A new Social Investment Agency will be established and put in charge of a $190 million (US$111 million) fund, Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced as part of a preview of next week’s budget. It will be headed by former police commissioner Andrew Coster.
Social investment is described by Treasury as being about “improving the lives of New Zealanders by applying rigorous and evidence-based investment practices to social services.”
Last year, Willis announced the agency would be brought back, but gave no indication how much money it would be given to spend.
Today, she has announced an initial $190 million as part of a total of $257 million over four years, which will be formally announced in the 2025 Budget when it’s delivered on May 22.
It will include $20 million for initiatives that strengthen parenting over the first 2,000 days of a child’s life, reducing harm and setting children up for better long-term outcomes, and a further $25 million on helping to prevent children and vulnerable adults from entering state care.
This forms part of the government’s response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care.
In all, the fund is expected to invest in at least 20 different initiatives over the next year.
“Each initiative will have robust evaluation built into it from the start, so that its impact can be tracked,” Willis said in a statement.
“The government is already investing around $7 billion each year buying social services from non-government agencies. Despite this, we know too many New Zealanders remain trapped in cycles of inter-generational dysfunction.”
Willis said communities, NGOs, and iwi (Maori tribes) have told the government it would have a greater impact if its process to select and monitor social services were improved.
Make a ‘Meaningful Difference’
In 2015, English, then Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, established the Social Investment Agency.“The way we have designed our social service system is preventing us from making a meaningful difference in the lives of people with multiple, interdependent problems,” he said in a lecture to Treasury analysts, adding that social investment uses evidence and feedback to improve services and find what works.
“A lot of the knowledge we need to achieve this lies outside government agencies. In fact it is extremely difficult for them to know some of it, because it is specific to the individual or the household ... Measuring the return on investment in social services makes sense whether it is fiscal costs or wider social benefits that are being considered.”
Agency to Grow Over Time
Willis said the fund will start relatively small and grow over time, setting up the infrastructure for large-scale delivery of integrated contracts with support from the social sector.Three such co-operative arrangements were announced as part of the package.
One is Autism New Zealand’s early screening and intervention programme that provides services and support for families, caregivers, and professionals.
The second is Emerge Aotearoa’s evidence-based approach to tackling youth offending and truancy, which is expected to help at least 80 families each year to address these issues.
And the third is an alliance of nine Māori organisations that will support 130 families at a time with wraparound support that delivers stable housing, education, training and employment, and other services.
“The Fund will be the catalyst for improving the way government works with communities to drive social impact,” Willis said.
“Over the next two to three years, I expect to see significant amounts of funding transferred from current social services to the Social Investment Fund as communities and providers develop new approaches to working with government.”
