Report of the 50 Key Thinkers Forum

There is continuing debate about how best to support families and whānau in New Zealand.

The recent economic recession has made this issue more acute. Just as the Government’s ability to fund services is constrained, family and whānau support needs are increasing. How to allocate the shrinking resources in a time of increasing need will be a major challenge during the next decade.

Previous research and evaluation has identified a number of failings in our support for families and whänau, for example:

• poor social outcomes (eg child deaths, family violence)
• fragmented services and lack of coordination between services
• duplicated services and service gaps
• support not reaching those most in need
• poor implementation
• lack of evidence of effectiveness.

Currently, most funding is premised around the provision of services to families and whānau. Families and whānau are positioned as passive consumers in need of external professional help.

However, families and whānau do have many strengths upon which to draw to deal with the problems they face; most do know what sort of support they actually need. From a strengths-based perspective, families and whānau are among the most pervasive and important infrastructure that exists in New Zealand. Investment in them would yield social and economic benefits.

Families and whānau are the solution, not the problem.

While there is discussion about current support needs, there is currently relatively little work being done on the future support needs of families and whānau.

It is time to accelerate thinking about the social services and support sector. New Zealand must be future-oriented. The Government needs assurance that public investments in support and services will yield the highest possible returns – for children, for their parents and for all of society.

There is nothing wrong in New Zealand that cannot be fixed by using what is right in New Zealand.

- From the opening remarks at the 50 Key Thinkers Forum (with apologies to Bill Clinton)

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