Frequently Asked Questions – Whanau Ora

How much additional funding will be available from Budget 2011 for Whanau Ora?

The Government will invest an additional $30 million in Whanau Ora over the next four years, including $11.25 million in the coming year.

The funding includes $25 million allocated in Budget 2011 and, subject to final Cabinet approval, another $5 million of reprioritised Maori Potential funding from within Vote Maori Affairs.

What will the additional money be for? Currently, 25 provider collectives involving 158 health and social service providers are beginning to deliver Whanau Ora and are working collaboratively to deliver this innovative approach to engage whanau

Budget 2011 provides resources to expand the coverage of Whanau-Centred Services to new localities through the identification of at least 8 additional provider collectives over the next year.

Funding will be available to support programmes of development to form at least 8 provider collectives and to seed the longer lasting relationships needed for this approach. Resources have also been identified to support them to implement the service changes.

This will ensure there is nationwide coverage by Whanau Ora providers over the next two years to address the higher than anticipated demand for whanau-centred services and to ensure there will be access to these services by anyone who chooses to engage in this provision.

How will the new sites be identified? The level of interest from providers not selected to enter into Programmes of Action has been significant, both from providers that submitted an expression of interest and from providers that wish to be considered for selection in further waves. A number of providers will need assistance to build collaborative relationships and to identify partners, especially in those areas where there is currently no identified Whanau Ora provider.

When the first wave of provider collectives was announced the Whanau Ora Governance Group1 prioritised eight localities where there is a coverage gap to be addressed. The agencies working to the Whanau Ora Governance Group are tasked with establishing programmes of development where provider relationships will need to be developed over time. These locations include: Kaipara; Hauraki; South Waikato; Taupo/Turangi; Palmerston North; Wairarapa; Levin/Kapiti Coast; and Murihiku.

1 Members of the Governance Group comprise community representatives and government officials. The community representatives are Rob Cooper (CE, Ngati Hine Health Trust), Professor Sir Mason Durie (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Massey University) and Nancy Tuaine (Manager, Whanganui River Trust Board). The government officials include Leith Comer (CE, Te Puni Kokiri), Peter Hughes (CE, Ministry of Social Development) and Dr Kevin Woods (Director General, Ministry of Health). All members have been appointed for a 3-year term ending 30 June 2013.

New provider collectives will need to meet the same criteria and expectations set by the Whanau Ora Governance Group during the Expression of Interest process undertaken to identify the first wave.

How will providers be selected? The provider collectives will be selected by the Whanau Ora Governance Group.

How much money will be available to Whanau Ora now? Budget 2010 invested $134.3 million over four years in Whanau Ora. A further $30 million over four years is invested through Budget 2011.

What progress has been made with this year’s funding? The existing resources appropriated to support Service and Organisational Transformation will be fully utilised over the next four years by the first wave of 25 provider collectives identified by the Whanau Ora Governance Group.

The current funding supports the development and implementation of Whanau Ora provider collectives’ Programmes of Action which lead to organisational and service delivery change. Activities that may be funded include Whanau Ora practitioner identification and resourcing, practitioner training, service integration, and infrastructure support. Practical infrastructure needs will be considered such as improvements to existing Information technology and reporting systems building on existing systems.

Providers are currently working as collectives and with agencies to establish strong relationships, effective governance arrangements across collectives and identify the model of care against which they will transform their service delivery to whanau. Importantly, a number of selected providers are looking to expand their collective to improve the scope of the services they provide. This will have an impact on the level of resources sought to fund activities under the Programmes of Action.

How is Whanau Ora working for families? The Whanau Ora Approach is intended to uplift whanau, to increase their capacity and capability to determine their own futures and to reduce over time their reliance on government funded services. For some whanau this will be able to be achieved in the short term but for many whanau this will be a long-term process.

Whanau Ora is currently being pursued through collaborative, strengthened and integrated holistic service delivery across 25 provider collectives, involving around 158 health and social service providers.

It is important to remember that these provider collectives continue to offer existing services to individuals, families and communities, while they work on the changes they are making to their service delivery to engage and uplift whanau.

Several hundred whanau (involving several thousand individuals) are already engaging in planning at the whanau level and are connecting to existing service delivery and increasingly to the Whanau Ora service providers.

How is it working for the providers? The focus at this point is on building effective service delivery mechanisms that engage and enable whanau to take their own positive steps. There has been an overwhelmingly positive response from providers who submitted expressions of interest to pursue this approach. This reflects the high level of demand for whanau led services in all communities. It is important to meet this demand by the supply of a wider range of whanau ora services and for nationwide coverage by front-line workers.

The Whanau Ora Governance Group is currently considering the first Programmes of Action from the provider collectives, which outline the changes they intend to make to their service delivery model and the key steps they will take to implement these. These Programmes of Action are the result of considerable work undertaken by these providers and have been developed across collectives of providers that offer exciting potential in having come together. A number of these organisations have invested significantly in building strong relationships with each other the six months since they were selected.

When will we be able to measure the success? Research, evaluation and monitoring to provide information on the achievement of results is built into the Whanau Ora Approach. Action research with whanau to gauge success of the design, implementation and impact of the approach will need to be extended to encompass further providers.

ENDS

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