Understanding
A rich understanding of our people in the context of their whānau, their outcomes and what works for whom and why
Understanding what matters for each person and their whanau's unique circumstances, how well our services are meeting their needs and how their outcomes contribute to the performance across the sector.
Understanding is important because…
For our services to improve outcomes they need to be effective: delivered to the right people, in the right way, at the right time. We need to understand what matters for individuals and their whanau (mana manaaki) that will in turn help understand how our services and those of our partners are working, and measure these in ways that are relevant to tangata whenua and communities.
Understanding is key to making good decisions about where we invest our resources, so we can enable kia takatū tātou: long term economic and social development. These decisions range from frontline staff choosing the right type of support, to partner services we purchase and how we provide robust options for ministers. It also includes answering enduring research questions about how the welfare system is functioning and what we can do to improve.
Moving from:
- In some areas MSD knows the impact of services and initiatives, but we don’t measure everything that matters.
- Data needs can be an after-thoughts during change processes, so we don’t understand what is happening and how data works together.
To:
- We respect views of tangata whenua and partner with them to implement the right frameworks to design services and understand outcomes for tangata whenua and hāpori.
- We have a rich understanding of what is happening, what works for whom and why across meaningful outcomes.
- We have a deep understanding of our performance and the effectiveness of the system, including the strength of communities.
- We think ahead, designing for the insights we will need to support good decisions.
- Different perspectives are considered, and groups consulted with in the collection, use, sharing and management of information.
When this is working well:
We are measuring outcomes that matter to people and their whānau, so we have a holistic understanding of their specific needs, circumstances and communities. This is represented in the Better Outcomes Framework and Development of Data Assets in our roadmap.
Our insights enrich our understanding of how well welfare supports meets the needs and preferences of people, their whānau and communities. We measure and can explain the performance of the welfare system, providing a suite of Investment Tools so national and regional decision makers can ensure we’re making the best use of our resources. We use information and insights to Enable early intervention where it can have the biggest impact.
We publish our data and insights via Secure & Efficient Data Sharing and Self-service BI for client, iwi and partners to leverage, ensuring they are easily accessible and understood. We take into account the different perspectives and skills of those we are sharing information with.
We use our Collaborative Analytics & Data Science Platform to develop mutually beneficial insights with partners and other agencies. We also provide a Self-Service BI to empower people to use the data we hold to make better decisions for their communities.
We have effective Capability Development processes and a culture that builds the data literacy of staff and partners so they can use data products to make good decisions. We work with ‘analytics by design’, assessing the data needs when we make system or service changes, so we can create insights to make good decisions. We understand how our different channels and systems interact through Omnichannel analytics, so they’re as effective as possible.
