NGO Council Chair’s Update – July 2014
Welcome
Before I update you all with news from the NGO Council, I want to welcome all our 90 new members!
We have been working with the Ministry of Health to identify all of the non-profit NGOs that it funds. Thishas enabled us to target potential new members directlyand ensure that werecognise the diversity of our membership and strengthen our collective voice in discussions with the Ministry and other key stakeholders.
Strategic issues
Our June NGO Council meetingenabled your elected representatives to have input with the Ministry’s policy team on a range of high level strategic issues. We explored questions such as:
●What have we (NZ, the Ministry, the sector) done well over the last five or ten years?
●What are the key challenges facing the health and disability system?
●What new things, such as ways of working or technology, look promising for meeting these challenges?
●What are the best ways to improve outcomes and advance a sustainable health and disability system?
●How can we improve health outcomes for low decile/Maori/Pacific populations; people with chronic disease; people with disabilities; and/or children?
●How should the Ministry be working with people, communities and other stakeholders?
The Ministry is engaging with a range of stakeholders on these topics and we invite you to share your thoughts, so we can feed these back to the Ministry and help influence future planning and decision-making.
You can provide your responses here:
Local engagement
During these discussions, we were reminded of the opportunities to engage and influence service delivery at a DHB level through the various committees that DHBs have. These include the Community and Public Health Advisory Committee (CPHAC) and the Disability Services Advisory Committees (DSAC).If you are not familiar with these, check out your local DHB website for information on the committee meeting dates and head along. These are public meetings and being there is often the first step in advocacy – each one operates differently. Also be aware of when you can nominate people to join these committeesso you can make the most of this opportunity.
We also received an update on the Children’s Teams at our June meeting.There are eight new ones to be established with funding from the 2014 Budget; adding to the pilot teams set up in Rotorua and Whangarei.
The new teamswill be in Horowhenua, Marlborough, Hamilton, Clendon/Manurewa/Papakura, Gisborne, Whakatane, Whanganui and Christchurch. The message on these is: if you have a local presence where a Children’s Team is being established, get involved and have a voice in how these progress, as they present a great opportunity for connecting up services and improving outcomes for vulnerable children and their families.
Building capability
The new Vulnerable Children Act is wide-ranginglegislation that will impact onmany providers in the community sector. This legislation is aimed at providing better protections for vulnerable children and confers responsibility on the heads of five government departments for improving the lives of children.
Frontline staff in health, education, social development, justice and police have to ensure that children identified as vulnerable get the services and support they need. The new law also introduces new vetting and screening checks for government and community staff working with children.
New worker safety checks will come into force in a phased fashion over four years to ensure that organisations have sufficient time to screen their existing workforce and implement the necessary processes for pre-employment screening. These require police checks for staff that will look for any relevant convictions that could exclude people from working in specific roles – you will need to ensure your NGO has suitable processes in place for this. You can start preparing for this by checking the information on the web at
Another component of this legislation is the requirement for providers to have child protection policies. You can see an example of these on our website at
Free Governance Training Workshop
The HastingsGood Governance workshopwill be on 24 July and is free for non-profit NGO board members – a few places are still available, so book online now.
NZ Navigator
You can check how well your NGO is doing in a range of areas by completing theNZ Navigator self-assessment tool – this will give you useful guidance to build on your strengths and improve your weaknesses.
Until next time,
Kathryn Jones
Chair, NGO Health & Disability Council