Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to call for strong medical co-leadership in transforming the Australian health system. The paper discusses how Health LEADS Australia, the Australian health leadership framework, offers an opportunity to engage medical clinicians and doctors in the leadership of health services. Design/methodology/approach – The paper first discusses the nature of medical leadership and its associated challenges. The paper argues that medical leaders have a key role in the design, implementation and evaluation of healthcare reforms, and in translating these reforms for their colleagues. Second, this paper describes the origins and nature of Health LEADS Australia. Third, this paper discusses the importance of the goal of Health LEADS Australia and suggests the evidence-base underpinning the five foci in shaping medical leadership education and professional development. This paper concludes with suggestions on how Health LEADS Australia might be evaluated. Findings – For the well-being of the Australian health system, doctors need to play an important role in the kind of leadership that makes measurable differences in the retention of clinical professions; improves organisational cultures; enhances the engagement of consumers and their careers; is associated with better patient and public health outcomes; effectively addresses health inequalities; balances cost effectiveness with improved quality and safety; and is sustainable. Originality/value – This is the first article addressing Health LEADS Australia and medical leadership. Australia is actively engaging in a national approach to health leadership. Discussions about the mechanisms and intentions of this are valuable in both national and global health leadership discourses.

Purpose Leadership, and leadership development, in health and human services is essential. This review aims to draw conclusions from practice within the Australian context. Design/methodology/approach This review is an overview of health leadership development in Australia, with a particular focus on the implementation of the national health leadership framework, Health LEADS Australia (HLA). Findings Since its inception, the HLA has influenced the development of health leadership frameworks across the Australian states and territories. Both the National Health Leadership Collaboration and individuals with "boundary-spanning" roles across state government and the university sector have contributed to the development of collaborative online communities of practice and professional networks. Innovation has also been evident as the HLA has been incorporated into existing academic curricula and new professional development offerings. Ideas associated with distributed leadership, integral to the HLA, underpin both sets of actions. Practical implications The concept of a national health leadership framework has been implemented in different ways across jurisdictions. The range of alternative strategies (both collaborative and innovative) undertaken by Australian practitioners provide lessons for practice elsewhere. Originality/value This article adds to the body of knowledge associated with policy implementation and provides practical recommendations for the development and promotion of health leadership development programmes.

Housing has broader implications for families. Single mother families face many difficulties that make them more susceptible when encountering housing problems. By analyzing the content of a single mother Facebook group, this article describes a variety of housing insecurity issues experienced by single mother families in Australia, including unaffordable housing, struggles in the private rental market, high mobility, and homelessness. We observed some risk factors and protective factors at both individual level and structural level that intersect and mediate single mother families' experiences of these housing insecurity issues. A multidimensional framework is applied to analyze the complexity and fluidity of these factors. Psychosocial and group-based interventions can help single mother families manage stress and improve their adaptation to some housing insecurity issues. However, mountain-moving efforts to tackle structural problems are central and urgent to address these issues and to support single mothers and their children.