Minister responds to questioning by social support services

A group of local organisations got the chance to quiz Whangaparāoa MP Mark Mitchell at a small private meeting held at Manly Bowling Club last week.

The Minister of Police, Corrections and Emergency Management and Recovery was questioned about a range of topics under the umbrella of community wellbeing, including civil defence preparedness, safety, family violence, mental health, and youth support.

All the participants at the July 9 event belong to the Wellbeing Network – a group of social providers facilitated by Future Whangaparāoa, which organised the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Mitchell.

Around 20 people took up the offer, including representatives of North Harbour Budgeting, the Salvation Army, the Salt Trust, the Youth Haora Network, Neighbourhood Support and the community patrol.

Organiser, Future Whangaparāoa’s John Davies, said they hoped for an interpretation of what the government’s direction means for organisations working at the coalface. 

Among the issues raised were the recent changes in funding for budgeting services.

North Harbour Budgeting was one of 44 such services that lost their contract with the Ministry of Social Development on July 1. The Albany-based service delivers free budgeting mentoring and support within prison and the community, from the Hibiscus Coast to the North Shore. General manager Claudette Wilson told Mitchell the organisation consistently outperforms its contract, demand has gone through the roof, and she was at a loss to know why its funding had gone. She explained the role of financial mentoring and support in preventing reoffending by smoothing the path to a life outside prison.

Mitchell said government funding was focused on organisations “that are delivering results”. He promised to look into why North Harbour Budgeting was no longer funded, agreeing that it was a core service for rehabilitation of prisoners.

Wilson said that the organisation hopes to find a way to continue.

“It’s just too important for us not to,” she said.

Social Investment Ministry comes as surprise
For many, the main takeout of the July 9 meeting was that government has set up a Social Investment Agency – something that was news to the social service organisations at the event.
Olivia Huszak of the Youth Hauora Network told Mitchell that the government’s rhetoric, focus and funding regarding youth has been about tougher penalties and boot camps, but those policies were the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
“Why is there not more money for local agencies like ourselves and Salt Trust who are providing a fence at the top of the cliff, and more support and positive messages for young people?” she asked.
Mitchell pointed to the Social Investment Agency, led by Minister Nicola Willis, which will invest in groups that work at ground level.
He said there will be more about that from Willis and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon as things move forward.
“I deal with the hard crunchy stuff that around 10 percent of young people are involved with,” Mitchell said. “It is my job to talk about that but I believe in social investment as a way forward. It is about supporting groups that look after the other 90 percent of youth.”
Meeting organiser John Davies said that since the meeting, the Wellbeing Network had invited Willis to come and speak locally.
A press release from Willis in May stated that the agency, which came into being on July 1, was “tasked with developing the tools needed to deliver social investment programmes and will work with other agencies to apply the social investment approach to existing supports”.
“I am also establishing a social investment fund, managed by the Social Investment Agency, to directly commission outcomes for vulnerable New Zealanders, and to work with community, non-government-organisations and iwi providers,” Willis said. The fund will begin investing next year and Willis said she expects it to grow, in partnership with other funders, to deliver at a significant scale with a wide portfolio of investments in social services.  “Over time, by changing the way we deliver, commission and scale-up successful social services we will deliver improvements for whole communities,” Willis said.