Social services make sure MPs listen

Social service agencies have started a campaign of emails to MPs to have their voice heard as the Government gears up to deal with the recession.

Twenty-two national federations in a network called ComVoices launched the campaign on Friday after they were largely left out of the Government's Job Summit.

The Government responded to initial criticism of the 195 people on its summit invitation list by what appears to have been a last-minute ring-around to boost the final attendance to 231.

Pacific Island leaders were conspicuous at the summit although none appeared on the initial list. Maori iwi groups were also strongly represented.

But there were still only three known representatives of mainstream social services: Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson, Salvation Army social services director Campbell Roberts and disability activist Wendi Wicks.

Tina Reid of the Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations, which hosts the ComVoices network, said the Government had failed to engage with the sector despite its role in handling the human fallout from the recession.

"This is a Government which talked, when in Opposition, about 'turbocharging' the sector," she said. "We've had no engagement with them or signals of how they intend to engage with us."

ComVoices is circulating a standard letter for organisations to send to their MPs saying: "It is vital that social services are not just tacked on to the end of the process - or worse, just expected to adapt and pick up the pieces".

Ms Reid said the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Tariana Turia, attended a meeting with community groups last Wednesday on coping with the drop in funding from charities such as the ASB Trust which have lost money on the world's sharemarkets. Social Development Minister Paula Bennett had also agreed to meet several sector groups.