We supported strong, inclusive communities
Through StudyLink, the Ministry of Youth Development, the Office for Seniors and the Office for Disability Issues, we provide support to students, young adults, seniors and disabled people respectively to enable them to be part of their community.
Giving rangatahi opportunities to contribute to communities
There is strong evidence that positive youth development supports young people to participate confidently in their communities by building their capability and resilience.
Through the Ministry of Youth Development – Te Manatū Whakahiato Taiohi – we support young people aged 12 to 24 years to acquire the skills and confidence they need to participate in and contribute to the social and economic growth of New Zealand.
We also work in partnership with iwi, business and philanthropic sectors, and other government agencies to collectively engage and collaborate in order to support quality youth development opportunities. These programmes aim to build individual capability and resilience through:
- funding experiential youth development opportunities
- supporting sector capability and capacity
- engaging with partners to help young people acquire the skills and confidence they need to contribute positively to society.
We purchased services from nearly 200 local and national youth development providers, supporting approximately 92,000 young people to access varied and distinct programmes and services. These included the Shakespeare Globe Centre Trust, The Big Sing, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, alongside distinct leadership, volunteering and mentoring initiatives across New Zealand.
Reports from programme participants indicate that over 95 percent improved their capability and resilience and their personal, social and decision-making skills through participation in a youth development opportunity.
Supporting survivors of sexual violence
The New Zealand Youth Awards recognise and celebrate the passion, success and commitment of rangatahi (young people) who lead change, innovate and create solutions throughout New Zealand, and of those who support them.
The 2018 youth-led event was a great success, with about 200 young people, supporters and invited guests attending.
We gave 17 awards across six categories that celebrate qualities such as leadership, inclusion and diversity, commitment to the environment, entrepreneurship, working for youth or being an outstanding youth champion. Our rangatahi demonstrated these qualities in areas like the arts, culture, education, the environment, health and wellbeing, research and sport.
Two young women, Injy Johnstone (left) and Ranisha Chand (right), received the inaugural Senior and Junior Supreme Awards respectively. These Awards recognise two outstanding young people who have worked tirelessly to advocate for, and make a significantly positive contribution, to address the current needs of young people in their communities.
Partnership Fund
In 2016 the Government committed funding to seed a Partnership Fund overseen by an independent board, to attract investment from business, philanthropic, iwi and other partners to grow youth development opportunities.
This year a new board was appointed for a two-year term. The Government supported strong youth representation on the board, with six of the ten members aged 18 to 24 years. This demonstrates a commitment to provide opportunities for more youth to be involved in governance and leadership roles, activating their strengths, participation and decision-making skills.
The Partnership Fund Board invested $1.78 million, alongside $4.7 million co-invested by partners, creating 9,000 youth development opportunities.
Youth Enterprise Initiatives
Budget 2017 allocated $1.5 million per year over the next four years to help young people develop entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and competencies through a range of youth-focused business and enterprise initiatives.
We funded a range of providers, including the Young Enterprise Trust, Creative HQ and the Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust to deliver enterprise-focused initiatives to over 5,000 young people. We also directly contributed to youth-led enterprises to support individuals and/or groups of young people who had a new and/or innovative enterprise project or idea. The providers assisted the individuals or groups if they needed knowledge, skills, competencies or mentoring to help them create a viable business from an idea or fledgling operation.
Prime Minister’s Youth Programme
We contracted providers to deliver the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, which is targeted at young people who have faced, and are managing, significant challenges in their lives.
A total of 90 young people from Central, South and West Auckland completed the programme, which included participating in activities designed to support social and community connections, increase capability and resilience, and provide new and valuable experiences.
The programme culminated in a celebration dinner and certificate presentation ceremony attended by both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Youth.
Helping disabled people find and stay in work
We continued to build strong relationships and networks with the disability community, including people with mental health conditions. We investigated issues raised through the networks and communicated solutions to the disability and health community.
An important function of the welfare system is to ensure that people with disabilities and health conditions have sufficient income, not just to support themselves, but also to meet the additional costs of their health care.
Helping disabled people and people with mental health conditions find and stay in work is one of our key goals - most disabled people can and want to work. We worked with employment service providers to enable more disabled people and people with mental health conditions to gain and retain paid employment.
Supporting disabled New Zealanders to participate in society
The Office for Disability Issues is the focal point within government on disability issues. It supports implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the New Zealand Disability Strategy (NZDS), and advocates for a more accessible and inclusive New Zealand.
New Zealand Disability Strategy
We work with disabled people’s organisations and government agencies and provide advice to the Government on the NZDS.
The 2016–2026 NZDS represents New Zealand’s approach for implementing the UNCRPD in the New Zealand context. This work includes:
Developing the Strategy Outcomes Framework
We worked with the NZDS Revision Reference Group[35], relevant government agencies and the three Independent Monitoring Mechanism partners[36] to develop and refine indicators.
By 30 June 2018, 28 draft indicators had been developed that align well with the eight priority areas in the NZDS. These indicators are reflective of what disabled people think, will demonstrate progress in the implementation of the NZDS, and are being submitted to the Government for agreement to progress measures for the indicators.
Implementing the New Zealand Disability Action Plan 2014–2018
We continued to make progress with the 2014–2018 New Zealand Disability Action Plan, which is a cross-government system to push for action on issues that need more than one government agency to work together. Officials and disabled people’s organisations meet quarterly to review progress against the Plan. The current Action Plan is due for renewal, so in 2018/2019 we will be consulting with the public to develop a new Plan for 2019–2022.
Developing the New Zealand Sign Language Board’s five-year strategy
We helped the New Zealand Sign Language Board develop a five-year strategy (2018-2023) to ensure that other agencies’ work and Board-sponsored projects and activities are well aligned with the evidence on how a minority language is maintained and promoted.
This support will enhance the ability of deaf people to learn, communicate and participate in society, and will help the Government meet its commitments under UNCRPD and the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006.
We helped to finalise a pay equity agreement for vocational and disability support workers
In July 2017 MSD and Oranga Tamariki reached a landmark agreement with unions to fund significant pay increases and more training for almost 1,700 vocational and disability care and support workers. The settlement addresses historical gender pay equity disparities in line with the April 2017 TerraNova agreement for care and support workers.
The TerraNova agreement was based on the premise that the pay of a caregiver (predominantly female) was less than what would be paid to a male with the same skill set in a different occupation.
The agreement affected around 250 contracts for services accessed by about 24,500 people and children with disabilities.
We provided more help to people who have a health condition or a disability
Nearly 47 percent of people on Job Seeker Support have a health condition or disability. Our projects in this space aim to support this group into the workforce, but also to achieve broader outcomes such as improved health and wellbeing.
These projects show that integrating social and health initiatives can produce great outcomes for people and their families and communities.
We developed employment support guidelines for employers and our contracted service providers
We supported the New Zealand Disability Support Network, disabled person’s organisations, employment providers and ACC in the development of employment support practice guidelines for supporting disabled people into work, based on what has been shown to be effective. The Minister for Disability Issues and the Minister of Employment launched the guidelines in March 2018.
These guidelines will form the basis of our tendering for employment services for both national and regional contracts, and for both specialised services and mainstream services. We will also use the guidelines to inform future training and purchasing.
Research into supporting people with health conditions and disabilities
Health Research Council
In July 2017 we entered into a strategic partnership with the Health Research Council (HRC) to invest in high-quality research and to advance the strategic objectives of both organisations, with the aim of achieving improved outcomes for people with a health condition, injury or disability.
Under the partnership, we will allocate the funding to research projects and a literature review to identify innovative approaches for case management services that support improved employment outcomes. Academics will lead the literature review, which aims to reveal aspects of this group that we may not fully understand, as well as what other jurisdictions are doing and what they have learned.
Oranga Mahi (Work through Wellness)
Oranga Mahi is a set of cross-agency projects that we deliver in partnership with district health boards (DHBs). Since 2016 the programme has trialled new ways of working with people who are on a health-related benefit. Oranga Mahi projects aim to improve the experience of care for its participants and to support them to improve their health and wellbeing, leading to sustainable social outcomes.
Findings from these projects will inform a best practice model for the future delivery of health and employment programmes for people who have a health condition or disability.
Harvard Medical School has selected Oranga Mahi as a case study, and will send researchers to New Zealand to co-write case studies on the projects. These will then be published as part of the Harvard syllabus.
Among our Oranga Mahi projects this year was the Rākau Rangatira Trial, in which we partnered with Northland DHB, Te Hau Āwhiowhio ō Otangarei Trust and Manaia Health Primary Health Organisation. This kaupapa Māori and Whānau Ora-based programme for people receiving any benefit with a mild to moderate mental health or substance addiction living in Otangarei (a suburb of Whangarei) commenced in April 2016. As at 30 June 2018, 84 people had been referred to the service and 82 had enrolled. Thirteen have entered into full-time employment.
Helping senior New Zealanders to maintain independence and participate in society
Older people are key contributors to our economy and our communities. We provide services to support the wellbeing of seniors and encourage their participation in their communities.
The challenges and opportunities of an ageing population
We produced a discussion document to start a conversation about a new strategy for an ageing population. The last strategy was published in 2001. We will work to update or replace it so we can ensure that New Zealand is in a good position to deal with an ageing population and the wider changes that are happening in society now and in the future.
Over time we expect to see reducing home ownership rates, changing family structures, more diversity, and more single-person households. As part of the initial consultation phase we looked at trends for older people for the next 20 years, planned for consultation and engagement, and commissioned experts to provide their thoughts on future ageing-related issues.
Promoting of age-friendly communities
The New Zealand Government received affiliate membership status to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities. This recognises New Zealand’s intention to work towards being age-friendly, and provides access to WHO resources and networks.
We organised New Zealand’s first Age-friendly Forum in June 2018, bringing together a broad cross-section from central and local government, academics, NGOs, community agencies and older people to showcase and discuss age-friendly initiatives. Auckland University of Technology presented at the Forum a formal evaluation that the Office for Seniors had commissioned of age-friendly pilots in three communities (Hamilton, New Plymouth and Kāpiti).
We amended the Community Connects Grant criteria this year, targeting funds to projects that support communities to develop or implement age-friendly plans.
We allocated funding to three territorial authorities and two community groups. The territorial authorities are developing age-friendly plans in rural communities, which should help highlight age-friendly issues for rural communities. One community group has been funded to look at exploring ways to reduce vulnerability and social isolation in rural Māori communities, with the aim to develop guidance for other communities to use. The second community group has funding to develop resources that could be widely available for primary and pre-schools to help these schools grow empathy with, and understanding of, the needs of older people in the community.
SuperGold Card
We ran two business recruitment campaigns to attract more businesses to the SuperGold Card programme.
The campaigns targeted enhancing the value of the card for individuals who do not have the same access to the benefits of the free off-peak transport concessions as those in main city centres.
These two campaigns significantly contributed to the enrolment of 679 new businesses in the SuperGold Card programme over the year. This means there are now 9,213 businesses providing SuperGold discounts and offers, representing 13,994 outlets nationwide.
International social security agreements
We worked to expand the network of social security agreements New Zealand has with other countries[37]. We are negotiating new agreements with the Republic of Korea and Cyprus. Texts of these agreements are close to being finalised and we anticipate that they will be implemented in 2019.
At the request of the Netherlands Government, we have also been amending the agreement with the Netherlands to include a ‘country of residence principle’, under which the amount of Netherlands benefit paid overseas is adjusted to the local cost of living. We are close to finalising the amendment, which may be introduced in 2018, subject to ratification by the Netherlands Parliament.
Footnotes
[35]. The NZDS Revision Reference Group brings expertise and leadership in working with the disability sector, providing strategic advice, building connections between the Government and the community sector, and bringing skill in collaborative approaches. The Group includes members who contribute the perspectives of Māori, Pacific peoples, older people, young people, families and service providers.
[36]. Domestic accountability is formally provided through the Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM), designated by the Government in 2011. The IMM is a three-way partnership between the Human Rights Commission, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Disabled Persons’ Organisations Coalition and is designated by Cabinet to provide independent monitoring of New Zealand’s implementation of the UNCRPD.
[37]. New Zealand has nine social security agreements: with Australia, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey, Malta, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The agreements improve the lives of New Zealanders by making it easier for people to move to another country in retirement, or to move in and out of New Zealand during their working lives, without losing entitlement to New Zealand Superannuation. The agreements also help to ensure New Zealanders receive a pension from any country they have lived in.
