Hon Nicola Willis
Minister of Finance

A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says.

“Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for all New Zealanders.

“We can see the lack of appropriate support for our most vulnerable reflected in rises in welfare dependency, declining school attendance and achievement, poorer health outcomes, rising rates of youth and violent crime, rising gang membership, ongoing dependence on statutory services such as Oranga Tamariki and Police, as well as increasing rates of inequality.

“I believe we can, and we must, do better. So we’re taking a different approach. We want to look beyond good intentions in our policy-making and use hard evidence to invest in what works. Our new approach builds on better social science evidence and advances in technology.

“As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, the Social Investment Agency will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping us understand who we need to invest in, what works for those people and how we measure progress.

“The Social Investment Agency will be 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 (NGOs) and iwi providers.

“The fund will begin investing in 2025 but I am announcing it now as it will be a new way for government to invest and will take time to design. Over time I would expect to grow in partnership with other funders to deliver at a significant scale with a wide portfolio of investments in social services. The fund will be expected to measure its investments and adapt them if they are not returning results.

“I am also establishing a Social Investment Board as a ministerial advisory committee to provide external challenge and guidance as we undertake the shift towards social investment, and a group of Social Investment Ministers to work with me on powering up the social investment approach across the system.

“Over time, by changing the way we deliver, commission and scale-up successful social services we will deliver improvements for our people, their families and whole communities,” Nicola Willis says.

Notes:

The new Social Investment Agency will be a standalone central agency, replacing the current Social Wellbeing Agency (which is a departmental agency hosted by the Public Service Commission).

The new Social Investment Agency is tasked with:

• Setting the standards for social investment practice to ensure there is consistency across government agencies and contracted providers.
• Advising on and facilitating the creation of the necessary data and evidence infrastructure for social investment.
• Working with other agencies to apply the social investment approach.
• Leading an ongoing review of social sector spending to measure outcomes.

Functions from the current Social Wellbeing Agency are transferred to the new Social Investment Agency and include transfer of all existing staff. The existing Chief Executive of the Social Wellbeing Agency will be responsible for implementing this transition along with the Acting Chief Executive of the Social Investment Agency (once one is appointed).

A total of $50.5 million in new funding has been allocated to support the new agency’s expanded functions and role which require additional capability and capacity, alongside other initiatives to deliver a social investment approach (such as setting up a Social Investment Fund.

Ministers of the new Social Investment Ministers group are:

• Social Investment
• Regulation
• Housing
• Health
• Education
• Justice
• Disability Issues
• Social Development and Employment
• Corrections
• Police
• Māori Development
• Whānau Ora
• Mental Health
• Children
• Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence
• Statistics

© Scoop Media