Looking to the horizon: we will continue to respond to the COVID-19 impact in the coming year - Annual Report 2019/20
This year’s challenges will still be with us in 2020/21, and for some years to come.
Throughout the COVID-19 response we showed our ability to respond quickly and effectively to new levels of demand, and this agility will stand us in good stead to handle ongoing increased demand.
Over the next several years we will need to continue our focus on supporting the economic recovery from COVID-19. New Zealand is likely to enter a financial downturn: we are expecting the numbers of recipients of main benefits to continue to increase in the first part of 2020/21, reaching a peak in early 2021 before slowly coming down. However, we do not expect to see pre-COVID-19 levels again for several years.
Our employment services and our understanding of regional labour markets will become more important than ever. Our social development role and our connections with communities are crucial as local responses will lead the recovery. Community providers and NGOs will be under sustained extra pressure during this period and will be crucial partners for us in supporting individual and community resilience.
Similarly, demand for hardship and housing assistance will increase significantly, and many people who have never had to use the benefit system before will be seeking our help.
Before COVID-19, the Government had accepted the conclusion of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group that the welfare system was not always meeting the needs of those who interact with it – particularly Māori, disabled people and people with health conditions. We have shown in the COVID-19 response that we can make significant changes to welfare settings quickly and effectively, and we now have an opportunity to make more fundamental changes to how we operate to deliver the change that is needed to meet current demand, future needs and better outcomes for New Zelanders.
Our strategic direction, Te Pae Tawhiti, with the three shifts that underpin it – Mana manaaki (a positive experience every time), Kotahitanga (partnering for greater impact) and Kia takatū tatou (supporting long-term social and economic development) – is still the cornerstone of our approach and guides how we will enact change. Our Māori strategy and action plan, Te Pae Tata, and our Pacific strategy and action plan, Pacific Prosperity, embrace the three shifts to articulate how we will achieve better outcomes for Māori and Pacific peoples.
The implementation of Te Pae Tawhiti is well under way and we have made progress against the three shifts. We have introduced a number of significant initiatives to improve client experience and our culture as an organisation, to increase the focus on employment, to ensure that housing needs are met, and to be more effective in how we work with partners.
Some of the changes we made during our response to COVID-19 meant we moved towards the ambitions set out in Te Pae Tawhiti, Te Pae Tata and Pacific Prosperity more quickly than anticipated. These included scaling up our online services, building on our employment services to connect greater numbers of people to the workforce, and using our connections with community organisations, providers and partners to support individual, whānau and community resilience.
We want to build on the gains made to continue to shift the way we operate to include areas such as fully integrating our services, creating more self-service options for clients, and building on our relationships with iwi, employers and community groups.
