26 June 2025
Sam Malik
[FYI request #30744 email]
Tēnā koe Sam
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00086009
Thank you for your email, received on 17 April 2025, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
for the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
1. Total of money spent on external contractors in Office of the Chief Executive (OCE)
including Government Services, Privacy, Legal team etc. 2. All documents, texts, emails, briefings, advise to/from the person leading the consultation
process of OCE regarding consultation after last Chief of Staff P Alsop left the organisation.
To avoid it to be massive - please be focused on the comms between the management
regarding this change. 3. When is the new change leading person going to provide the consultation document out
to staff and when would early exit/ Voluntary Redundancy are likely to happen? What are
the options to staff burnout and after the final results as soon as possible. 4. Reasons for the delay and comms between the management re this delay. 5. What other groups are left to be consulted on the change proposal and when are they
going to get this done. 6. Total of how much has been spent on this change process and how much is likely to be
spent in coming months.
Response
I am very sorry for the delay in responding to your request.
For clarity, I will respond to each part of your request in turn.
Total of money spent on external contractors in Office of the Chief Executive (OCE)
including Government Services, Privacy, Legal team etc.
As advised in an earlier response to you (HNZ00027758 refers), Health New Zealand does not
centrally collate data in a way that allows us to respond to this part of your request. The hiring of
contractors is managed by individual teams. Identifying the total cost of contractors engaged by
the Office of Chief Executive across an indeterminate timeframe would involve reviewing each
individual contract and manually matching this against the financial records. Health New Zealand
would need to divert personnel from their core duties and allocate extra time to complete this task.
The diversion of these resources would impair our ability to carry out our other core functions. As
such, this part of your request is refused under section 18(f) of the OIA due to the substantial
collation and research that would be required to provide a response.
I have considered whether fixing a charge for the supply of the information or extending the
timeframe for response would enable Health New Zealand to respond. I do not consider that either
option would remove the impact that supplying the information would have on our other
operations.
Further information regarding the total cost spent on contractors or consultants at an agency level
can be found in Health New Zealand’s responses to the standard Annual Review Questions:
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/54SCHEA_EVI_f7e5b552-deda-47b9-018e-
08dc156e9ddc_HEA312/6e0653e240aebf1bee9a9606c6ccb58b2415ca07 (2022-2023)
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/54SCHEA_EVI_e2561f25-beb4-40ad-ca00-
08dbf6a6cf48_HEA5457/00aa731d3c0f7db4f3f6c770e8a212377aee053b (2023-2024)
Wherever possible, Health New Zealand endeavours to employ permanent and fixed term staff into
positions within our establishment full-time equivalent (FTE) baseline to ensure we can deliver on
our priorities and strategic objectives. Health New Zealand looks to engage a contingency
workforce on a case-by-case basis or by exception only, and primarily in response to the need for
short term specialist expertise that cannot be secured through fixed term employment
opportunities.
2. All documents, texts, emails, briefings, advise to/from the person leading the consultation
process of OCE regarding consultation after last Chief of Staff P Alsop left the organisation.
To avoid it to be massive - please be focused on the comms between the management
regarding this change.
We have interpreted this part of your request as referring to the change in reporting lines for the
groups/teams formerly comprising the Office of the Chief Executive (OCE) as at the time of Peter
Alsop’s departure on 1 November 2024. While there was engagement with the leader of each of
the relevant functions and the leader of the recipient function/directorate, these changes did not
materially affect individual roles within teams and, as such, no formal consultation process was
initiated across teams nor was any one individual appointed to lead such a process. This part of
your request is refused under section 18(e) of the OIA as the requested information does not exist.
3. When is the new change leading person going to provide the consultation document out
to staff and when would early exit/ Voluntary Redundancy are likely to happen? What are
the options to staff burnout and after the final results as soon as possible.
As noted above, no team or group-wide consultation process was initiated in relation to the OCE
changes and therefore no ‘consultation document’ exists in relation to the above changes. This
part of your request is therefore refused under section 18(e) of the OIA as the requested
information does not exist.
As noted above, there was engagement between leaders about the changes and a letter was sent
to an individual/s leader/s affected by the change in reporting lines. While we do not consider that
correspondence to fall in scope of this part of your request, it would, in any event, necessarily be
withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to protect the privacy of the individual concerned.
With regard to voluntary redundancy, I can confirm Health NZ is not currently offering the option of
voluntary redundancy to our staff, nor is it considering running another round of voluntary
redundancy at this point in time. There is the option of ‘early exit’, which allows employees to
express interest in voluntarily ending their employment with Health NZ. Early exit only applies to
staff that are currently going through a consultation process, so is not relevant to the staff
discussed here.
We acknowledge that change processes are difficult, and supporting our people is a priority as we
work through the wider Health New Zealand change processes. A range of support is available for
those staff who may want it, namely:
• Career transition support is available for those individuals whose roles are proposed or
confirmed to be disestablished
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) support is available to all staff
• Well-being resources can be accessed on Health New Zealand’s Kaimahi Hauora hub; and
• a number of change related sessions and workshops are also available.
4. Reasons for the delay and comms between the management re this delay.
There was no delay in implementing the above changes to the former OCE structure. These
occurred on Peter Alsop’s departure.
5. What other groups are left to be consulted on the change proposal and when are they
going to get this done.
As noted above, there was no formal consultation in relation to the OCE changes and there are no
groups left to be consulted on them. This part of your request is therefore refused under section
18(e) of the OIA as the requested information does not exist.
6. Total of how much has been spent on this change process and how much is likely to be
spent in coming months.
There are no quantifiable costs associated with the OCE changes (which are now complete). As
such, I am refusing this part of your request under section 18(e) of the OIA as the requested
information does not exist.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and
contact details, will be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sasha Wood
Head of Government Services
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
