Govt. Responds To The WINZ Inquiry
Government Response to the Ministerial Inquiry into the Department of Work and Income
An increased focus on employment and greater regional flexibility mark a new beginning for the Department of Work and Income, says Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey.
“Increased local flexibility is expected to bring a significant change in the Department’s approach and culture,” he said.
Mr Maharey was delivering the Government response to the Department-specific aspects of the Report of the Ministerial Inquiry into the Department of Work and Income (the Hunn Report). State Services Minister Trevor Mallard will release the Government's response to the public service-wide issues raised in the report next month.
Mr Maharey said the Department of Work and Income purchase agreement and the Chief Executive’s performance agreement would together reflect the Government’s expectations of the Department, in particular to:
Strengthen external relationship
management
Increase employment focus
Increase local flexibility of the Regional
Commissioners
Have systems, processes and
structures in place both regionally and nationally to
support the regional flexibility and decision
making.
“This is the start of a fundamental change for the Department.
“A line is drawn under the first 18 months of the Department of Work and Income. Now we move forward.
“The increased regional employment focus, moving the Community Employment function to the Department of Labour, improved services to Mäori and Pacific people, and a more responsive organisational and public service culture add up to a significant new start.
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"The
Department of Work and Income, in consultation with the
State Services Commissioner, will want to consider how the
internal configuration of the Department can best contribute
to the increased employment focus the Government is
expecting.
“These changes, together with the Government’s employment policy and planned changes to the delivery of social assistance, provide the Department of Work and Income with the focus it needs to deliver employment and social services results for the Government.
“The Chief Executive and senior managers of the Department are working constructively with other agencies to the direction I have set for the Department of Work and Income,” Steve Maharey said.
Key aspects of the Government response are:
Department of Work and Income Culture
The
Department already has or will:
Improve
collaboration and consultation with key government agencies
Commit to informing, involving and consulting
with clients, stakeholders, local government, iwi, advocacy
groups and other key community groups, both nationally and
regionally
Modify corporate and business
language
Continue the recently introduced
probity programme to ensure that staff act prudently in
spending taxpayer money, and that sound and frugal economic
management is maintained
The Controller and
Auditor General will be asked to include a property audit in
the next audit of DWI and include this information with his
audit report for 2000
Revise performance
indicators to ensure consistency with the purchase agreement
and the publish performance indicators and results on the
Department’s website
To ease workload pressures,
investigate the feasibility of a nation-wide rollout of the
Application Line pilot that allows clients to register and
apply for entitlement through an 0800 number. Moving the
bulk of the application process to the call centre allows
case managers to spend more time with clients.
Give Regional Commissioners immediate authority to move to
specialised case management of work tested and non-work
tested client groups if they consider that this will relieve
staff workload. This will be subject to consultation with
the PSA
Improve ways for frontline managers to
be informed of and discuss changes
Improve the
capability of staff to work effectively with clients and
targeted groups.
Provide better opportunities
for staff to have their say.
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Change
Management
The Department is developing an integrated
change management plan to be presented to the Ministers of
State Services and Social Services for their consideration
by mid-July.
A multi-faceted approach to monitoring the changes is proposed, including:
Strengthened collaboration through a Chief Executive’s forum involving the Chief Executive of the Department of Work and Income, the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Policy (MSP), and the Secretary of Labour and their senior teams for information sharing and progress reporting.
In respect of the Department’s Mäori Strategy, the Chief Executive of the Department of Work and Income will work with the Department of Labour (DoL) and Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) on monitoring progress of the agreed strategy.
For implementation of the benefit advocacy group changes, the Chief Executive will work with the Chief Executive of MSP.
An existing senior officials group will continue work on increasing the employment focus of the Department. This may be expanded to include officials from TPK and the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs.
The Ministers of State Services and Social Services and Employment will receive regular reports on progress, and after one year the Minister of Social Services and Employment will review progress made in implementing the two year plan to change the culture and approach of the Department and report back to the Government.
Employment
Focus
To change from the criticised ‘one size fits all
approach’ of the Department, it is moving away from
centrally controlled and determined service delivery to
regional flexibility that more clearly provides for the
needs of individual clients within local labour
markets.
Changes expected to follow are:
Services better tailored to local needs (e.g. work brokers
will be able to adopt a regional focus rather than a site
specific one where this suits the needs of the region
better)
Specialisation of services to better
meet needs of clients (e.g. greater understanding and
knowledge of the needs of particular client
groups)
More appropriate service to client
groups (e.g. provision of services by Mäori for Mäori,
whanau case management)
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Partnerships with communities that maximise the
collaboration/co-ordination between the department, other
agencies and local community groups
Increased
community involvement in the direction and priorities of
each region
“I expect that local flexibility will increase quickly to meet local needs,” said Mr Maharey.
As a first step, Department of Work and Income Regional Commissioners will have to introduce a range of alternate employment approaches from 30 November this year, as part of wider changes to service delivery in the future.
Role and
Placement of Community Employment
The Community
Employment function of the Department is to transfer to the
Department of Labour to support the Government’s community
employment development strategy. Community employment
promotes local solutions to local problems, and fosters
partnerships between communities, business and local and
central government.
To do this Community Employment will develop and foster relationships across the full range of community and development organisations which address the social and economic issues confronting communities.
Beneficiary Advocacy Service
Developments
A number of changes that significantly
impact on the way Department of Work and Income relates to
its clients were announced on May 25. These followed a
series of meetings with representatives of beneficiary
advocacy groups who identified a number of concerns with the
Department’s organisational culture and practices.
The changes affect areas including benefit crime and debt recovery, the Benefit Review Committee process, and other issues such as procedural fairness and entitlement assessment.
“The proposals are consistent with the new direction and culture that the Government requires of the Department of Work and Income,” said Mr Maharey.
Services
to Mäori and Pacific job seekers
To address the disparity
gaps of Mäori and Pacific job seekers, the Department
will:
Work with DoL and TPK to develop a
strategy for Mäori that is aimed at improving employment
prospects for this group.
A key focus will be solutions to
be provided by Mäori for Mäori, and which are supported by
capacity building initiatives. Particular emphasis will be
placed on greater consultation with Mäori and involvement of
Mäori in the work of the Department. The Department is also
already working with the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs
to address the disparity gaps for Pacific people.
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5
Possibilities under consideration include:
a
specific "demonstration region" focusing on achieving
improvements in Mäori employment
a specific
"demonstration region" focusing on achieving improvements in
Pacific employment
testing alternative forms of
case management within Department of Work and Income
designed to deliver services in a more appropriate manner to
Mäori and Pacific job seekers and to focus greater case
management resources on the most disadvantaged job
seekers.
improving the capacity of Department of
Work and Income staff to work with Mäori and Pacific job
seekers, beginning with an examination of current staff
training programmes
testing the contracting out
of the full range of Department of Work and Income
employment services to Mäori and Pacific providers.
The Budget last week also delivered a package of measures designed to assist Mäori and Pacific people’s employment.
Department of Work and Income Capacity and
Management
To strengthen operational policy and
evaluation capacity and capability, the Department of Work
and Income proposes to establish a General Manager role with
responsibility for labour market strategies.
Also,
reconfiguration of the Department’s management structure
should follow progression of the key strategies
to:
strengthen external relationship
management
increase employment focus, including
its operational policy and evaluation capacity
increase the flexibility of Regional Commissioners to
determine local service delivery solutions
ensure the appropriate systems, processes and structures are
in place both in the regions and national office to support
regional flexibility and decision making.
The Chief
Executive of Department of Work and Income will consult with
the State Services Commissioner to resolve the final nature
of the management configuration within the
department.