Hon Paula Bennett

Minister of State Services

17 October 2016

Social Investment Approach for Māngere Children

Improving the livelihoods of children will be at the heart of a newly established South Auckland Social Investment Board, State Services Minister Paula Bennett says.

“The costs of poor outcomes for at-risk populations in South Auckland are significant, with estimates showing that improving the outcomes for just 10 per cent of at-risk children could save close to $60 million of future costs,” Mrs Bennett says.

“The South Auckland Social Investment Board (SIB) will initially focus on 1480 at-risk 0-to-5 year-old children and their families in Māngere, to get better outcomes for them.”

The SIB will use a social investment approach to put at-risk children and their families at the heart of service provision, and will target three key result areas:

· reducing the number of children experiencing substantiated physical abuse,
· increasing the number of children participating in ECE before they start school and
· reducing the number of preventable child hospitalisations for illnesses.

“This approach is designed to get better investment decisions across agencies, and better targeting of services for children in South Auckland,” Mrs Bennett says.

“We will be utilising the expert knowledge and judgement of local decision-makers, in conjunction with national level data and analysis in order to gain a much improved understanding of what the local needs are.

“This is the third place-based initiative to be launched by the Government, with my colleagues Anne Tolley and Hekia Parata earlier announcing social investment initiatives in Gisborne and Northland. We will absolutely be making sure that these initiatives receive the tools and support they need to make a difference.

“Such an approach will result in the services being more flexible, co-ordinated, and with a more targeted focus to improve outcomes for the most at-risk children,” Mrs Bennett says.

The initial member agencies of the SIB are Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Health, Counties Manukau District Health Board, Ministry of Education, New Zealand Police, Te Puni Kōkiri, Ministry for Pacific Peoples, Department of Corrections, Ministry of Justice and Housing New Zealand Corporation.

The Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki, will join the board when established.

The board will be headed by independent chairwoman, Sandra Alofivae, a South Auckland lawyer and community leader.

ends

© Scoop Media