Involve 08

Hon Nanaia Mahuta's Address at INVOLVE O8 Wednesday, 2 July 2008 Michael Fowler Centre, WELLINGTON
 

Mihi

Greetings and about Involve ’08

It’s great to be here today to open the Involve ’08 conference. I’d like to thank New Zealand Aotearoa Adolescent Health and Development (NZAAHD) who have held this conference every two years since 1989 to bring youth development workers together.  

I’d also like to acknowledge guest speakers, Dr Ann-Marie Tupuola, an international youth development expert, Lloyd Martin, leading researcher, Pahia Turia, Director of Te Mana Atatu youth social services in Whanganui, Justin Duckworth, community development worker and educator with the Global Education centre, and all of you here today, with a common goal of providing important support for young people, in our communities. 

You work at the coalface, and know first hand what it takes to make a difference in the lives of many young people

For some young people you are the only positive link to to their community and without you they would have no other source of guidance and encouragement.

I thank you for what you do. This conference is important for a lot of reasons, not least is the fact that you can take a breather from your work in communities, to network with others who share the same passion, to share and learn your experience.

Involve conferences have gone from strength to strength, and this year’s programme reflects growth in both the quality and the quantity of evidence based research and reflection of good practice in youth development.

There is now a peer reviewed component to the programme, providing academic presenters with incentives and benefits to bring their work before you.

Also, on each day of the conference there will be a Government expo over the lunch break, with different agencies available on each day, linked to the theme for that day.

Youth services in New Zealand

Youth services are made up of;

Support staff, drug and alcohol workers, counsellors,Youth health providers, Youth transition workers, Mentors, Youth workers, Recreation providers, Uniformed youth service providers, Youth researchers.

One thing you all have in common is to see that the opportunities for young people improve and your effort goes a long way towards making a difference.

When I look around the country I see some great things happening.  There is;

Increased collaboration, people are joining to work together more effectively, more people recognising the importance of evidence-based practice, sharing of good practice, increased emphasis on training and development within the sector - for example, a new set of competencies for youth work training have been agreed by a wide range of stakeholders, services adapting to respond to New Zealand’s increasingly diverse youth population, services treating young people as a respected partner in the design and delivery of programmes.

The bigger picture

Knowing the difference you make at the coalface is one thing, the next question is, how does this contribute towards the Big Picture so that all young people can thrive and grow?

In my mind, a successful youth development environment comprises of five simple things:

Families – good support from and for the family unit

Education – a good education, skills and training pathway

Health – good youth friendly and youth oriented health services

Communities – having an engaged and responsive community, working with young people.

All of these aspects contribute towards a network of support for young people and makes for a society that continues to value them and their contribution.

You know sometimes after reading the paper or watching TV you can get the idea that young people do little more than cause trouble.  From my point of view things are different.  From what I can see, young people in New Zealand are generally doing well: they are vibrant, optimistic and energetic.  We just need to find ways to unlock their talent and inspire their motivation.

Education and training

Many of our students are achieving in the top 25% of students in the OECD.  The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (2003) puts New Zealand in the second highest performing group of countries for the reading, mathematical and scientific literacy of its 15-year-olds.  This is something I believe we should celebrate.

Other causes for celebration are our participation and achievement rates which have been steadily improving.  Over 70% of young people are in education and training.  This represents an increase over the last decade and the proportion of young people leaving school with NCEA level 2 or better has increased since 2003, from 50% to 60% of school-leavers.

Yet, there remains 40% of school leavers failing to achieve NCEA Level Two.  This group is a priority for the Government, and I am committed to working to do more with these young people.

Employment and income support

There have been significant decreases in the unemployment rate.  The number of young people aged 18-19 years receiving an Unemployment Benefit for longer than 13 weeks was less than 250 at December 2007, all of whom were being intensively case managed and in agreed activity.   This is a reduction of 96% compared to December 2002 (6,484).

The unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds has fallen consistently since 2000 and stands at 11.2% for the March 2008 quarter.

A consequence of the decreasing youth unemployment rate has been a matching downward trend in the proportion of 16-24 year olds in receipt of a benefit since 2000. 

I am pleased that just as the minimum wage has increased from about $8 when we came into government to $12 now, so too has employment conditions for young people who, after 200 hours in their place of employment are eligible for the full minimum wage.

Health

Mortality rates for 15-24 year olds have declined by a third since 1990.  This is due to decreases in motor vehicle accidents and suicide.

Again, I was pleased with the $17.4 million appropriation in this year’s budget over four years, which will go towards youth health services in schools and towards one-stop shops.  Indeed the health sector recognises the need to provide greater expertise in the area of adolescent mental health which I know will support work in the addictions field.

Youth justice

Something that is true, but we rarely hear is that most young people are law abiding and actively engaged in their communities.  While about 30% of young people are apprehended by the Police at least once, only about 1% of all young people become chronic offenders. Overall rates of youth offending have fallen in recent years.  The apprehension rate for 14-16 year olds has declined by 16% over the period 1995-2006.

Despite what we see and hear in the media, from June 2006 to June 2007, Counties Manukau experienced a 4.9% drop in total reported crime, which was the second largest reduction for any region in New Zealand.   More importantly, work being done in the area of mentoring and better engaging young people in sport, recreation, music and the creative sector, provides useful points of engagement to many young people.

Young people as members of families

For the past eight years, the government's top priority has been to improve both living standards and the services our families need.  For example;

• 377,000 more jobs in the economy has made a big difference to our families,
• and so has Working for Families tax relief directed to (seventy per cent) of our families with children has relieved some pressure to those households
• Paid parental leave to enable parents to spend more time with new babies has been well supported
• four weeks annual holiday – giving families more time together,
• twenty free hours for three-and four-year olds in early childhood education, making sure the early years in education are supported.
• income-related fair rents for state housing and support for first home owners through Welcome Home loans
• interest-free loans and capped fees for tertiary students to make education more affordable
• the introduction of KiwiSaver, helping New Zealanders save for the future, with well over 400,000 people now enrolled in the scheme, big investments in apprenticeships and other skills training.

Pathway to Partnership

Families are a priority for the Government and we also recognise that for whatever reason sometimes families struggle to provide the support that young people need to make the transition from youth to adult life.  Filling this gap is one of the vital roles of the non-profit sector – of which youth work organisations play an important part.

A conservative estimate of government funding for non-profits through contracts for services and grants is $2 billion per annum.

This year Government announced $446 million for building a Sustainable Social Services Sector – Pathway to Partnership.  Some of this will be going to improve service provision for young people to improve the quality and sustainability of community-based social services.

Pathway to Partnership provides full funding for essential social services delivered by community organisations, as well as funding adjustments for volume increases and annual cost adjustment payments.  Community organisations will now have more certainty, more ability to plan ahead, attract and retain qualified staff, and improve service effectiveness

This builds on work already underway, like simplifying funding and contracting processes, and providing multi-year funding to ensure more security for providers.  The increased funding will:  Move existing essential family, child and youth focused services to full funding by 2011, address forecast volume increases, provide for annual cost adjustment payments, focus on achieving outcomes for vulnerable and at-risk young people and their families, enable providers to build workforce capability and capacity, support organisations to work more closely together to reduce duplication.

As one part of the Pathway to Partnership plan, the Ministry of Youth Development’s youth-focused services will receive an increase in funding of $9.471 million that will be progressively introduced over the next four years.

 Schools Plus

We want all young people to be participating in education, skills or other structured learning, until the age of 18.  As I said earlier, we need to find the hidden talent in young people and support their learning.

Schools Plus is about building on the strengths of our current education system to transform secondary schooling and its links to other sectors, and give our young people the best possible chance to succeed.

I know first hand and in my own community, that educational achievement improves the lives of individuals and families and contribute to building stronger communities.

Investing in our young people's future means we are investing in our country’s future.

Youth transitions and youth training

We all know how important good transitions between school and work are for our 15 – 19 year olds, and for our economy and society. Research shows that difficulties for young people in making successful transitions leads to a range of current and future economic and social costs both at an individual and macro level.

That is why we have established Youth Transition Services in 18 territorial authorities, with similar government funded services in other areas, to work face to face with over 14,000 young people to help them identify appropriate work or training opportunities and to put them in touch with employers and training providers.

When we launched the Modern Apprenticeships programme in 2000, we set about rebuilding trade training in New Zealand.  Now available in more than 30 industries, Modern Apprenticeships have allowed over 15,000 people aged 16 to 21 to earn while working towards a national certificate level 3 or 4 qualification on the job.   A more highly skilled workforce is developing, which is something we are very proud of.  These young people and the businesses they are working for are crucial to our increase in skill and productivity – and I congratulate them.

Looking forward

In looking forward, there are a number of issues confronting the work we all do to support young people.

The first issue is the increasing diversity of our youth population.  Compared to the older population, there are higher numbers of Maori, Pacific, Asian and African young people among our youth population.  How do we make our services more culturally inclusive and user-friendly?  Culture and Identity are critical to the future well-being of our nation.

The second issue is research and evaluation.  We are heavily reliant on overseas data when it comes to assessing “what works”.   Robust evidence demonstrating that we are making a difference is critical and we need to be mindful of how we can measure the outcomes we achieve and strategically put evidence into practice.

The third issue to think about is the health and wellbeing of our programme participants.  Young New Zealanders have relatively poor health in comparison with many of their overseas counterparts.

As a step along the way, the Government is funding the extension of school-based services into all Decile 1-3 school, and into Teen Parent Units and Alternative Education settings.

I’d like to see us make free health care available to all our programme participants. Exactly how we would do this is something that is going to vary from region to region. As you know, it’s important to have “youth-friendly” health practitioners providing this care, otherwise young people simply won’t use the service. Some of you may be doing this already and it would be useful if you shared your experiences with others.

The fourth issue is the training and upskilling of mentors and youth workers.  The opportunities for making greater use of this valuable professional group are expanding and we want to make sure we’ve made the appropriate training available to them.

Conclusion

I see the potential for youth services to set the standard in how to engage with young people and how to motivate and inspire them, especially those young people who have proved challenging to more traditional services.

I see many youth services becoming exemplars of best practice – working models of approaches that the evidence tells us are effective.  

We know a lot now about how we need to be working if are to make a difference in the lives of young people. We know what kind of support and leadership and opportunities that we need to provide. Our services are in a good space to be picking up on all of this and becoming as good as they can be.

There are some things I’d really like to see; I’d like to see our services becoming more diverse – reaching a wider range of young people. I’d like to see our services working more closely with the communities they are based in. I’d like to see our services using regular assessment and evaluation as management tools.   

 How we do all of this needs to be discussed. You’ll have plenty of chances to share your ideas over the Conference and I look forward to the feedback.