IN-CONFIDENCE
South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board: Terms of Reference May 2018
Context
South Auckland has a young, diverse and growing population, strong community
networks and is part of a growing economy both locally and in wider Auckland.
However, despite these factors, South Auckland also has social and economic issues
that are often entrenched, inter-generational, and highly complex, including a higher
number of at-risk 0-24 year olds than any other region in New Zealand. These at-risk
children and young people have multiple and complex needs that cannot be met by
one agency alone.
Improving outcomes for at-risk children and young people in South Auckland requires
decision-makers who are best placed to match investments to local needs and
circumstances. A social wellbeing approach wil put at-risk children and their families
at the heart of service provision, using evidence, outcomes and collective working
among agencies to deliver better services.
Purpose
The South Auckland SWB is established by Cabinet mandate to deliver better results
to at-risk children and young people by bringing key South Auckland government
decision-makers together in an cross-agency governance structure to take collective
responsibility for outcomes.
Objectives
The objectives of the SOUTH AUCKLAND SWB are:
•
to improve economic, health, safety and education outcomes for those children
and young people aged 0-24 most at-risk in the South Auckland area (with a
particular focus on the Local Board areas of Māngere-Ōtahuhu, Ōtara-
Papatoetoe, Manurewa and Papakura)
•
to optimise the effectiveness of social services expenditure for children and
young people aged 0-24
•
to prioritise investment based on the expected impact for long term outcomes,
using a social wellbeing approach
•
for members to share responsibility and accountability for achieving results for
at-risk children based on their respective roles, their agencies’ roles and the
expectation that their agencies wil work together and contribute resources for
common outcomes. The SOUTH AUCKLAND SWB will play an important
facilitative role in driving strong social sector collaboration.
Member agencies
The initial member agencies of the SOUTH AUCKLAND SWB are the Ministry of
Social Development, the Ministry of Health, Counties Manukau District Health Board,
the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, Corrections, New Zealand Police, Te
Puni Kōkiri, Housing New Zealand, Oranga Tamariki, Auckland Council and the
Ministry for Pacific Peoples.
Roles
The SOUTH AUCKLAND SWB wil have an independent Chair who is appointed by
and reports directly to the Minister of State Services, the lead Minister designated by
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Cabinet. The SOUTH AUCKLAND SWB wil be collectively accountable through the
Chair to the lead Minister for achieving priority outcomes.
The South Auckland SWB is a decision-making body. It allows senior of icials from the
member agencies to make collective decisions to invest resources and target
interventions to deliver results (see below for a description of the resources involved).
It is expected that South Auckland SWB decision-making wil operate by consensus,
with decisions based on a unanimous vote of members.
The Chair has an advisory role only (non-voting). His or her primary role is to facilitate
high quality and challenging discussion between members and other attendees at
South Auckland SWB meetings. The overarching aim of the Chair’s role is to lead
sound consensus decision making and ensure members are held to account for their
agencies’ contributions to the South Auckland SWB’s objectives. The Chair has lead
responsibility for representing Board advice to Ministers, Cabinet and Parliament
where appropriate.
Membership
The members of the South Auckland SWB are an independent Chair (a non-State
servant) and senior Auckland-based officials from the member agencies.
The independent Chair wil be appointed by the lead Minister following consultation
with the Cabinet Appointment and Honours Committee. The lead Minister may remove
the Chair at any time, for any reason.
The State Services Commissioner wil appoint (and may remove) the other members
of the South Auckland SWB in consultation with the member agencies and the Chair.
These members must be at an appropriate level of seniority to be able to exercise
delegated authority and to influence the programmes, services and/or contracts that
wil not be under the direct control of the South Auckland SWB.
Quorum
The South Auckland SWB quorum wil be half the members plus one. The Quorum
must include the Chair or a delegated representative/deputy who wil act as Chair. If
the quorum is not achieved, the meeting wil be cancelled and held on the next
scheduled meeting date.
Except with the permission of the Chair, members of the South Auckland SWB cannot
delegate their attendance at meetings to any other individual.
Key responsibilities
The South Auckland SWB will use a results based accountability framework to propose
local-level outcomes, and associated measures for the South Auckland SWB, along
with reporting and evaluation requirements
Resources: The South Auckland SWB wil primarily rely on existing resources and
delegations – initially those targeted to at-risk 0-5 year olds and their families in South
Auckland. Resourcing for the South Auckland SWB wil involve a combination of:
• Current services, contracts and programmes targeted to at-risk 0-5 year olds where
agency decision-rights are delegated to senior officials who are South Auckland
SWB members. These wil be subject to collective decision making by the South
Auckland SWB, which wil be conducted in a manner that recognises the autonomy
individual members exercise over agency delegations they hold, especially with
respect to the performance of statutorily independent functions. Appropriations
and their related reporting responsibilities wil continue to be held by each agency.
It is expected that agencies wil review existing delegations to senior officials who
are South Auckland SWB members to determine if any further delegations are
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appropriate. The South Auckland SWB wil monitor whether existing appropriation
scopes are a constraint to its operations.
• An Investing in Outcomes Fund – a pool of discretionary funding which the South
Auckland SWB can collectively allocate. This wil be part of a South Auckland
appropriation. Decisions on allocating this funding wil be based on an agreed
intervention logic supported by data, evidence and local knowledge. Funding
decisions wil only be made once the evaluation framework and outcomes have
been agreed with the Minister on the recommendation of the Chair and the Board.
• Funding for South Auckland SWB support costs. This wil be part of a South
Auckland appropriation.
• Ability to influence the design and/or prioritisation of other services that are not
directly within the collective decision-making remit of the South Auckland SWB .
The consensus and unanimous nature of South Auckland SWB decision making
preserves existing agency decision rights and delegations. The dif erence the South
Auckland SWB can make compared to the status quo comes from South Auckland
SWB members using local knowledge and collective working to deliver services that
better meet the needs of at-risk children and families. The additional resources from
the Investing in Outcomes fund wil contribute to this.
Reporting: The South Auckland SWB wil account to the lead Minister for its
performance. The South Auckland SWB wil also report quarterly to the National Social
Wellbeing Board . Performance reporting and evaluation wil recognise that it wil take
time to achieve results and for evidence of them to be measured.
The South Auckland SWB wil agree common messages that can be used by member
agencies to keep their respective Ministers informed, reflecting those Ministers’
interests in the South Auckland SWB . Member agencies wil continue to report for
accountability and other purposes on the services and programmes within their
appropriations.
Information sharing: Sharing personal information held by agencies about individuals
wil be an important enabler for the South Auckland SWB in providing bet er services.
Information sharing wil include:
• Anonymised and linked data, analysed at a national level by specialised data and
analytics teams to determine risk factors and profiles, used to inform policy settings
and service planning. Such information sharing is already undertaken by
government agencies and is supported by stringent arrangements to safeguard
privacy
• Information about individuals and their families, shared between frontline service
professionals for operational purposes.
• Information about individuals and their families that is used for evaluation and
analysis purposes, and outputted in an anonymised way to understand how the
SWB intervention areas/prototypes are working for whānau and families, and
improving outcomes.
The South Auckland SWB wil seek to put in place information sharing arrangements
for operational purposes that:
• are cost ef ective
• put clients at the centre, and foster trust between clients and service providers
• deliver information to frontline service professionals when they need it
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• are compliant with the Privacy Act 1993 and Health Information Privacy Code 1994.
Dispute resolution:
The South Auckland SWB is intended to allow local agency officials to exercise
delegated authority and use local knowledge to deliver better and more coordinated
services. South Auckland SWB consensus decision making means existing agency
delegations are unchanged. Accordingly the input and cooperation of agencies and
officials is not seen as a likely barrier to the success of the South Auckland SWB .
However in the event of a dispute the Chair wil refer the issue to the State Services
Commissioner to assist its resolution.
Amendment of the Terms of Reference: These Terms of Reference cover the
establishment and initial operating period of the South Auckland SWIB . It is expected
that these Terms of Reference wil be updated by agreement between the lead Minister
and the South Auckland SWB , as the South Auckland SWB ’s operations develop and
are evaluated.
ATTACHMENT ONE
Whāngaia Ngā Pā Harakeke (WNPH): Governance of the WNPH initiative is held by
the SOUTH AUCKLAND SWB. The Board holds ultimate accountability for the
successful delivery of the initiative. It:
· Provides strategic guidance and oversight of WNPH
· Controls changes to the scope
· Holds each other’s agencies accountable for delivery of agreed actions
· Leads agreed communication and consultation as required
The SWB wil receive quarterly reporting of the initiative including risks and issues.
Day to day operations and administration of WNPH is managed by Police with
escalation up through the Operational Management Group and Family Harm
Strategic Leadership Group as required.
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