The Ministry of Social Development - three year outlook

Executive Summary

Social development builds a strong, healthy and safe society. Successful social development results in high levels of skills and education, high employment, a thriving economy, and strong, safe families and communities. It builds social capital, meaning the networks, relationships, and trust within and between communities.

Successful social development requires us to work with other agencies and with non-government organisations on all the things that affect wellbeing and prosperity, such as health, education, housing, employment, living standards and safety.

There are two key aspects to social development: social protection, and social investment.

• Social protection involves looking after vulnerable members of our society, through things like paying social assistance and arranging care and protection for children.
• Social investment is about acting before people need help. Social investment provides resources, programmes, and support for individuals, families, and communities to build on their strengths and improve their social and economic wellbeing over time. It helps us to get ahead of some of the most difficult issues, reducing the future need for social protection.

Social development treats economic growth, not just as an end in itself, but also as a means to improve wellbeing. At the same time, social development is not just about wellbeing for its own sake, but also about laying the foundations for a strong and thriving economy.

The priorities and strategies outlined in this Statement of Intent recognise that successful social development involves:

• ensuring social and economic policies reinforce each other
• supporting individuals, families and communities to take responsibility for their own wellbeing
• intervening early to tackle problems before they become complex and entrenched
• maintaining social protection over time while tilting spending towards social investment
• implementing a “no wrong door” approach with a single face for the Ministry at the local and regional level
• working at the regional and national level to ensure services are well co-ordinated, responsive and flexible
• government agencies, local government and the community and voluntary sector working well together
• building our knowledge of what works, and measuring progress in improving the wellbeing of New Zealanders
• sharing best practice with other agencies in New Zealand and internationally.

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The Government’s priorities for the next decade

The Government’s priorities for the next decade are economic transformation, families – young and old and national identity. The work we do contributes to all three priorities, in particular economic transformation and families – young and old. In addition the Ministry is co-ordinating, on behalf of Government, priorities in relation to families – young and old. Our strategic directions section outlines how we contribute to these priorities.

Our focus for the next three years

Our strategic aim – Leading Social Development is supported by five high level outcomes. These are:

• Children and Young People
• Working Age People
• Older People
• Families and Whanau
• Communities, Hapu and Iwi.

Priorities have been identified for each of our outcome areas to provide focus over the next three years.

Outcomes	Priorities
Leading Social Development	understand and report on the impacts of societal change on social wellbeing now (The Social Report) and in the future (Social futures project) co-ordinate policy development across the social sector to promote the Government’s three priorities for the next decade identify, analyse and provide sound policy advice on cross-sectoral policy issues support the passage of the Social Reporting Bill improve our ability to be more responsive to issues identified at a regional and local level
Children and Young People	expand the Early Intervention programme for vulnerable children, their families and communities strengthen care and protection services and youth justice services support non-government organisations to build their capability support young people to make successful transitions to adulthood
Working Age People	continue to implement the Government’s Working For Families package implement the Government’s zero interest on Student Loans policy implement the Government’s Core Benefit and an enhanced work focused service model support students to make good study choices that lead to better earning potential implement strategies to improve the integrity of the benefit system and minimise client debt
Older People	develop a card for Seniors provide comprehensive, co-ordinated and seamless information and services to older people
Families and Whanau	supporting parents to bring up their children well lead work to prevent family violence provide intervention and post-support services for people experiencing family violence.
Communities, Hapu and Iwi	strengthen community-based social service providers improve funding and contracting arrangements with community-based providers building effective community-government relationships

Strengthening our capability
We want to strengthen our capacity and capability to lead social development and complete our move to an outcomes-based approach from the ground level, right through the organisation.

To do this we need to reconfigure the skills of our workforce at the frontline and within National Office to assist in shifting the focus from a transactional approach to one of achieving outcomes.

State Services Development Goals
The Ministry actively promotes and supports the achievement of the State Services Development Goals (released by the State Services Commission in March 2005). The goals do not outline what the State Services will achieve (such as support for families), as that is a matter for government policy. Rather the goals are aspirations for how the State Services will be arranged and perform.

We support each of the development goals through the connected and co-ordinated approach we take in all facets of our work:

Goals	Activities
Employer of choice Ensure the State Services is an employer of choice - attractive to high achievers with a commitment	Government pay and employment equity
Excellent state servants Develop a strong culture of constant learning in the pursuit of excellence	leadership development framework NZQA qualifications for staff and managers graduate recruitment centralised recruitment model
Networked state agencies Use technology to transform the provision of services for New Zealanders	Client Management System Internet Protocol Call Centre
Co-ordinated state agencies Ensure the total contribution of government agencies is greater than the sum of its parts	Health, Education, Social Development and Justice Chief Executives Group (HEDSJ) one-stop-shop Housing New Zealand Corporation and Work and Income site in Mangere Social Services Cluster the Social Policy Evaluation and Research Committee (SPEaR) syndicated procurement govt3 programme – Sustainable Practices
Accessible State Services “no wrong door” Enhance access, responsiveness and effectiveness, and improve New Zealanders’ experience of State Services	expanding the role of Work and Income Regional Commissioners to cover social development expanding the Work and Income Regional Plans to encompass all parts of the Ministry’s work within a region developing a strategy to provide seamless services to Older people making Government services more accessible through Heartland Services providing online services to students through StudyLink
Trusted State Services Strengthen trust in the State Services, and reinforced the spirit of service	our risk management approach zero tolerance fraud policy for all staff

Managing opportunities and risks

The Ministry’s governance and assurance programmes will ensure we remain fully accountable to our clients, the Government, our stakeholders, and the public of New Zealand. The Managing our opportunities and risks section outlines the work we are undertaking to manage risk, and to enable the Ministry to achieve its outcomes, while protecting and enhancing our integrity, reputation and activities.

Research and Evaluation

We aim to produce high-quality research and evaluation that can be used to effect positive change in the lives of New Zealanders.

Our research and evaluation function is used by our staff and groups outside the Ministry, including:

• the Government
• the general public
• central and local government policy makers and service delivery agencies
• the international social policy community
• non-government organisations
• educational organisations and students
• the media
• advocacy groups.

Our research and evaluation are used to inform policy and service delivery. Many of the evaluations we do are “real time” evaluations, where we learn as we go by reviewing progress and making improvements along the way. We need to ensure that the research and evaluation we undertake focuses on enduring and emerging social and economic themes that will help to identify the policy issues of the future.

The timely communication of research and evaluation findings and analysis (including interim results) is crucial to our success. Identification of emerging social policy issues, development of current policy understandings, assessment of the effectiveness of policy interventions, and monitoring and improvement of service delivery depend on research findings being accessible and widely used.

It is also important for us to understand how effective our work is in achieving good outcomes for New Zealanders, and to ensure we are getting the best value from our investment into our activities. These issues are discussed more fully in our Research and Evaluation – how we know what works section.

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