Regional Commissioner's foreword

I’m pleased to share with you the Ministry of Social Development’s 2009/2010 Regional Plan for the Nelson, Marlborough and West Coast Region.

Employment, helping young people to thrive, keeping kids safe and ensuring value for money are our four key priorities for the coming year.

This year we will be making sure employment is within the reach of those without a job. Our services will focus on supporting jobseekers to get and sustain work.

We are stepping up our services to employers. We provide vacancy management services which give us opportunities to match people to jobs. We are also encouraging employers to contact us when they have recruiting opportunities and to contact us as early as possible when staff reductions are unavoidable. We’ll be responding with urgency to make sure people receive the advice, support and financial assistance they need, as soon as they need it.

This year the Ministry will also support social service organisations providing a range of services and including budget education and financial management programmes to help families to better manage their resources.

We want to operate in the most effective and efficient way possible. Our communities need to know we are delivering value for money. But we will not compromise our service. We are working to remove unnecessary administration so our case managers can spend more time helping those who need our help. We anticipate the demand for our services will increase in the coming year and we have planned to meet our staffing needs and to manage our increased workload.

This plan outlines some steps the Ministry will take to support the region through change. We are confident that, by working with a determined effort and with partners who want to make a positive difference, we will be well placed to help individuals, families and communities.

Our ability to make a positive difference in our region reflects our strong  partnerships. I want to acknowledge the government and community agencies, councils, the business community, and iwi and runanga that are also keen to foster positive change. Special acknowledgement must go to our staff, the people who put our plan into action and who are committed to providing a professional service.

Janine Dowding
Regional Commissioner
for Social Development