National Marketing Machine Busy While Our Kids Wait

The National Government is wasting taxpayer money on marketing itself instead of investing in important work, like evaluating important initiatives for youth, says New Zealand First.

“Work that matters is being neglected for the sake of flash factsheets with alarming quotes,” says New Zealand First Spokesperson for Social Development Darroch Ball.

“Take a look at the Social Policy Research and Evaluation Unit (SuPERU) factsheet - Perceptions of income adequacy by low income families.

“A wiser spend of taxpayer funds would be an evaluation of the Social Workers in Schools (SWIS) initiative which has high turnover and isolation issues, highlighted in a pilot evaluation 13 years ago.

“The Social Workers in Schools initiative has never been evaluated by the National Government even though it has continued to expand it, says Mr Ball

“The government’s current work agenda for its social policy research arm may mean that important evaluations are not completed because they do not fit the marketing brief.

“And potential bad news may not be good news for such a campaign

“When asked at select committee on Wednesday, SuPERU could not say whether an evaluation of the Social Workers in Schools initiative would be done or not. “

ENDS

© Scoop Media