Statement of Intent 2005 - Families and Whanau
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High Level Outcome
Families and whanau are strong and richly interconnected with their communities. They are able to support their members’ wellbeing, identity, participation in society and interdependence.
Context
Families’ role in social wellbeing
Strong families are central to achieving wellbeing for all New Zealanders, today and in the future. Government has an important role in supporting families to develop their strengths, and helping them to deal with challenges and adversity.
Our high-level and contributing outcomes for families and whanau are consistent with and overlap our outcomes for children and young people, and for communities, hapu and iwi. Our work in one area supports and builds on our work in another, and much of our work in these two outcome areas also helps to achieve the outcomes we want for families and whanau.
Family form and family resilience
There are many interpretations of the word ‘family’, and New Zealand families and whanau take many diverse forms. For most New Zealanders, ‘family’ means a kin-based group that includes parents, children, and other relatives, and often spans more than one generation.
Whatever the form of the family unit, its functions include providing wellbeing and protection for its members, particularly children and older people; and passing on knowledge, skills, cultural values, obligations, and property rights from one generation to the next.
Our work for families is about enabling families to be strong and resilient and supporting them to function well. Resilient families have good parenting and communication skills, and cope well with pressure and change.
The resilience of some families is put under strain by factors such as low income, debt and unemployment, family change and separation, and work and family demands. While most families cope well with these issues, others can find coping more difficult. Strong connected support that is easy to access and provides the right help at the right time is essential to helping these families cope.
Families today are characterised by:
- a decline in the rate of marriage
- high rates of single parenthood
- less differentiation in roles between the sexes
- greater numbers of “blended” or step families
- high rates of change as parents separate and repartner.
In 2001, 27% of all households were two-parent family households compared with 43% in 1976. At the same time one-parent family households doubled from 5% to 10%.
In terms of ethnicity Maori and Pacific one-parent households have increased dramatically. In 1976 Maori one-parent families made-up 7% of all Maori households, by 2001 this percentage had increased to 19%. For Pacific peoples the respective percentages are 5% in 1976 and 14% in 2001.
Our role
To support families to be strong and resilient and to provide for the wellbeing and protection of all their members, the Ministry:
- undertakes research on the wellbeing of families and the issues they face today and in the future
- provides policy advice on programmes that encourage the development of well-functioning, supportive families
- provides employment and social assistance services to help families provide for their members
- leads and co-ordinates services that support and strengthen families
- provides families with information about and access to family support services
- provides funding and support for community-based services that support parents and other family members, and work to prevent violence within families.
Over the next three years, we will also lead the interagency priority area of action in Opportunity for All New Zealanders, to prevent and reduce family violence, abuse and neglect.
Our focus for the next three years
In recent years, we have made significant advances in our work to build strong families.
We have developed and are implementing the Working for Families package of financial assistance for families. We have set up Family and Community Services (FACS) within the Ministry to lead and co-ordinate services for families. We have supported the establishment of the Families Commission, which advocates for the interests of families; and the Ministry of Youth Development, which provides policy advice on young people and youth development services.
These advances put us in a much stronger position to develop a strong continuum of effective services that provide the right support at the right time to families.
Providing these services will require us to address current capacity issues within the child and family services area, and make significant investment in the following areas.
Strengthening early intervention for vulnerable children and families
The early years of a child’s life are the most important for their development, and are also when a child is most vulnerable. Effective early intervention can improve children’s health, ability to learn, and social and emotional development, and can reduce neglect and insecurity of care. We need a multi-year, cross-agency early intervention programme for vulnerable children and families, involving:
- improved health, education, and parent support services
- local co-ordination, governance and funding
- better identification, engagement, needs assessment, referral and monitoring
- support for families to access and use support services.
Strengthening care and protection services
To enable the care and protection sector to provide more effective responses and to prevent problems from escalating, we need to:
- Work with the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYF) to implement a model that will enable them to respond more flexibly and appropriately to notifications.
- Build the capacity of the non-statutory care and protection sector, including building a trained and effective workforce, so it can better support children and families before they need statutory intervention. As part of this work, we will explore initiatives such as mentoring organisational support and staff training for the non-statutory sector.
Strengthening family violence prevention, intervention, and post-support services
Family violence, including child abuse and neglect, and elder abuse, is a major problem in New Zealand. We need to build the capacity and sustainability of the family violence prevention sector and continue developing and monitoring existing programmes and services.
We are leading a multi-agency programme to address the issues of family violence, abuse and neglect, identified in Opportunity for All New Zealanders as one of five priority issues for immediate government action over the next three to five years.
Rates of substantiated child abuse are higher for children under 14 years.
Maori children are more likely than non- Maori children to be assessed as abused and neglected. In 2002, 10.3 Maori children compared with 5.9 non- Maori children per 1000 were assessed as abused or neglected.
Seeing results
We want to see the following results from our work for families and whanau today and in the future:
- families and whanau have an adequate standard of living, and provide safe and secure environments for their members
- families and whanau are well informed about, and have good access to, a range of services which effectively meet their needs
- services for families and whanau are well co-ordinated and aligned, focusing on prevention as well as remedial services, with statutory and non-statutory services complementing each other
- families and whanau have a say in decisions that affect them.
Each of our contributing outcomes is about achieving these results, and ultimately achieving our high-level outcome. As with all our outcomes, the contributing outcomes overlap and support each other. Our contributing outcomes for families and whanau also have a significant impact on our outcomes for children and young people and for communities, hapu and iwi.
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Families and whanau have a strong voice in decision making and are valued and supported as a key institution in both current society and as trustees for future generations
We will work closely with the Family Services National Advisory Council to support the development of policies and services that strengthen and value families.
The National Advisory Council consists of senior government and non-government officials, and iwi/Maori and Pacific representatives. Our work with the National Advisory Council will involve developing priorities for action, aligning existing services and developing new initiatives.
We will use local services mapping to gather information on family needs, and work with other government and community organisations to better address these needs.
We will continue to manage the Minister for Social Development and Employment’s interests in the Families Commission, as it undertakes research and policy, consultation, and advocacy on behalf of all New Zealand families, and works to promote a better understanding of family issues and needs.
Through the Families Initiative Fund we will support innovative local projects that build on family strengths.
The National Advisory Council consists of senior government and non-government officials, and iwi/Maori and Pacific representatives. Our work with the National Advisory Council will involve developing priorities for action, aligning existing services and developing new initiatives.
Families are active participants in working and community life, and obtain the resources to play a fully functional role in supporting their members and their communities
When fully implemented in April 2007, the Working for Families package will deliver more financial assistance to around 300,000 New Zealand families. Working for Families is designed to make it easier to work and raise a family. The package’s initiatives include more help with housing and childcare costs, higher rates of Family Assistance, and higher income limits, making more families with children eligible. Over the next three years we will continue to promote and implement the package and monitor its take-up among eligible families.
Families and whanau have the knowledge, capabilities and commitment to support development pathways of their members, and contribute to good outcomes for them
The Family and Community Services (FACS) National Directory provides online access to a wide range of family-related services, programmes, and resources. Good information about and access to services is essential for families to be able to make the right decisions about the support they need. Families and whanau can also benefit from guidance about positive ways to deal with pressure and change.
The National Directory is also an invaluable resource for the government agencies and community organisations that work with families. We will continue to maintain and update the National Directory, and develop options to ensure the database is available to families who don’t have internet access.
Following the pilot conducted in March to June 2005, we will continue to explore the development of a Family Helpline that will provide access to a range of helpline advisory and information services.
We will continue to develop and administer SKIP (Strategies with Kids:Information for Parents), which provides services and resources to educate parents and caregivers of children aged 0-5 years about positive parenting and non-physical methods of discipline. SKIP includes resources for parents, training packages to strengthen parent support and education programmes, and a Local Initiatives Fund for community-based programmes. The Local Initiatives Fund provides financial support for community initiatives for positive parenting.
We will further develop the SAGES – Older People as Mentors programme, which involves older people handing on skills such as budgeting, gardening, cooking, and parenting to families.
Through Work and Income we will provide information and advice for families looking for childcare.
Families and whanau are resilient; they can adjust, adapt and recover from challenges and adversity
Family resilience can be defined as the ability to meet challenges, to be flexible and adaptable, and for members to be supportive of one another.
To promote and support family resilience, we will further develop the Strengthening Families Local Collaboration programme that provides integrated service provision for at-risk families at a local level. Over time, the programme has gained a high level of acceptance and credibility. We have recently conducted a review of the programme to enhance its effectiveness and consistency as a model for future service development, and we are providing more funding to increase Strengthening Families Co-ordinators’ paid hours.
As part of our programme of targeted Early Intervention initiatives, we will take responsibility for expanding Family Start services to vulnerable families with young children.
We will collaborate with the Families Commission on research into family issues and resilience, including longitudinal research.
Families and whanau are a safe and secure environment, where all members live free from violence
Freedom from violence, abuse, and neglect is a fundamental requirement for family members to be healthy and secure. Violence within families is an issue that cuts across all families and needs to be addressed at many levels. The Ministry develops and implements several strategies and programmes that aim to prevent and reduce family violence in all families and communities. We lead work on Te Rito: The New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy.
We are the lead agency for addressing the priority issue of family violence, including child abuse and neglect and elder abuse, identified in the Government’s ‘big picture’ summary of social strategies, Opportunity for All New Zealanders. As the lead agency, we are establishing a high-level taskforce, the Taskforce on Action on Violence within Families that will provide leadership and commitment across Government. The taskforce will ensure the co-ordination of government work and build on and reinvigorate actions already underway. It will build on Te Rito: New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy.
Our Family Violence Intervention programme will continue to provide specialised advice and support for Work and Income clients facing situations of family violence. A pilot programme was implemented in Waitakere in 2003, and we will extend the programme to all Work and Income regions over the next three years.
A project on preventing violence in Pacific communities, Strong Pacific Families, is raising awareness of the causes and effects of family violence in Pacific communities and strengthening Pacific community-based services for preventing family violence.
We will lead the Family Violence Funding Circuit Breaker (FVFCB) process, a collaborative funding initiative that aims to reduce the compliance and transaction costs for community service providers funded by more than one government agency. The goal of FVFCB is to reduce compliance costs so it will improve the providers’ capacity to achieve good outcomes for families experiencing violence.
As a result of the 2003 Baseline Review of the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services, funding for the national network of Elder Abuse and Neglect Prevention Services (EANPS) will transfer to Ministry of Social Development. Additional funding, for the service, has been secured through Budget 2005. The additional funding will be used to improve and expand EANPS and strengthen national co-ordination.
We will implement an initiative to improve access to services for children who witness violence in their families by funding new advocacy services for them1
Over the coming year we will undertake a programme of actions to provide information and support for community initiatives that will contribute to the elimination of violence within families.
We will also undertake a programme of action to raise public sector awareness, building on our Family Violence Intervention programme and initiatives in other departments to improve the awareness of and responsiveness to government clients with family violence issues.
Research and evaluation
Our research and evaluation in this area focuses on building the evidence base for improving parenting and preventing family violence.
- The Early Intervention for Vulnerable Families research will guide Governments’ efforts in developing new and existing services for children and families.
- The Family Violence Clearing House will establish mechanisms for collecting and disseminating information on family violence to a broad range of agencies and professionals working in this area.
- The Supporting Positive Parenting research will guide the development of positive parenting approaches and mechanisms for communicating ‘positive parenting’ information to local communities and families.
- The Family Violence Funding Circuit Breaker Evaluation is gathering information to inform improvements to this initiative which aims to build linkages between agencies working towards eliminating family violence.
- The Social Service Workforce Development research will identify the workforce capacity and capability issues and gaps affecting non-government organisations in providing services to children and families.
- The SKIP (Strategies with Kids: Information for Parents) Monitor will report on the impact of the SKIP programme in increasing awareness and use of positive parenting among families across New Zealand.
As noted above we will also be working with the Families Commission on research of mutual interest, and to ensure a co-ordinated approach.
Managing Our Capabilities
The establishment of Family and Community Services (FACS) within the Ministry significantly builds our capability to deliver integrated and effective services for families. FACS’s leadership and co-ordination role will strengthen services to families, and its focus on prevention and early intervention will reduce the number of families who require statutory intervention and support.
From 1 July 2005, FACS will have an increased funding role, taking over funding responsibility for 152 community-based service providers and for the Stronger Communities Action Fund. We will ensure we have the right people, resources, and infrastructure to manage these transitions smoothly, and to successfully undertake our new funding and administration roles.
FACS will continue to strengthen its linkages with other policy groups within the Ministry and in other agencies to ensure that advice and initiatives for different population groups are integrated and targeted effectively to meet and support the diverse needs of families within New Zealand.
Monitoring Progress
Outcome indicators
| Indicators - Social Situation of Families | ||
|---|---|---|
| Indicator | Current | Trend |
| Percentage of families with dependent children with net-of-housing cost incomes below 60% of median | 27.8% (2001) |
Declining |
| Percentage of households that spend more than 30% of income on housing | 24% (2001) |
Stable |
| Percentage of households with dependent children only with no adult employed | 15% (2004) |
Declining |
| Percentage of people reporting their household could afford to eat properly only sometimes | 13% (1997) |
Not available |
| Sources: Statistics New Zealand, Household Economic Survey, Household Labour Force Survey; The Social Report 2004; Ministry of Health | ||
1 Refer to the Children and Young People section.
