Budget speech: Vote Social Development 2010

You stand before me as a group of people who unquestionably play a vital role in New Zealand society. 

It is you who looks after our most vulnerable. You support, guide and lift our people up. You're there in the good times and more importantly, the bad. 

And I am proud to say, I stand before you, representing a Government that's backing you all the way. I believe in what you do and I believe you can do even better if we get out of your way.

You'll find as you look through the Government's books this year, there is a strong focus on rebuilding in Budget 2010. 

Yesterday's budget wasn't just about today and tomorrow. 

It's about how we grow both socially and economically out of this recession to build a better New Zealand.

However you need to look beyond tax cuts and GST and see the real sea change coming in the social sector.

Our priorities are very much about creating a stronger society with fewer people on welfare and more in meaningful work. 

But the bigger change is how we create a society where communities have more say in providing a better future for individuals, their families and their children. 

We will all have to be innovative to realise this vision. We have to think differently, act differently and deliver differently to make a real impact in communities.

I want to live in a New Zealand where young people can thrive.

Where our children grow up safe in happy and stable families.

Where our people see a brighter future for themselves and each other.

First we need a robust economy and this Government is very focused on the economic side of the story. 

And just because we're in the social sector, we shouldn't lose sight of the importance of this. 

A strong, resilient economy means a huge amount to the families you all work with.  

We simply must have an economy where businesses have the confidence to give young people jobs, and where household incomes can grow.  

But Government also needs to work differently to get better outcomes for those who need help and we need to tackle some of the problems now.

Governments have grappled with social issues without transformational success because year after year the response has been to simply throw money at providers.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into social services, driven by enthusiasm and good intentions. 

But the results aren't consistent across the sector and while some achieve good results for communities, others are underperforming. 

It'd be easy if I could take one programme and say "this is the answer" and hand it to every community.

But that isn't the way to rebuild communities. 

There isn't one answer to this problem, no silver bullet and there isn't a single programme that will lead the way.

I am determined to change the way we do things because I believe social services can be funded and delivered better. 

I think it can be done more efficiently, reaching more people and making a bigger difference to families, individuals and their communities.

I'm taking a much harder road and I'm lucky to have had some extremely good advice from some of you, your colleagues and others in the sector.  

I'll talk more about that new direction in a minute, but first I want to take a look at where we've come from in the past 18 months.

When I took up the reins of this portfolio, it was clear we faced some serious and urgent problems. With the weight of the biggest global recession since the 1930s upon us, we had to take action quickly.

We did four main things. 

First we focused on jobs - keeping people in work, getting people back into work, getting jobs into Work and Income and supporting people who'd lost their jobs. 

And it worked - we didn't hit the predicted highs of 11% unemployment. At its worst, 7.1% of New Zealanders were officially out of work with 68,000 on an unemployment benefit. 

But during 2009, in the thick of the recession 66,000 people went off their benefit because they found a job.

Our next immediate problem was youth. Young people were being disproportionately hurt by the recession and faced long-term impacts.  

We brought in Job Ops, Community Max, and Breakaway programmes.  

Our Youth Opportunities package with holiday camps, mentoring and motivational help and strong focus on jobs has kept many off the streets and provided a glimpse of what could be a very different future for them. 

Young people continue to be a major focus for us this year. 

We started addressing the problems faced by vulnerable children, getting data straight between departments, putting social workers in hospitals, forming an independent experts group, introducing first response and the Never Shake a Baby campaign.

And we had to urgently support many of you in the social sector who were barely holding your heads above water, worried about how you'd make ends meet with huge increases in demand for your services.  

We worked with the sector to develop the Community Response Fund to cushion critical social services from the recession. This will continue through 2010/11.

Meanwhile, we've had a really good look at our own Government spending.

It's actually been a healthy exercise that all departments have undertaken - a timely opportunity to take an honest appraisal of our own spending.

We've had to make really some tough decisions because we're all being asked to do more with less. We have focused on value for money and keeping resources on direct services. 

Together we've navigated our way through the recession, despite severe fiscal constraints and we've come through unscathed by any major cuts to the social sector.

So now we come to this year, this Budget. 

Many of the initiatives in this Budget have come out of working closely with the sector. 

Priorities

National is determined to change how we do things to make a real difference to society. The key to this is better co-ordination of funds.

The Government spends $20 billion a year in social development, through supporting those on benefits and purchasing social services.

That's a third of the Government's total annual spend. 

The answer clearly isn't just about how much - it's about how. 

National's investing an extra $26.7 million into Job Ops which will double the number of places from six to twelve thousand. 

$12.6 million of extra funding will also go into Employment Assistance to support programmes like Straight to Work and Taskforce Green to keep the focus employment.

National is investing $15 million to pay for services including supported homes where trained staff will be available 24/7 along with targeted parenting support for teen fathers who are so often overlooked. 

An investment of $6.6 million into Social Workers in Hospitals will boost numbers from six to sixteen because this programme provides a vital link in the chain that identifies and protects vulnerable children at risk of abuse.

These are just some of our priorities for 2010.

Part of the funding picture that you'll see in this budget, is some changes to the Pathway to Partnership fund. 

So where is it going to be spent?  We've already announced that $120 million will go into Whanau Ora to kick start what I believe will see transformational change in how social services are delivered.

The $64 million dollar Community Response Fund will be available this year to assist providers trying to rebuild following a biting recession.

New in this Budget is an extra $21.5 million to go on teen parents and social workers in hospitals and $86.6 million has been ring fenced for future family and community initiatives.

$90.5 million will go into a new innovation fund that will pave a way to quality social services that better serve New Zealanders and it's going directly into your hands. But there is so much more to it than that.

Community Response Model

We are giving control back to communities. The first step is called the Community Response Model - or CRM. 

We know some programmes are working. We know some people and organisations are making a real difference. In some cases we know they would do more if they only had the support and the resources. And we know that some organisations are not making a difference. 

What we found when we set up the Community Response Fund last year, was something quite remarkable. 

We handed that fund over to community representatives and local officials and said here's the money, you decide where it goes. 

Those forums made really smart, responsible, considered decisions - they proved they have high expectations and ambitions for their communities.  

They know what's happening out there in their communities better than Wellington.

It just doesn't make sense to drive local solutions from Wellington. 

MSD's Family and Community Services spend around $110 million a year on programmes and initiatives in our communities. 

The new CRM will have forums, made up of representatives from the community and voluntary sector as well as Government and they will look at that spend community by community and they will review existing MSD Family and Community services funding. 

Those forums will make recommendations to me on how funding can be better directed to improve services and results for local families.

We're asking them to take a considered look at current spend and contracts and tell us what is and isn't working. 

We are serious about backing our communities to come up with local solutions. 

After listening to advice from our NGO group, we set up a fund that supports providers to collaborate with each other and the community, upskilling staff and organisations and removing duplication. 

Once a community has done that, the gaps will be obvious. Where there are not enough services or where there are no services for specific needs, the gaps will be clear to see and can be addressed. 

Level One funding supports providers to remove duplication, merge back office functions, work together, join services up where synergies exist and share best practice. 

Level Two funding will be available to providers and communities that have reached a high standard of delivery, to help address gaps in services, reach more people and support innovation and collaboration.

The new CRM brings community and Government together to transform the delivery of family and community services.

Concluding remarks

It has been a hard year for some New Zealanders. Many have suffered badly because of the global recession from which we were not immune. 

But we now have an opportunity to build a better, stronger more connected society in New Zealand, together.

Budget 2010 is a big step towards that vision.  

I am committed to being a part of a Government that guides and supports what you do for our communities. 

And I'm convinced that sometimes Government needs to step back and let communities do it for themselves; knowing that National is backing them all the way.