"Social investment package" in Budget 2017

Social Investment Minister Amy Adams has announced that Budget 2017 will include a $321 million "Social Investment Package."

The package will fund 14 initiatives. Ms Adams said:

"A key part of the package is about supporting children most at risk of long-term disadvantage, with $68.8 million confirmed today as being targeted at children with behavioural issues, communication problems or a challenging family environment."

In a pre-Budget speech, Prime Minister Bill English provided further detail saying:

"The new funding will allow for the nationwide roll-out of Family Start – a programme that provides intensive, weekly in-home support targeting young children in homes where there may be mental health issues, addiction problems, family violence or other child development risks. This programme has proven to work well in certain communities, but we want it to be available to all New Zealand families who need it.

The new money also allows us to support a further 1000 children with behavioural issues to improve their self-control. This is a key factor in their ability to learn, function socially and lead better lives as adolescents and adults.

And finally we will invest in targeted and specialist support for three and four year olds with oral language needs, to help prevent these children from turning up to school unable to communicate properly."

The Budget will be delivered on Thursday 25 May 2017.

The Government recently announced the establishment of a new standalone "Social Investment Agency" and Social Investment Board.

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Related research

The following research on Family Start is available in the NZFVC library:

The impact of the Family Start home visiting programme on outcomes for mothers and children: a quasi-experimental study (Vaithianathan and others, 2016)

Outcome / impact evaluation of Family Start: Final report (Ministry of Social Development, 2005)

Family Start process evaluation final report: A summary and integration of components of the process evaluation phase (Faisandier and others, 2003)

Update - related information

On 16 May 2017, Finance Minister Steven Joyce released the full Government response to the Productivity Commission’s 2015 report on ways to improve how government agencies commission and purchase social services. Minister Joyce said the Government was aligned with the report:

“We have made a number of changes to our methods of investing in and evaluating social services since the Commission’s report was released. These include implementing the social investment approach, establishing a Minister Responsible for Social Investment and setting up the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki.”

The Productivity Commission's final report, More Effective Social Services, was released in 2015. For background about the review and report, see the previous NZFVC story Productivity Commission's draft report proposes social service funding changes.

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Background information

For information on the Government's use of "social investment" and related research and resources, see these previous NZFVC news stories:

• ‍Government announces establishment of new standalone "Social Investment Agency"‍
• Government announces independent review of client level data IT system
• Privacy Commissioner's report criticises MSD collection of individual client level data‍
• Temporary reprieve for sexual violence services on individual client level data‍
• Research project investigates people’s views of data linkage‍
• Consultations on more proposed government agency information sharing‍
• Government continues work on integrated data and "social investment"‍
• Concerns and public meeting on NGOs and provision of individual client level data‍
• ComVoices paper highlights issues with govt requiring individual client level data‍
• MSD to require individual client level data from community agencies‍
• "Investment Approach" to Justice outlined - family violence‍
• MSD releases Community Investment Strategy Update 2016‍
• Treasury releases report, infographics and online tool on youth at risk‍
• Government expands use of integrated data, analyses risk for children and youth‍
• Social security legislation rewrite and family violence‍
• MSD trials Predictive Risk Modelling‍
• 'Predictive risk modelling' for child maltreatment