Cross-agency leadership

The Government has called on government agencies to organise themselves in a way that makes their services more accessible to New Zealanders. We must be leaders in our field and work collaboratively to make a bigger difference. This approach requires us to change the way we think about the public sector, including the way we deliver services. The Government has identified key areas where it wants to see results and this will require strong leadership from the sector agencies and their chief executives.

Social Sector Forum

The Social Sector Forum was established by Cabinet to lead cross-agency work on social sector priorities. The Social Sector Forum is made up of the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development, who is the Chairperson, the Chief Executives of the Ministries of Justice, Education and Health, and the infrastructure leader from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Other chief executives are invited to work on relevant issues. Central agencies provide advice.

In 2013, the Forum agreed on eight priorities that are a mix of Better Public Services targets and cross-agency initiatives to:

• reduce the number of working-age Jobseeker Support clients who have been in receipt of benefit for more than 12 months
• increase participation in early childhood education
• decrease the number of assaults on children
• increase infant immunisation rates and reduce the incidence of rheumatic fever
• implement the Children’s Action Plan (led by the Vulnerable Children’s Board)
• continue and extend the Social Sector Trials (led by the Joint Venture Board)
• focus on youth mental health
• deliver a single, simplified approach to contracting.

The Social Sector Forum is a key mechanism to allow social sector agencies to deliver results together.

Better Public Services Results for New Zealanders

Public sector chief executives are accountable for making progress against each of the 10 Better Public Services Results for New Zealanders.

Better Public Services results

The Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development, in his role as Chairperson of the Social Sector Forum, leads the public sector to achieve the following Better Public Services results.

• Result 1: Reduce the number of people who have been on a working-age benefit for more than 12 months
  Progress on Result 1 is presented in the chapter More People into Work and out of Welfare Dependency.
• Result 2: Increase participation in early childhood education
  Our contribution to Result 2 in 2012/2013 is outlined in the chapter Fewer Children are Vulnerable, under The Right Services for Children in Care. 
  The Ministry contributes further through the welfare reforms of July 2013. These include new social obligations for our clients to ensure their children attend early childhood education or school, are enrolled with a GP, and complete regular heath checks.
• Result 3: Increase infant immunisation rates and reduce the incidence of rheumatic fever
  The Ministry’s Gateway Assessment service and Family Start Programme contribute to Result 3. These initiatives ensure that children have access to health services they need. Information about these initiatives is included in the chapter Fewer Children are Vulnerable, under The Right Services for Children in Care.
• Result 4: Reduce the number of assaults on children
  The Ministry’s contribution to Result 4 is included in the chapter Fewer Children are Vulnerable.

The Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development leads public sector effort on four of the 10 Better Public Services Results for New Zealanders.

Results other chief executives lead and we contribute to

In 2012/2013, we contributed to the following Better Public Services results led by other public sector chief executives:

• Result 5: Increase the proportion of 18-year-olds with NCEA level 2 or equivalent qualification
  We contributed to Result 5 by providing the Youth Service to get disengaged young people back into training or education. Further information on the Youth Service is provided in the chapter More Young People are in Education, Training or Work.
• Result 7: Reduce the rates of total crime, violent crime and youth crime
• Result 8: Reduce reoffending
  For Results 7 and 8, we contributed by providing services such as Fresh Start and Military-Style Activity Camps. These programmes hold young offenders accountable for their offending and manage the risk of their reoffending. We also held Youth Justice Family Group Conferences as an early intervention to stop offending escalating. Further information on these services is provided in the chapter Fewer Children and Young People Commit Crime.
• Result 10: New Zealanders can complete their transactions with the Government easily in a digital environment
  For Result 10, we contributed by enhancing our digital service channels and by matching our clients’ needs for digital interaction. Further information on these activities is provided in the chapter More People Interact with the Ministry in a Digital Environment.

Improving the lives of children

White Paper for Vulnerable Children

The Government’s White Paper for Vulnerable Children was released in October 2012. It proposed a range of measures and reforms to reduce child abuse and neglect in New Zealand. The White Paper was the result of work by joint government agencies, led by the Ministry. It emphasised the need to identify our most vulnerable children and to target services to them so they get the protection and support they need.

Vulnerable Children Bill

The White Paper signalled the Government’s intention to underpin proposed measures and reforms with legislation. The Vulnerable Children Bill is an omnibus Bill containing a series of measures to protect and improve the wellbeing of vulnerable children. It includes the following changes:

Five government agencies made accountable for protecting vulnerable children.

The Chief Executives of the Ministries of Education, Health, Justice and Social Development, and the Commissioner of Police will be accountable to the social sector Ministers for a cross-agency plan on vulnerable children. Their performance expectations will include protecting vulnerable children. They will also be responsible for ensuring child protection policies are in place for government agency staff who work with children.

Screening and vetting of the children’s workforce

There will be standard checks for the central government children’s workforce to screen out potential abusers. These will include identification checks, through the Police, records and history checks and a risk assessment with periodic reassessments. Work restrictions will be placed on previous serious offenders who may pose a risk to children.

Minimising the risk of harm to children.

Child Harm Prevention Orders may be made against those who pose a high risk of offending against children in the future. Parents who have had a child permanently removed from them due to abuse or neglect of the child, or who have killed a child before, must prove they are safe to parent any subsequent children.

We worked with Te Puni Kōkiri, the New Zealand Police and the Ministries of Education, Health, Justice, and Business, Innovation and Employment to prepare policy proposals for the legislation.

Children’s Action Plan

The Children’s Action Plan derives from the White Paper. It lists the actions that will be completed to protect children, and when each action will be achieved.

We have made significant progress on the 25 actions and activities in the Children’s Action Plan, including the establishment of:

• a Vulnerable Children’s Board, comprised of the chief executives of the major social sector agencies
• an Advisory Expert Group on Information Sharing (AEGIS)
• a Children’s Action Plan Directorate
• two Children’s Team demonstration sites in Rotorua and Whangarei overseen by interim Regional Children’s Directors
• a draft outcomes framework for the Strategy for Children and Young People in Care.

We have also been progressing work on a Predictive Risk Model that will help us to identify vulnerable children earlier by using relevant data.

The Ministry of Health led a cross-agency initiative to develop and implement an interim IT system to support the work of the Children’s Teams in Rotorua and Whangarei.

The Families Commission Social Policy and Evaluation Research Unit (SuPERU) is leading an evaluation of the Children’s Action Plan. This includes evaluating the Children’s Teams and ensuring we capture the correct data to guide and measure the work of the Children’s Teams so we know we are delivering results for vulnerable children and families.

We are working with other agencies on a National Activity Hub that will provide a central point of contact for services to protect vulnerable children.

Vulnerable Children’s Board

The Vulnerable Children’s Board was established to lead the implementation of the Children’s Action Plan, including the development of the Vulnerable Children Bill. The Board is chaired by the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development, and includes the Chief Executives of Te Puni Kōkiri, and the Ministries of Health, Education, and Justice, and the Deputy Chief Executive (Infrastructure and Resource Markets) of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. It also includes the Commissioner of Police.

The Board reports to a Ministerial Oversight Group. The Group is chaired by the Minister for Social Development and comprises the Ministers of Finance, Justice, Health, Education and Police and the Minister for Whānau Ora.

The Board is leading the implementation of the Children’s Action Plan including the development of the Vulnerable Children Bill.

Children’s Teams

Two Children’s Teams in Rotorua and Whangarei bring together frontline professionals to protect vulnerable children and young people. The teams are made up of local education, health and social sector professionals who work with children.

The two demonstration sites have interim Regional Children’s Directors to provide regional leadership. Executive groups at each site provide local support and multi-agency guidance on the development, implementation and functioning of the Children’s Teams.

The Rotorua Children’s Team began delivering services on 29 July 2013. The Whangarei Children’s Team will begin delivering services on 1 October 2013.

Children’s Action Plan Directorate

In November 2012, the Children’s Action Plan Directorate was established to oversee the implementation of the Children’s Action Plan and an interim National Children’s Director was appointed. In June 2013, a National Children’s Director was appointed.

Social Sector Trials

Since March 2011, the Social Sector Trials have been working with the Ministries of Social Development, Education, Health, Justice, and the New Zealand Police to change the way social services are delivered.

An evaluation of the first six Trials, in Kawerau, Gore, Waitomo, Taumarunui, Horowhenua and South Waikato, showed they have improved community collaboration and increased community responsiveness to issues faced by young people. It also showed that the Trials have made progress in achieving outcomes for young people and the wider community. They resulted in a broader base of services aimed at young people in each location. All the stakeholders involved in the evaluation reported that the Trials created a tangible opportunity for agencies, services and individuals in local communities to work collaboratively, share resources, and achieve better outcomes for young people.

The ten tranche two Trials, in Kaikohe, Ranui (West Auckland), Gisborne, Waikato, Rotorua, Whakatane, South Taranaki, Porirua, Wairarapa and South Dunedin, began in July 2013.

All sixteen Social Sector Trials have been extended to 30 June 2016 to allow time for a close look at what is effective in the Trial areas, and analyse how the Trials can work alongside other initiatives such as Children’s Teams and Whānau Ora in the changing social sector landscape.

Whānau Ora

Whānau Ora is an interagency approach to providing health and social services to support New Zealand families in need.

The Chief Executive is a member of the Whānau Ora Governance Group. The Group oversees the implementation of Whānau Ora and advises the Minister for Whānau Ora on policy settings, priorities and regional management. The Group also leads and co-ordinates across government agencies and other stakeholders to encourage involvement in Whānau Ora.

In 2012/2013, we established four Integrated Contracts with Whānau Ora providers, bringing the total number of Whānau Ora Integrated Contracts to 27.

The Whānau Ora approach empowers whānau as a whole rather than focusing separately on individual family members and their problems.

Enabling Good Lives

Enabling Good Lives is a new way of supporting disabled people. It offers them greater choice and control over the support they receive and the lives they lead. It uses an approach similar to the Social Sector Trial models.

Working with people from the disability sector, employer groups and other government agencies, we developed the Disability Action Plan for 2012–2014. The Plan consists of a small number of cross-government initiatives to deliver better results for disabled people. It also features a long-term direction and principles for change to the disability system based on the Enabling Good Lives approach.

The Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues asked us to demonstrate the Enabling Good Lives approach in Christchurch. The demonstration will run for three years from July 2013. Since February 2013 we have worked with the local disability sector in Christchurch, as well as with the Ministries of Health and Education to develop this proposal. The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, ACC and the Treasury also contributed.

Christchurch school leavers with disabilities will be the first to benefit from Enabling Good Lives.

Functional leadership – increasing value and reducing the costs of government business functions

Three chief executives have been given functional leadership roles to drive information and communications technology (ICT), procurement and property across the state sector. The Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development leads the Property Management Centre of Expertise[1], and the Government National Property Strategy. 

Property Management Centre of Expertise

In 2012/2013, our Property Management Centre of Expertise team provided functional leadership across all office accommodation decisions for departments and Crown agents, including:

• securing agreement for  80,000m² of agency accommodation in the Wellington CBD for Crown Law and the Ministries of Social Development, Education, Health, and Business, Innovation and Employment through the Wellington 5 Accommodation Project
• establishing the accommodation requirements for 20 agencies and completing a successful Request for Proposal through the Christchurch Integrated Accommodation Project.

[1] The Property Management Centre of Expertise is the operational unit reporting  to the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development, as the functional leader for property. The Cabinet has mandated the functional leader to sign off all office accommodation decisions for departments and Crown agents.