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Significant funding boost for family violence services

09 May 2018.

The Government has allocated $76.157 million of additional funding over four years to support the stabilisation and strengthening of MSD-funded family violence services for victims, perpetrators and their families.

Social services dealing most directly with the harm caused by family violence will get much needed support as the Government boosts funding to front line agencies for the first time in ten years.

The Government has allocated $76.157 million of additional funding over four years to support the stabilisation and strengthening of MSD-funded family violence services for victims, perpetrators and their families.

Information on Budget 2018 funding for Family Violence services

As part of Budget 2018, Government is allocating $76.157 million of additional funding over four years to support the stabilisation and strengthening of MSD-funded family violence services for victims, perpetrators and their families. This funding will be rolled out as follows:

 

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22 and outyears

TOTAL

Total new funding for family violence services

1. Stabilising current services

6.590

6.590

21.969

21.969

72.497

2. Filling gaps in service delivery

     -

15.379

Funding for service development, co-design and evaluation

0.940

1.160

1.340

0.220

3.660

Total

7.530

23.129

23.309

22.189

76.157

In each of 2018/19 and 2019/20, MSD will invest an additional $6.590 million to increase funding for family violence service providers that currently have contracts with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to provide direct family violence services.

Services that most directly respond to the needs of victims, perpetrators and their families will get extra funding in 2018/19 and 2019/20. These are:

  • Family and whānau services, including longer-term recovery, counselling and safety planning
  • Programmes for self-referred, non-mandated perpetrators of family violence
  • Immediate crisis response and support services for victims of family violence (and their children, where present), and
  • Longer-term psychological recovery services for victims.

The services that will not receive extra funding in 2018/19 and 2019/20 are:

  • MSD-funded family violence helplines - These services are being considered separately as MSD works with the sector on the Funding Plan
  • Elder Abuse Response Services - These were re-designed and re-tendered in 2017/18 and will need to be reviewed before any additional funding is considered
  • Family violence networks - These do not provide direct services. Current contracts will be rolled over for 2018/19
  • Funding to support capability building in the family violence sector will not be increased as it is not used for provision of direct services. However, this will be considered in the work being done to understand what we can do to better support providers to respond to family violence, and
  • Family violence prevention programmes.

The additional funding will be applied to contracts from 1 July 2018.

In 2019/20, $15.379 million will be used to start better serving the needs of families and whānau affected by family violence. The new Family Violence Funding Plan will inform the allocation of this funding. Decisions on how to use the $21.969 million for services in 2020/21 and 2021/22 will be made in 2019/20 in accordance with the new Funding Plan.

MSD has already started to work with the sector to develop the new Family Violence Funding Plan.

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