Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis speaks to service providers about how she wants her new agency to effect societal change. Video / Mark Mitchell
Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis expects philanthropists will play a central role in funding her social investment approach designed to effect social change.
Her comments come following her speech at a social investment hui with social service providers, during which she painted a picture of who she seeks to help and the way the Government can change its spending to focus on the investment return that comes from “growing human capital”.
Asked what role she considered philanthropy having by philanthropic family trust staffer Sylvia Moe, Willis believed it would have a “really important role” once the Government improved its data collection to prove the impact investment could have.
“I want to see philanthropy contributing more alongside Government to make social change.
“I see no reason why philanthropy couldn’t co-invest in our social investment fund, I see no reason why philanthropy couldn’t be the partner that could get the initiative over the line.”
About $50 million had been spent to set up the agency and the fund but Willis would not be drawn on how large the fund would be, saying it would be shared at next year’s Budget.
Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis used "22-year-old Jack" as an example of the opportunities missed by the state. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Moe, the Pacific strategy and engagement lead for the J R McKenzie Trust, told the Herald she wasn’t too satisfied with Willis’ answer.
“I think that what they’re wanting to do is quite ambitious and we’re probably parked on the sideline to help when we can help.”
Moe said Willis’ agency should engage with outfits such as hers, particularly in light of Willis urging community service providers to innovate.
“That’s where philanthropy comes in. We can support that innovation but it would be really good to see how the Government is going to now support that innovation, so it would be really good to have a discussion about that.”
Responding to Moe, Willis acknowledged the agency was in its infancy and the purpose of today’s hui was to engage with a range of providers.
She said she didn’t know how much of the agency’s fund would come from philanthropic sources but said it was expected to be largely Government-funded in its early days.
“I’ve urged the Social Investment Agency to design it in a way that it would allow for private funding to enter at a later date.”
Minister paints picture of state failings she wants fixed
Willis’ speech centred around a hypothetical 22-year-old named Jack, who was facing imprisonment after being arrested for assault as his third charge.
She described Jack as a person who had no qualifications after being stood down from school multiple times, a repeat visitor to the emergency department, relying on food grants and exposed to family violence with him and his siblings having multiple interactions with Oranga Tamariki and police.
“By age 27, there’s an 80% chance he will have died, have had a child die, have had a child placed in state care, served a prison sentence or experienced family violence.”
She cited Government data from 2017 that showed eight out of 1000 22-year-olds had a “similar story”. By 2022, that had increased to 12 in every 1000.
Willis questioned why Jack had not been supported during his repeated interactions with the state and the “huge amount of taxpayer money” spent on him and his whānau.
“Despite all those good intentions and all that money, none of it has delivered the outcome we want for Jack.
“Jack, a human being, born with boundless potential to contribute positively to his family, community and country, is instead creating a trail of social harm, social pain and social cost.”
Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis wants to see philanthropic support for her agency's fund. Photo / Mark Mitchell
She argued a social investment approach would be empowered by “locally led innovation”, funded by Government through a model that gave non-Government organisations, communities and iwi “more power to do what works and more accountability”.
“We want to be able to invest for the long-term, acting early, rather than waiting for the inevitable crisis, so that we can look ahead to getting dividends in terms of better lives for many years to come.
“Investing now so we can save later. And a Government budgeting approach that accounts for those savings and better describes the return on investment that comes from growing human capital.”
Willis said she had tasked the Social Investment Agency to develop “prototype social investment outcome contracts” that would replace the current set of “crisscrossing and overlapping outputs-focused contracts”.
“My vision is one in which we break through the agency silos, pool our resources and drive them much closer to the 500 or so families in each regional community that really need our help.
“Resources commissioned not through the lens of a particular vote or agency, but deployed instead to organisations who can take a 360-degree view of the family whose trajectory we seek to change.”
She saw the agency’s fund as a “testing ground for ideas” that could be applied more broadly across the social sector if successful.
Willis, also the Finance Minister, believed Government budgets should factor in the expected savings derived from spending on social initiatives.
That position was one Pharmac Minister David Seymour had often supported as he strove to secure more funding for the national drug-buying agency. He, too, believed the Government should account for the benefits funding a particular drug would lead to, such as relieving pressure on the health system.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
