Updates on Pathway to Partnership implementation
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Full funding increases underway - 18 September 2008
Many providers have agreed and confirmed their 2008/09 increases as a first step to fully funding essential child, family and youth focused services by 2011/12. We expect this process to be complete by the end of September.
This financial year is a transition period. These first increases will help stabilise the sector, especially smaller, more vulnerable organisations and enable providers to continue to provide effective services for their clients.
Between now and December we will engage with providers to understand the full cost of their essential services and begin talking about their pathway to full funding in 2011/12.
Costing services
Understanding the real cost of services will be important as we begin to work together on provider's pathway to full funding
We have developed a tool which helps measure the full cost of service delivery. It sits on a simple excel spreadsheet and takes into account both direct costs, and indirect overhead and operational costs.
It can be used alongside providers own costing analysis, and is a useful starting point as we talk through the process together.
Next steps
Pathway to Partnership is about working together to achieve the results we want to see in our communities.
We will work with providers to move to a results based accountability model. This is easily understood and has been widely used around the world to promote a collaborative approach to identifying needs, planning services and measuring results.
Over the next few months we will be holding joint regional workshops on the results based accountability model for providers and for our own staff. For more information visit www.resultsaccountability.com or read the September edition of Funding News.
We will also look at ways we can work together to on a regional and local basis to identify goals and priorities for communities.
Cost pressure payments offered to 850 providers - 23 July 2008
The first Pathway to Partnership payments were offered to more than 850 community providers nationwide during July and August. This totaled $9 million of the $52 million available this year, and is made up of an annual CPI adjustment (3.4% this year) and continuation of the one-off cost pressure payment made last year.
Service categories
We have used the criteria from the Pathway to Partnership Cabinet Paper to establish a set of service categories. These have been agreed by the Pathway to Partnership Steering Group and confirm which services are essential and will move to full funding, and which services are more appropriately funded through a grant.
The essential service categories are:
- early intervention - such as parent support and development services
- preventing and responding to abuse and neglect – including services providing supervised access, community-based assessments and residential services and Strengthening Families. Also respite care, caregiver organisations and organisations providing bed nights for Child, Youth and Family
- family support services – these services include community-based family and social work support, refugee and migrant support services and social support associated with emergency housing
- sexual abuse services – such as counselling and support for victims, and treatment programmes for abusers including residential treatment programmes for children and young people
- services for youth at risk – including mentoring services, youth suicide prevention, and services to stop youth from joining gangs
- services for youth offenders – including day programmes, conduct disorder and specialist programmes
- preventing and responding to family violence - child victim and witness services, perpetrator programmes including non-mandated ones, crisis response services, accommodation and social support, family violence prevention and education, victim programmes and elder abuse services
- Budget Advice
The full funding is to cover the cost of the service, including direct costs like salaries and overhead costs like transport or rent.
Grant funded services
The grant funded services are:
- community and provider development services, and funding for training and study awards
- umbrella groups and national office support services
- services providing general information and advice
- services that improve community access to government agencies like Heartlands.
Grant funded services will have fewer compliance requirements meaning they can focus on delivering their services and achieving outcomes. Grants can be for up to three years, depending on the community’s need and the kind of service. In the future if these services change to fall within the essential services category, we will revisit funding arrangements and talk with providers about whether a contract is a better option.
Working with the sector
All groups from across the sector can have input into the ongoing development of Pathway to Partnership.
The strategy is being guided by a Steering Group made up of representatives from family, child and youth focused service providers, social service umbrella groups, the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Justice. Community groups are encouraged to contact members of the Steering Group if they would like to provide feedback.
Our funding advisors are talking one on one with providers about how Pathway to Partnership affects them, and about how the new funding can enable them to focus more on outcomes and work more closely together to address the needs of the communities.
Work has also begun on developing an outcomes framework that will more clearly define our common objectives of working together, and how we will measure progress and success with the families, children and young people we work with.
