Output performance

Whānau Ora is about empowering families to take control of their future, where every New Zealander is self-determining, living a healthy lifestyle, participating fully in society, and economically secure. This has required a change in the way in which policies, programmes and services are designed and delivered across the social sector. Whānau Ora is an inclusive, culturally-anchored approach to service delivery.

In 2010/11, Te Puni Kōkiri’s output performance is summarised as:

• Reports provided to the Minister Responsible for Whānau Ora and Cabinet Social Policy Committee on the implementation of the Whānau Ora approach;
• The completion of a nationwide Expression of Interest process and the selection of 25 provider collectives incorporating more than 150 health and social service providers;
• The development of Programmes of Action by the 25 provider collectives with more than 60% of these assessed by the end of the financial year;
• Intensive agency engagement across Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Development to support provider collectives with initial development of Whānau Ora approaches and with contract integration;
• Ten action research groups have been selected and engaged to work alongside provider collectives to capture, feedback and record the change process with providers, with agencies and with whānau; and
• The support provided to the Whānau Ora Governance Group and the ten Regional Leadership Groups to provide regional and national level oversight of the implementation of the Whānau Ora approach.

While Whānau Ora provider collectives have been supported to develop Programmes of Action and business cases for investment in organisational change, they have continued to offer existing services to individuals, families, whānau, and communities.

Our focus has been working with the provider collectives to design mechanisms that engage and enable whānau to take their own positive steps. In the last financial year, the Whānau Ora Governance Group considered some Programmes of Action from the provider collectives, which outlined the changes they intended to make to their service delivery model and the key steps they will take to implement these.

These Programmes of Action are the result of considerable work undertaken across collectives of providers and include: organisation change strategies, outcomes indicators and measurement approaches, evidence of engagement with whānau on service delivery expectations; information technology and infrastructure design; and workforce and practice development. At the same time as developing Programmes of Action and delivering existing services, a number of these organisations have invested significantly in building strong relationships with each other over the months since they were selected.

Throughout the year, Te Puni Kōkiri has worked closely with the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Health, nationally and through District Health Boards at the regional level. The Ministry of Health has assisted with service delivery model development and information technology advice, while the Ministry of Social Development has led work on the integration of provider contracts. More than 50 providers have indicated an interest in an integrated contract with most seeking to progress these once their Programmes of Action have advanced into implementation

Te Puni Kōkiri has also worked directly with whānau to engage them in whānau planning processes. Around 1200 whānau (involving around 14,000 individuals) are engaging in planning at the whānau level and are connecting to existing service delivery, where they need to. This is an important process for many whānau and has provided one of the first opportunities for whānau to be taking a lead role in charting their own futures.

Te Puni Kōkiri has also worked directly with whānau to engage them in whānau planning processes. Around 1200 whānau (involving around 14,000 individuals) are engaging in planning at the whānau level and are connecting to existing service delivery, where they need to. This is an important process for many whānau and has provided one of the first opportunities for whānau to be taking a lead role in charting their own futures.

Measuring progres

Research, evaluation and monitoring to provide information on the achievement of results have been built into the Whānau Ora Approach. Action research with whānau to gauge success of the design, implementation and impact of the approach will be extended to encompass further providers.

The Whānau Ora Action Research provides a useful feedback loop on progress with implementation and will identify early signals of whānau success.

Officials from across agencies continue to refine mechanisms to collect data on individuals and whānau engaged in Whānau Ora services. This includes examining how to best identify the number of whānau involved in whānau focused programmes.

Research activity to date has centred on developing baseline data on location of whānau ora providers, type of services delivered, and target groups to identify current accessibility levels of services to whānau. Further research activity is expected to take place over a period of 18 months through to September 2012 to collect information on the impacts of whānau planning and will be reported in the 2012/13 Annual Report.