NGO Health and Disability Network Annual Report: 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016

NGO Health and Disability Network Annual Report: 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016

1. Background

The NGO Health & Disability Network (formerly the Health and Disability NGO Working Group) has partnered with the Ministry of Health since 2002 to implement the Framework for Relations between the Ministry and Health and Disability NGOs.

This Framework provides a clear mandate for the Ministry of Health and our Network to engage on a range of issues. It identifies key areas where working together can strengthen the relationship with non-government organisations (NGOs.) These key areas include communication, consultation and capacity/capability building.

Thirteen elected members on the NGO Council have responsibility for the ‘executive’ function, and are appointed for two-year terms. This annual report is from the NGO Council.

2. Vision, Mission and Outcomes

VISION: Health and disability NGOs are meaningful partners with the Ministry of Health and other government agencies in system-level policy development,
planning and delivery of health and disability services in New Zealand.

PURPOSE: As an outcome of our collective impact with the Ministry of Health (and other government agencies) we will improve the effectiveness of health and disability NGOs’ services and achieve better health outcomes for all people in New Zealand.

OUTCOMES 2013-2016

Ø  NGOs are sought/engaged in/contribute to strategic and operational matters concerning the Ministry of Health and NGOs’ development and service delivery.

Ø  NGO voices are involved in policy development.

Ø  A coherent and connected NGO sector, which represents a fundamental element of health and disability services funded in New Zealand, has the building of community capacity and capability as a priority.

Ø  There is cross-government engagement with the health and disability NGO sector at all levels, not just at the ‘coal face’.

Ø  Relationships based upon courtesy, respect, integrity, transparency and trust are the experience of all people engaged with the health and disability sector.

3. Overview from the Chair: Strength in our community links and knowledge

The NGO Council is vehicle for broad community-based advice to the Ministry of Health and is a channel for communicating back to the NGO sector. With such a diverse sector, it can be challenging to reflect all the important issues that community providers see as barriers to better services for individuals, however some significant topics affect us all – whether we are large national NGOs with multiple contracts worth millions or a one-person service in a remote location.

One of these topics is service commissioning, which has been a key focus of NGO Council

discussions throughout the year. It encapsulates the challenges of getting funding levels and processes right to support delivery of the right services in the communities where they are needed.

The new NZ Health Strategy and changes within the Ministry are providing fresh opportunities to explore new ways of commissioning services, but we still have to balance these with existing contractual requirements to improve outcomes.

Recommendations from the Productivity Commission’s review into More Effective Social Services and the government’s broadened social investment approach could also lead to improved outcomes for clients/consumers, especially if our non-profit sector is ready to step up and remind funders of our strong community links. Listening to our communities is part of our kaupapa, but we can help government tap into this if we use our strengths and are innovative and solutions-focused – in our own NGO, in our region and collectively as a sector.

Looking ahead, we have our annual Council elections and the National Forum in October, which will focus on the broad themes of the new NZ Health Strategy. I encourage you to participate in these as a way to connect and share our influence. In the meantime, your elected NGO Council will continue to be forward focused – providing courageous leadership and open and respectful dialogue in partnership with the Ministry, ngā mihi.

Donna Matahaere-Atariki
Chair of the NGO Health & Disability Council

4. Key activities

During the year, the NGO Council:

·  ran the 19th National NGO Forum in Wellington, which was attended by approx 280 people from 155 organisations.

·  shared the views and experiences of the health and disability NGO sector with various personnel from different parts of the Ministry of Health.

·  made a submission on the NZ Health Strategy review

·  ran elections to fill six vacancies on the NGO Council

·  progressed a crowd-sourced video project to illustrate the contributions non-profit NGOs make to the health and disability sector

·  initiated a series of Influencing Policy and Making Submissions workshops to build capability in NGOs

·  commissioned a Future Focus discussion paper on different service commissioning models

·  delivered information and guidance to Network members on a variety of topics and consultation opportunities

·  provided regular updates to the website and shared relevant news with the sector via Twitter and Facebook.

5. Formal relationship with the Ministry of Health

The current two-year Letter of Agreement between the Ministry of Health and the NGO Council to support the Relationship Framework runs to 31 December 2016. It specifies Services comprising three parts:

·  the secretariat function for the NGO Council

·  facilitating and organising the NGO forums with the Ministry’s NGO Relationship Manager

·  project work to be agreed with the Ministry as and when required.

The Ministry’s NGO Desk is responsible for the regular communications to the sector via the newsletter, and liaison between the NGO Council and the Minister and the Ministry.

6. Network membership still growing

The NGO Health & Disability Network grew to 521 full members and 114 affiliates by 30 June 2016[1]. The 521 members make up approximately 56% of the non-profit NGOs that receive Vote Health funding from the Ministry of Health and/or DHBs.

These NGOs that receive Vote Health funding (i.e. have contracts with the Ministry of Health and/or DHBs) can register in a maximum of two categories, and are registered to vote as follows:

{ 228 in Disability Support Services { 117 in Public Health

{ 147 in Mental Health and Addictions { 116 in Personal Health

{ 118 in Māori Health { 24 in Pacific Health

Ninety-eight percent of Network members are registered charities. Based on annual return data from the Charities Register[2], we know the following about our 521 Network members:

·  Member NGOs received $1.75 billion in combined annual government funding.

·  322 member NGOs received over $121 million in combined donations/koha.
(Up from $74m across fewer members in the previous year.)

·  69 member NGOs received a combined total of over $41 million in bequests.
(Similar to the previous year.)

·  Altogether, 308 member NGOs received over $65 million in other grants and sponsorship.

·  Member NGOs paid more than $1.53 billion in annual salaries and wages to 21,383
full-time staff and 18,295 part-time staff.

·  In an average week, a total of 1.2 million hours were worked by paid staff and 155,445 hours provided by approx. 36,598 unpaid volunteers.

·  33% of member NGOs had a net annual operating deficit in their last reported financial year, so had to draw on reserves to continue delivering services. (The third year in a row that approx. one in three NGO members have had to draw on reserves to cover costs.)

The activities of the NGO Network extend far beyond the voting membership as many non-members attend Forums and workshops and provide feedback via Network projects and surveys.

The DIA Charities website shows 1,937 registered charities are working in the health sector (7% of all 27,607 charities in NZ) and 880 registered charities are working with people with disabilities (3.2%). The Non-Profit Institutions Satellite Account: 2013 published by Statistics NZ[3] identified 2,210 health sector non-profits. Ministry of Health figures indicate less than half of these are Vote Health funded. We continue to engage new members to strengthen our collective voice in discussions with the Ministry and other key stakeholders.

7. NGO Council elections

Four hundred and ninety eight health and disability NGOs were registered to participate in the annual elections of Council members in October 2015.

·  12 candidates stood for 5 NGO Council vacancies in October 2015 and 7 candidates stood for one disability support vacancy in May 2016.

·  Incumbent members Donna Matahaere-Atariki and Marion Blake were re-elected in October. Council members Eleni Mason, Shaun McNeil and Sarah Mulcahy did not seek re-election, so three new members (Pesio Ah-Honi Siitia, Barbara Disley and Catherine Marshall respectively) were elected to replace them.

·  Changes to the Terms of Reference clarifying roles in organising the National Forum (clause 11) and introducing a complaints and dispute resolution process (clause 13), were ratified and accepted by the majority of voters and are effective from 1 November 2015.

·  Disability Support Service representative Victoria Manning resigned from the NGO Council in April 2016 due to other commitments, and Marese McGee was elected in May to replace her.

·  Voter participation in 2015/16 was as follows:

·  35% of 142 eligible Mental Health & Addiction NGOs cast a vote (down from 60% in 2013).

·  29% of 112 eligible Māori Health NGOs cast a vote (down from 45% in 2014).

·  23% of 102 eligible Personal Health NGOs cast a vote (down from 35% in 2014).

·  Pacific Health: no vote required as only one candidate.

·  45% of eligible Disability Support Service NGOs voted (same as 2014).

8. Project workstreams

A detailed report on our 2015-16 Work Plan is on our website. Project activity was focused in three key areas.

·  Building NGO capability to influence policy and make submissions
Fifty-eight people from 48 NGOs attended workshops in Christchurch and Wellington in May 2016. Additional workshops in Auckland and Hamilton were scheduled for July. Guidance material and videos were also added to our website.

·  A crowd-sourced NGO video project to illustrate the contributions NGOs make
This request received more than 60 video clips from 23 NGOs throughout the country. Work to edit these into 5 or 6 short compilations is nearing completion.

·  Future Focus literature review on commissioning approaches
After an initial discussion paper was developed, the NGO Council commissioned the author Richard Clarke to develop a two page summary paper describing key success factors for the four main service commissioning models and create a thinkpiece exploring various existing and potential commissioning principles. These papers will inform ongoing discussions with the Ministry about service commissioning.

9. Ministry of Health NGO National Forum

The 19th Ministry of Health NGO Health and Disability Sector National Forum entitled ‘How Good Are We: Measurement, Evaluation and Outcomes’ was a response to funders’ increased focus on getting results and putting resources where they will do most good. Topics in the programme explored ways to help non-government (NGO) providers show their service is effective and making progress for communities, or to address challenges if evidence were not available or did not support this view.

More than 280 people from 155 organisations (including 43 staff from the Ministry of Health) heard the presentations and networked with each other during the day-long Forum at Westpac Stadium on Friday 18 September 2015.

10. NGO Council members’ meeting attendance

In the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016, the NGO Council held six face-to-face meetings. NGO Council members attended as shown below.

Representative / Sector Represented / Meetings eligible / Meetings attended / Appointment
Status
Marese McGee / Disability Support Services / 1 / 0 / Elected May 2016
Mark Brown / Disability Support Services / 6 / 4 / Re-elected Oct 2014
Victoria Manning / Disability Support Services / 4 / 2 / Resigned April 2016
Donna Matahaere-Atariki (Chair) / Māori Health / 6 / 4 / Re-elected Oct 2015
Josie Smith / Māori Health / 6 / 4 / Elected Oct 2014
Karaitiana Tickell / Māori Health / 6 / 3 ½ / Elected Oct 2014
Barbara Disley / Mental Health & Addictions / 4 / 4 / Elected Oct 2015
Marion Blake / Mental Health & Addictions / 6 / 5 ½ / Re-elected Oct 2015
Shaun McNeil / Mental Health & Addictions / 2 / 2 / Stood down Oct 2014
Eleni Mason / Pacific Health / 2 / 2 / Stood down Oct 2014
Pesio Ah-Honi Siitia / Pacific Health / 4 / 2 / Elected Oct 2015
Robert Muller / Pacific Health / 6 / 4 / Elected Oct 2014
Catherine Marshall / Personal Health / 4 / 3 / Elected Oct 2015
Kathryn Jones / Personal Health / 6 / 5 / Re-elected Oct 2014
Sarah Mulcahy / Personal Health / 2 / 1 / Stood down Oct 2014
Jackie Edmond (Vice-Chair) / Public Health / 6 / 3 / Elected Oct 2014
Warren Lindberg / Public Health / 6 / 5 / Elected Oct 2014

11. NGO Council meetings

The February meeting was facilitated by National Forum MC, Fran Hoover to assist the NGO Council to re-focus and respond to the findings in the Productivity Commission’s report on More Effective Social Services. Subsequent meetings built on this discussion and broadened out to include the introduction of the new NZ Health Strategy, changes within the Ministry of Health to support this and processes to improve service commissioning and contracting.

Ministry of Health meeting guests included:

·  Kathryn Karantze-Young and Lea Patrick, who provided an update on the Social Bonds trial. (Aug)

·  Cathy O’Malley (Deputy Director-General Sector Capability & Implementation) and Clayton Cleary (Manager, Procurement and Contracts) discussing the Ministry’s contracting and commissioning of services. (Oct)

·  Therese Egan (Acting Group Manager Strategy, Policy) and Laura Miller (Policy) to share responses to the findings in the NZ Productivity Commission’s report. (Oct)

·  Jim Nicholson (Manager Health of Older People) and John Roy (Policy Analyst, Populations Policy) met with the NGO Council to discuss consultation on Health of Older People Strategy. (April)

·  Jill Lane (Director National Services Purchasing, National Health Board) attended to meet the new Council members. (Dec)