Whanau Ora : Transformation

The goal of Whanau Ora is very clear: transformation.

But of course, transformation is not something that one person can do for somebody else.  

It takes a collective will to change; a supportive environment; and a compelling reason to justify it.

There will be other speakers throughout this forum that will talk about the state of the social sector system which fully warrant transformation.

They will talk of a system of multiple contracts with multiple funders; a system which has serious disadvantages for providers and often restricts their capability to be more responsive to whanau.

Transaction costs are high, different reporting schedules require heavy demands on time, competition between providers compromises collaborative effort, and whanau needs are compromised at the expense of meeting required contract outputs.

So my focus in this presentation is not going to be so much about why we need it; but it will be about what Whanau Ora will mean for us all.

The Spanish artist and painter, Pablo Picasso, once defined transformation in the following way:

"There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence transform a yellow spot into sun".

My interest in Whanau Ora is not about prescribing and specifying activities to the level of a yellow spot - it is instead about ensuring the doorway is opened, to reflect the aspirations of whanau to be self-managing and take responsibility for their own social, economic, and cultural development.

In policy-speak, I am expecting a transformation from output based, tick-box contracts to outcome based relational contracts. 

In whanau-speak, it is about knowing we can do for ourselves; it is about letting the sun stream into our lives rather than relying on others to pull down the shade.

I did notice that when the Prime Minister appointed me to a ministerial position in this regard, he did not appoint me Minister of Transformation but instead Minister Responsible for Whanau Ora.

Responsibility is something that I know a lot about.

I was raised within a whanau context to know that my greatest challenge in life was to meet my obligations and responsibilities to my own.  

Professor Mason Durie, in chairing the Taskforce on Whanau Ora, gave shape to these responsibilities by suggesting that outcomes for whanau will be met when whanau are:

• Self-managing;
• Living healthy lifestyles;
• Participating fully in society;
• Confidently participating in te Ao Maori;
• Economically secure and successfully involved in wealth creation;
• Cohesive, resilient and nurturing.

These outcomes sound great on paper - but the big question is, of course, how will they be translated from principle to action?

Whanau ora is about transforming social service delivery so that services are focused on the needs of whanau rather than only responding to the specific issue that an individual has presented with at a service. 

A common situation, for example, might be where a person has presented with diabetes, received the appropriate treatment to address the medical concerns but the wider lifestyle focus including healthy diet and regular exercise will be minimised unless there is a whole of whanau approach.

Or we might see a child being the focus of concern because of their prolific absences from school, without realising that child is taking care of his mother who has been unwell with respiratory conditions; conditions exacerbated by inadequate housing.

A central expectation upon Whanau Ora providers and provider collectives will be to make substantial contributions to whanau outcomes by delivering integrated and coherent services.  

That means taking an all-of-whanau approach; demonstrating a spirit of collaboration between funders, providers, practitioners and whanau to enable coherent service delivery, effective resourcing and competent and innovative provision

It requires Government agencies and NGOs to better coordinate and align their service settings and priorities.

But that is only one aspect of the transformation.

I am reminded of the wisdom of Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

They talk about the people but they do not trust them; and trusting the people is the indispensable precondition for revolutionary change......  Transformation is only valid if it is carried out with the people, not for them.

And this is perhaps the most significant aspect of this transformation policy approach; in that it represents Government trusting whanau to create their own solutions.

Whanau Ora is about being self-sustaining; it is about restoring that sense of collective responsibility to care for our own; ultimately it is about ensuring the generations to follow inherit the world that we create for them.

I understand that tomorrow, Te Puni Kokiri Chief Executive - and member of the Whanau Ora Governance Group, Leith Comer, will be speaking to you about the detail in how Whanau Ora operates at a policy context.

He will talk to you about the structure that we have created to ensure transparency and accountability of the Whanau Ora approach - the Whanau Ora Ministerial Group; the Governance Group comprising of equal numbers of community representatives and the chief executives from Social Development, Health and Maori Affairs; and the Regional Leadership Teams.

He will also describe the Expression of Interest process; and the support that is invested in facilitating implementation, enhancing whanau capacity and for the training and capacity building of providers.

These are all critical factors in the business of Government; in achieving improved cost-effectiveness and value for money by reducing the bureaucracy.

But what has been so amazing about the feedback I have received over the last month at the twelve hui that have been run around is the country, is the enthusiasm and the energy that the people at the centre of this approach have demonstrated for an initiative which supports them to be self-managing, self-reliant, self-driven.

They have talked about the opportunity to be whanau centred rather than contract focused; about the need to restore kinship ties and build on the sense of collective responsibility.

People are keen to debate the role that iwi may play in coordinating support to whānau and in providing input into the implementation approach; as well as considering marae based approaches to supporting whānau to be more connected.

A universal theme has been a strong demand for a cross-agency focus by officials in working with communities; as well as an associated need for transparency and accountability in the implementation of the approach.

But feedback from the hui has also called for transparency and accountability amongst themselves and not just at Wellington.   There is a very clear desire for strong engagement of whānau and communities in the on-going design of the process.

They want to know that the Regional Leadership Groups will  reflect the diverse aspirations and needs of the local communities and participate in key decisions at a local level; and they also want to see whānau representatives being included.

Another important factor in the process of transformation is that includes both action and reflection.   Whanau will be involved in participatory action research - involving a regular review process to ensure that progress is being made and that whanau priorities are addressed the way that they have envisaged it would.

Finally, I want to finish with the words of another great artist who would create innovation and explore new worlds through the designs she pioneered.  Coco Chanel once said,

‘don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door'.

Conventional policy designs have gone as far as they can in trying to address the seemingly intractable issues that have been affecting whanau.  But when whanau themselves came up with their own local solutions, it seemed the walls came up, and projects became focused on why certain things couldn't be done; what the risks were; how to manage expectations.

In Whanau Ora, we are calling for people to connect; to open doors to ensure that Whanau can describe success in their own terms such as self-determination and opportunities to foster self-management.

This is the greatest opportunity that whanau have to restore the essence of who they are;  to encourage Government and providers alike to see value in Whanau Centred approaches; and to achieve the outcomes we all desire in whanau wellbeing.