Statement of Intent 2005 - Leading Social Development
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Strategic Aim
A whole-of-government approach to achieving the Government’s social vision.
Context
The social development approach
Social development is a process of co-ordinated social change that promotes the wellbeing of the population as a whole and of disadvantaged groups within it. It aims to improve wellbeing across a range of areas such as social assistance, health, education, employment, and safety.
Successful social development involves:
- ensuring that social and economic interventions support each other and are sustainable
- supporting individuals, families and communities to develop and deliver their own solutions
- focusing on the full package of strengths, needs, barriers and opportunities for individuals, families and communities
- taking a whole-of-life perspective
- government working in partnership with local authorities, with the community and voluntary sector, and with the private sector to develop ‘joined-up’ local services
- developing solid evidence about what works and regularly monitoring New Zealanders’ wellbeing
- ensuring there is flexibility to respond to regional and local needs.
The release of Opportunity for All New Zealanders in December 2004 marked a significant step in strengthening a whole-of-government approach to social development at a national level. Opportunity for All New Zealanders sets out the ‘big picture’ of the Government’s work across the social sector, drawing together the social strategies being implemented by over 30 government agencies. For the first time, the range of social sector strategies is presented in a transparent and linked way.
Opportunity for All New Zealanders is the social counterpart to the Growth and Innovation Framework, New Zealand’s strategy for economic development. It recognises that social and economic development are inextricably linked, and that a whole of government approach is essential to improving social wellbeing and reducing disadvantage.
The Ministry led the development of Opportunity for All New Zealanders throughout 2004. Over the next three years we will continue to strengthen our co-ordination and leadership role in social development.
Our strategic framework for leading social development
To bring about a whole-of-government approach to social development and to achieve the Government’s social vision, we need to:
- build the evidence base for the social sector
- provide sound policy advice on cross-sectoral issues
- co-ordinate social policy development
- promote social sector collaboration
- understand the impacts of social, cultural and economic change, and monitor and report on social wellbeing.
These activities outline what we will do to achieve our strategic aim, as set out in the following diagram.
Click on the image to enlarge
Good evidence is essential to our understanding of how New Zealand is performing, of how we can improve social outcomes, and of the direct and indirect impacts of government policy.
As part of leading social development at the national level, the Ministry is committed to building the social policy evidence base so all social policies are grounded in evidence about what works. We use a range of methods.
Our Centre for Social Research and Evaluation (CSRE) is one of New Zealand’s largest government social research and evaluation units. CSRE works to build the evidence base for each of our outcome areas, with evaluations that enable us to implement changes to programmes as they happen.
We build shared knowledge and best practice among government agencies through:
- hosting the interagency SPEaR (Social Policy Evaluation and Research) committee
- hosting the biennial Social Policy Research and Evaluation Conference
- producing comprehensive and regular social reporting through The Social Report and other publications such as The Social Policy Journal and The Statistical Report
- promoting the value of evidence as an essential basis for good policy, supporting researchers and evaluators across the social sector to improve the standard of evidence they produce, and building a strong evidence base for each of our outcome groups: children and young people, working age people, older people, families and whanau, and communities, hapu and iwi.
Getting a better understanding of social wellbeing is an ongoing priority. Our Social Investment Research Programme examines the drivers of wellbeing and the links between them. The programme aims to develop models, tools and frameworks to better assess the impact of social policies and programmes.
Identify, analyse and provide sound policy advice on cross-sectoral policy issues
We lead or contribute to the development and implementation of national strategies that encompass the whole social sector, or that target a specific population group. These cross-sectoral strategies support our whole-of-government approach to social development, operating through buy-in across all agencies involved.
Over the next three to five years, we will lead two of the five priority areas identified for interagency action in the strategic document Opportunity for All New Zealanders:
- minimising family violence, and abuse and neglect of children and older persons
- increasing opportunities for people to participate in sustainable employment (in collaboration with the Department of Labour).
We will also contribute to work in the other three priority areas:
- improving educational achievement among low socio-economic groups (lead agency: Ministry of Education)
- promoting healthy eating and healthy activity (lead agency: Ministry of Health)
- reducing tobacco, alcohol and other drug abuse (lead agency: Ministry of Health).
We have the lead co-ordination role for the Government’s Reducing Inequalities policy, which requires government agencies to report on reducing inequalities as part of their core business in their statements of intent and annual reports.
In association with the cross-agency Reducing Inequalities Officials Committee, we will:
- continue to play an oversight role in the Reducing Inequalities policy
- produce a yearly report that monitors and reviews progress in reducing inequalities, and makes recommendations on the focus of the policy.
We will continue to take the lead on addressing issues that fall through the gaps of other agencies’ work. Current work includes developing ways to address problem debt for low-income New Zealanders, particularly people with debt to more than one government agency; and policies and services to improve transitions for young people between school, work or training.
Among the cross-sectoral strategies that target specific population groups, we will continue to lead work on the:
- Investing in Child and Youth Development (ICYD) work stream in the Sustainable Development for New Zealand Programme of Action.
- New Zealand Positive Ageing Strategy.
- New Zealand Disability Strategy.
Through the Office for Disability Issues the Ministry is also involved in leading or participating in cross-sectoral pieces of work to improve outcomes for people with disabilities. Some of the key pieces of work in this area include:
- The review of long-term disability supports - which aims to provide advice about how to achieve simple-to-access, seamless and equitable long-term support systems for New Zealanders with disabilities. At the same time it aims to ensure that support systems are centred on meeting the needs, protecting the rights, respecting the dignity and accommodating the diversity of people with disabilities.
- The New Zealand Sign Language Bill - which gives sign language equal status with spoken languages.
- The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People - which aims to make disability issues more visible within human rights and to ensure particular circumstances of people with disabilities are addressed. The Office for Disability Issues and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in partnership with New Zealanders with disabilities are playing a lead role in developing this convention.
Co-ordinate policy development across the social sector, including the alignment of social outcomes
Co-ordinating social sector policy development requires us to work closely with other agencies at a national and local level, ensuring that policies and services across and within agencies are well-integrated and complementary.
At a national and strategic level, the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development chairs the Health, Education, Social Development, and Justice Group (HESDJ) to identify ways for the agencies in these sectors to work together effectively on policy, research, evaluation and service delivery.
Opportunity for All New Zealanders - the Government’s ‘big picture’ summary of how government agencies are working together to improve social wellbeing, further encourages HESDJ agencies to work together collaboratively.
Examples of some of the cross-sectoral strategies that MSD is leading and HESDJ agencies are involved in include: Reducing Inequalities, The New Zealand Positive Ageing Strategy, The New Zealand Disability Strategy and Te Rito: New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy.
Our membership of the Social Services Cluster with three other social sector agencies enables us to develop practical and effective ways of working together at a national and local level.
The cluster consists of the Ministry of Social Development, the Department of Building and Housing, Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services. We are committed to working with each other, and with other governmental and non-governmental agencies in the social sector, to help bring about the best possible outcomes for clients and all New Zealanders.
Our commitment to working together recognises that clients often have multiple needs that are best addressed together, instead of being dealt with separately by different agencies. Combining the services of different agencies is often the only way to deliver an effective service to clients.
The Social Services Cluster aims to better integrate the services of the four agencies involved. Projects include:
- one-stop-shop Housing and Work and Income site in Auckland, delivering joined-up social assistance, employment and housing services to mutual clients
- ensuring that Cluster agencies’ services are well integrated with Housing New Zealand’s community renewal projects to improve outcomes in disadvantaged areas
- a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of social assistance, employment and housing services for 16-18 year olds transitioning from the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services care to independence
We also:
- Chair the Strategic Social Policy Senior Officials Group, which provides a regular forum to co-ordinate cross-sectoral policy developments.
- Provide second-opinion advice to the Minister of Social Development and Employment on all Cabinet Papers with social development implications.
Facilitate and promote collaboration among social sector service delivery agencies at the regional and local level
The Social Services Cluster aims to better integrate the services of the four agencies involved. Projects include:
- one-stop-shop Housing and Work and Income site in Auckland, delivering joined-up social assistance, employment and housing services to mutual clients
- ensuring that Cluster agencies' services are well integrated with Housing New Zealand's community renewal projects to improve outcomes in disadvantaged areas
- a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of social assistance, employment and housing services for 16-18 year olds transitioning from the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services care to independence.
To strengthen our ability to lead social development at a regional level, we have:
- broadened the role of Work and Income Regional Commissioners (recently renamed Regional Commissioners for Social Development) to include a regional social development leadership focus
- appointed Social Development Managers to assist the Regional Commissioners to lead whole-of-government regional social development initiatives and to work closely with community organisations, other central government agencies, and regional and local government institutions
- created a Regional Social Policy group with policy analysts in each region developing policy from a regional perspective and ensuring a good fit between national policy and local service delivery
- created Family and Community Services (FACS) which has responsibility for leading, co-ordinating and aligning services for families, and for supporting communities.
These changes mean that we can boost research and evaluation undertaken at the local level, improve our understanding of regional issues, develop strong collaborative networks at a local level, and ensure that national policy has a regional perspective.
In the coming years we will:
- support local authorities undertaking the community planning process required by the Local Government Act 2002, by providing research, local analysis, and advice on consultation, co-ordinating other agencies’ input, and by implementing a Good Practice Guide that will enhance our participation in community planning
- continue developing collaborative national and local strategies such as the seasonal work strategy that is addressing the skills shortage in the horticulture, viticulture and stonefruit industries
- put in place a local services mapping process in 25 localities, enabling government agencies and community organisations to plan and deliver effective, collaborative social services
Monitor and understand the impacts of social, economic and cultural change, and report on social wellbeing
Building the evidence base for each of our outcome groups requires us to identify changes that are affecting these groups, and what the effects are. Our regular analysis and monitoring of change and wellbeing is distilled into The Social Report, one of our foundation tools for leading social development.
The Social Report identifies how New Zealand is changing over time, where we are performing well or poorly, and what our future policy priorities need to be. Opportunity for All New Zealanders is the Government’s response to the findings of The Social Report, providing a ‘big picture’ summary of the social sector’s strategies to improve wellbeing and to reduce disadvantage.
Our capability for whole-of-government social development
Our ability to successfully lead social development depends heavily upon our people, their knowledge, and our relationships with government and non-government agencies and stakeholders. To continue to strengthen our work in this area, we will:
- strengthen our internal leadership capability by taking a holistic approach to leadership development and career management that will ensure current and future leaders have the skills, experiences and attributes required to lead and deliver our outcomes.
- continue improving our knowledge of effective research and evaluation methodologies, and ensuring the evidence we gather feeds into our policy advice and service delivery.
- identify and trial new ways of working in partnership with other agencies, with local authorities, with communities, and with business and industry, particularly to develop solutions to complex and long-term social problems.
- improve our understanding of the accountability and performance measurement implications of working towards shared outcomes with other government agencies, so we can identify when working collaboratively will provide the greatest benefits.
- attract and retain highly skilled staff through effective recruitment strategies and appropriate developmental opportunities. This will ensure our people develop the skills and knowledge required to deliver effective advice and services and keep the trust and confidence of our stakeholders.
- develop systems and practices that support us to take a long-term view of social sector priorities.
Building our capability at a regional level involves promoting an integrated ‘whole-of- Ministry’ approach, which supports the State Services development goals about co-ordinated state agencies and accessible state services. From mid-2005, each Regional Commissioner for Social Development will convene monthly Regional Forums for managers of all our regional services. The forums will aim to improve processes for working together, to identify opportunities for joint planning and relationship management, and to share and develop best practice. After six to nine months, we will review the fora to identify what has worked well, and to share best practice among the regions.
