Belinda Himiona: Social Service Providers Aotearoa CEO on the $190 million funding boost for the Social Investment Fund

A large social services provider is welcoming the Government's new cross-sector social investment approach. 

The Social Investment Fund is receiving $190 million in this years budget, aiming to invest in social services early to prevent future harm and save costs. 

Social Service Providers Aotearoa CEO Belinda Himiona told Ryan Bridge it allows the work to be tracked across different government agencies. 

She says it allows them to tackle the hard cases, not just one contract dealing with a particular issue like education. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Social investments getting a boost. This is Bill english Is
Baby now carried by Nicola Willis pre budget announcement two
hundred and seventy five million dollars. One hundred and ninety
of that goes to the new Social Investment Fund. It
will invest in services that deliver measurable improvements in the
lives of those who.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Need our help, guided by data and evidence.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
You contract directly to providers for you contracts the idea
you target problems earlier for better results long term. Belinda
Hemiwana is the social services provider out here at our
CEO with me this morning. Blinda, good morning, Oh good morning.
Good to have you on the show. Can you just
tell us what is the main difference? Is it the

(00:41):
length of the contract here? What is the main difference
for you with how this will work?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh? Yeah, sure. So we really heartened by this announcement
and I think definitely the vision to have longer term contracting,
sustainable funding with community sector organizations to work to get
either to develop outcomes framework so we all know that
we are delivering the best for the kids Infano that

(01:06):
are receiving services. Just an example, I represent over two
hundred and fifty community based providers and they work over
seventeen government departments. So you can just imagine all of
the separate contracting arrangements, the different reporting. There's some inconsistency
in how providers need to report on results in timeframes.

(01:30):
So we're really hoping for some good administrative burden reductions.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
One, so one provider might have to deal with seventeen
different government agencies.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, or you know at least five to six. We
often have multiple years.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
And many of you renewing every year, so you're having
to go through these proces, jump through these sub service
So admin up the wazoo. I'm imagining for you with
this news scheme. Do you have have Do they set
KPIs you have to meet?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, And I think most contracting relationships at the moment
there are performance indicators and volumes or expected outcomes or outputs. Well,
I think this really pushes it to the next level.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Though, how does it push it to the next level?
Because the problem with the word anger tamadek thing and
I know we've had that report from the Order to General,
but the problem was that the providers were not meeting
KPIs but still getting all the money and even when
there was an underspend. We're keeping the underspend too, yes.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
So I think there's obviously the so I just answer
answer the first part of the question I think, which
is about how will this be different from the KP,
and then we can move into some of those observations
from the Utamadikey process. I think one of the really
valuable aspects of social investment is you'll take it out
of one government agency, so we know kids Infarno are complicated.

(02:59):
You don't just have a health issue or an education
issue or a well being issue. Often these are quite interconnected.
And what I like about the model is it will
allow cross government results in indicators, so you can really
tackle those hard cases and not just be in in

(03:20):
one contract dealing with one aspect like a health or
an education and another dealing with the counseling or the
youth work. So it's a really nice, elegant way to
tackle these big issues. So we really, you know, we
think it will work. We want to see it on
the ground obviously, and we would have liked to see
more than one hundred and ninety million because it's spread

(03:40):
over four years, but the Minister has talked about scaling
it up, so This is a good chance just to
your point about do we know what's working and are
we funding it? This is a great chance to put
the results on the table and to work in partnership
with government to do things that are really impactful.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Which is exactly what we want to happen all of us. Belinda,
appreciate your time. Keep up the good work. Belinda me
one home with us this morning Social service providers alted
a CEO on the changes the governments are out well,
the funding boots the governments and now it's for social investment.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
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