crisis. It addresses both whole-school challenges and individual student crises, bringing order, protection, and clarity to a system under stress.
At its core is bower(note)™ – a comprehensive word-and-image communication and information protocol that enables schools to navigate inequality, information-sharing, boundaries, accountability, responsibility, authority, and disadvantage – all while enhancing engagement, participation, and inclusion.
What Makes bower(note)™ Unique?
bower(note)™ is not just another documentation tool. It is a multi-system, legally robust protocol grounded in State and Federal legislation and professional standards with a strong theoretical base. It is designed to protect schools and professionals while empowering families and students to participate in meaningful, transparent decision-making.
Key Features:
- Contemporaneous and Transparent Note-TakingEnsures everyone is on the same page – literally and legally. Every meeting, decision, and conversation is captured clearly and fairly.
- Clear Structure, Boundaries, and AccountabilityRoles and responsibilities are defined from the outset, reducing confusion and conflict.
- Manages Inequality and Promotes Real InclusionBy empowering citizens – students, families, and carers – to participate in decision-making, bower(note)™ addresses systemic inequality head-on.
- Eliminates Misunderstandings, Reduces Disputes and ComplaintsWith shared information and structured communication, many conflicts are avoided before they begin.
- Legally ProtectiveInformed by relevant legislation, the protocol prepares schools and individuals for any potential legal processes, ensuring due diligence and best practice.
- Adaptable and Multi-FunctionalFunctions as a general practice protocol, a crisis management protocol, and a supervision and leadership tool.
Real Outcomes for Schools
By embedding bower(note)™ into school practice, bower(schools)™ delivers tangible benefits:
- Saves money by reducing time lost to disputes, complaints, and inefficiencies
- Cuts administration time through streamlined, transparent documentation
- Builds educator and leadership confidence in managing complexity and behavioural dysregulation
- Improves inclusion by making participation real and equitable
- Reduces complaints by eliminating confusion and improving communication
- Ensures schools are legally prepared and professionally protected
Empowering School Leaders and Educators
In today’s inclusive education landscape, complexity is the new normal. bower(schools)™ equips leaders and educators with the confidence, knowledge, and skills to respond not only to behaviour and crisis but also to the systemic and legal realities that shape their decisions.
It bridges the gap between good intentions and effective, equitable practice – between overwhelmed staff and supportive systems.
Rebuilding Trust Between Citizens and Institutions
At the heart of Bower Place’s philosophy is a simple but powerful idea: inequality, justice, and fairness are at the heart of all human problems and symptoms and at the heart of all appropriate interventions and solutions. When systems ignore this, they fail. But when they acknowledge and work within this reality, real change becomes possible.
Inclusion requires systems, not slogans. It must be supported by practical tools and shared responsibility. bower(note)™ offers both – a structured, legally informed way for professionals to collaborate meaningfully, and for citizens to be active participants in shaping their own lives.
By transforming how information is shared, how decisions are made, and how professionals collaborate, bower(note)™ helps restore trust – and get better outcomes for children and families.
The Path Forward
To move forward, we must recalibrate our systems of education, health, care, and the family so that they work together, not in silos. Schools need tools, training, and legal scaffolding to navigate the complexity they now face every day.
bower(schools)™ is working in schools across Australia and the positive feedback and outcomes have been overwhelming. Across sectors; across primary, secondary and ELC; from leadership to wellbeing, to teachers, staff, parents and students; across vastly differing demographics; bower(schools)™ has met with acclaim.
bower(schools)™ and bower(note)™ offer a way to make that recalibration possible – grounded in fairness, built for complexity, and designed for real-world impact.
Book a free clarity call
Lisa Wolff, Director bower(schools)
Malcolm Robinson, Executive Director Bower Place
