Cross-agency leadership

Social sector agencies are working together to organise and lead themselves in a way that makes services more accessible, improves efficiencies and gets tangible results for New Zealanders. With our Chief Executive as Chair, the leaders of Health, Education, Justice and the infrastructure leader from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment are the accountable members of the Social Sector Forum. Central agencies provide advice and other Chief Executives are also invited to work on relevant issues.

Social sector leadership

better results through innovation…

The forward focus is on innovation through investment in rapid cycle change. This will deliver better results for New Zealanders and help us improve the way we deliver social services in the future. Testing innovation relies on good information and fast feedback of results for expansion or improvement.

taking a portfolio approach…

The Social Sector Forum agencies are working together to innovate across a range and balance of initiatives, by actively managing their joint work as a portfolio.

Social Sector Forum Chief Executives are joining up and learning across their different governance responsibilities including the Joint Venture Board (Social Sector Trials) and the Vulnerable Children’s Board (Children’s Teams).

priorities…

Chief Executives have identified joint priorities to deliver better results and demonstrate innovation and learning within and between work streams. The priorities are:

• Better Public Services Result 1 – reducing the number of people who have been on a working age benefit for more than 12 months
• Better Public Services Result 2 – increasing participation in early childhood education
• Better Public Services Result 3 – increasing infant immunisation rates and reducing the incidence of rheumatic fever
• Better Public Services Result 4 – reducing the number of assaults on children
• Social Sector Trials – improving outcomes through community-based solutions
• Children’s Action Plan – working together to protect vulnerable children
• Youth Mental Health Project – improving mental health outcomes for young people
• Contracting – using new contracting approaches to deliver results.

These have strong links to related cross-agency work on housing, increasing achievement at NCEA Level 2 and Level 4 and above on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework, and the reduction of crime and offending.

key connectors…

Social Sector Forum initiatives will also link to or work together with other key pieces of work happening across government including the Family Violence Taskforce, Children’s Teams and Whānau Ora.

Leading on behalf of Government

We continue to look for ways to co-ordinate public sector effort as a whole and lead on behalf of the government. We will link initiatives back to the Social Sector Forum. 

The Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families provides advice to the Family Violence Ministerial Group. Our Chief Executive is the Deputy Chair of the Taskforce and the Deputy Chief Executives of Family and Community Services and Child, Youth and Family are both members. 

We provide secretariat functions for the Taskforce, the Māori Reference Group and the Pacific Advisory Group that supports the Taskforce. 

We administer the Office for Disability Issues and the Office for Senior Citizens. These offices promote and monitor the implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy and the New Zealand Positive Ageing Strategy respectively. 

Our Chief Executive chairs the Chief Executives’ Group on Disability Issues. The Group supports the Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues by leading the implementation of the Disability Action Plan. 

The Ministry of Youth Development leads young people’s input into policy development across Government. We will provide young people with opportunities to participate in, and contribute to, policy development by engaging with them and seeking their perspectives to inform decision-making.

How we will demonstrate success

The four Better Public Services targets that are priorities for the Forum provide the measures of our collective impact. By joining together we are: 

• focusing on making a collective impact, working together to contribute to results
• pursuing our common agenda to deliver results, working across service boundaries and changing what we do to better support our target groups
• introducing new services and supports and using the information we hold in new ways to target our services. 

Our strong combined leadership supports our agencies and the organisations we work with in communities to continue to learn, adapt and change.