sept2004

Changes to the Invalid's Benefit

The Ministry of Social Development has introduced new measures to support people receiving an Invalid's Benefit and who want to work.
Benefit recipients will be able to trial working 15 hours or more per week with agreement from their case managers without losing any benefit.
If a beneficiary forfeits the benefit because they earn too much, they will generally not have to have a stand-down period before the benefit is re-instated once work has ceased.

More information is available from the Ministry's 0800 559 009 or Deaf Fax: 0800 621 621 or from their website: www.msd.govt.nz   email informed@msd.govt.nz

Ministry of Social Development

E-Regions: - Northland Regional Council
is taking the lead role in launching a new initiative to use IT to coordinate central and local government agencies and pri-vate sector groups across the region.  If successful, the model is likely to be adopted through-out the country.  "E-regions" aims to focus on health, education, small business and local government. Stage one of the project will be a scoping study.  Participating local government organisations will review their current operations and their interaction with each other, with community organisations, non-government agencies and customers.  The information gathered will provide the basis for stage two, which will be the development of a new "platform" for delivering local government management and services.
Rural Bulletin - 2004

Inquiry into Hate Speech

The Government Administration Committee is to conduct an in-quiry into Hate Speech.  The closing date for submissions is 5.00pm on Friday 1 October 2004.
The terms of reference for the enquiry are to consider:

• Whether or not further legis-lation to prohibit or restrain hate speech is warranted.
• Whether restraints would conflict with the Bill of Rights Act.
• An appropriate threshold test for prohibition or restraint of hate speech.
• The steps taken by the international community to control hate speech and hateful expressions.

To make a submission send 20 copies of the submission to the Clerk of the Committee, Gov-ernment Administration Committee, Room 10:12, Bowen House, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. The Select Committee Office's publication Mak-ing a Submission to a Parliamentary Select Committee is available on website: www.clerk.parliamentary.nz/publications/other
For more details contact: Di-anne Yates (Chairperson), ph. (04) 471 9087 or Lesley Fergu-son (Clerk of the Committee), ph. (04) 470 6752 or email les-ley.ferguson@parliament.govt.nz

Consultation on Improving Mental Health

Public Consultation has been called for on the draft Improving Mental Health plan. This is a national mental health and ad-diction plan.  The plan builds on an earlier Mental Health plan agreed in the 1990s. The plan outlines the main strategies and action points for mental health services over the next 10 years.
The plan sets out a vision, goals and principles, and is organised around a series of seven interrelated strategic directions, each with a number of objectives and actions One of the main changes from the previous plan is that it takes a much stronger cross-government approach and recognises that mental health and wellbeing are influenced by a broad range of factors that need to be addressed in a co-ordinated manner.  The new plan also makes a much stronger recognition of consumer voices.

The plan identifies significant gaps in service development in four main areas:

1. mental health services for children and young people
2. mental health services for older people
3. system and service coordination within mental health services, across health services and  across social service agencies
4. The geographical distribution of services. At present, most DHBs in the two northern regions are further behind the national average for service de-velopment against access targets than DHBs in other regions.

It also identifies seven key strategic direction focuses for service development and action on mental health over the next seven to ten years.  The strategic directions are:

1. more and better specialist services
2. more and better services for Mäori
3. responsiveness of services
4. systems development
5. mental health in primary health care
6. mental health promotion and prevention
7. social inclusion - removing social and economic barri-ers to recovery.

The Ministry is seeking submis-sions on the draft strategy and is also holding a series of consultation meetings on the draft plan.  Consultation on the plan closes on the 29th of October. You can find more information on the Ministry of Health's web-site http://www.moh.govt.nz/improvingmentalhealth

Social Justice week

The Catholic Church is marking Social Justice week on 12 - 18 September this year with a focus on mental health.
Caritas has produced the Social Justice Week booklet Out of the Depths: Mental Health in New Zealand. The booklets are available from the Caritas office, PO Box 12-193, Thorndon, Wellington or lisa@caritas.org.nz  There is a charge of $4, but this is usually waived for individual copies for people working in the community.

An extract from the conclusion of the booklet:

Medical science appears to offer some solutions to age old problems of mental illness and new discoveries about genetics and biology of the human brain may cast further light on the subject.  But we cannot sit back and wait for a cure to arrive in a medicine bottle, when most mental illnesses result from the complex relationships between the way we were made and the world in which we live.
We may not be able to change our genes, but we can work at changing our society.  To achieve a world where people are able to experience mental health and wellbeing means working for a world of social justice, and a world which values the contribution of each and every one of us.

For some people origins of mental illness do not just lie in the person with the illness, but in the world around them. The Mental Health Blueprint ac-knowledges this: "It may be their family, social injustice, unresponsive services, or a traumatic event.  In these cases recovery does not just need to happen in the individual; the people and systems that contribute to the person's illness also need to change to enable that individual to lead a better life."

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Drug and Alcohol Initiative

A national leadership group for the Maori alcohol and drug sec-tor was agreed to at a recent hui in Auckland.
Agreement on the establishment of a group of tribal Kaumatua to provide support for those working in the sector was reached at the hui in Te Piringatahi O Te Maungarongo Marae in June.  This follows a series of hui over the past five years that discussed setting up a leadership group - a Taumata Kaumatua - for those trying to reduce alcohol-related harm for Maori whanau and communities. 
Taumata Kaumatua member Titari Eramiha says the role of the  Te Taumata Kaumatua o Nga Hau e Wha is to lead, guide and support the Maori alcohol and drug sector.  It is made up of the alcohol and drug workers and the Kaumatua.

For more information call Tau-mata Kaumatua member Titari Eramiha on (09) 439 617

Kokiri Paetae, Aug 2004

Central and local govern-ment working together on community concerns
Corrections Minister Paul Swain recently met with representatives of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) to dis-cuss the release of high-profile sex offenders into the community after the completion of their sentences.
It has been agreed to establish a working party comprising government officials and LGNZ representatives to find a way forward.
Paul Swain said that LGNZ representatives strongly outlined the concerns from communities about offenders living near them after release.
Mr Swain pointed out at the meeting that the Department of Corrections is legally obliged to release offenders who have served their time.
"There is clearly an issue here to be resolved. These people have to go somewhere but the challenge is to ensure that communities are as safe as possible. I appreciate the commitment of LGNZ to help find a way forward."
The working party will consult with other interested parties and has been asked to report back to ministers and LGNZ by December this year.

Scoop, 20 August 2004

Test Yourself   on aspects of the  Treaty of Waitangi and the settlement process See the multi-choice answer quiz at http://www.speeches.com/treaty/

Measuring Success

Good research has the ability to help community groups demonstrate what their work is achiev-ing.  The research need not be an expensive or time consuming exercise. Simple surveys can reveal a lot about what is happening in communities and provide snapshots in time as com-munity projects develop.
Traps to avoid are vague objectives, leading questions and opening lines that put people off.
As part of a project by the Community Employment Group and the Wellington City Council, the following steps to undertaking market research were identified:
· Identify clear objectives for the research. For example, if your overall aim is to enhance information communication technology abilities in your community, your sub ob-jectives may be to determine present skill levels, access to technology, what type assistance people most want and the barriers they face to getting that assistance.
· Identify and collect information that already exists.
· Work out a budget, time allocation and completion date for your research.
· Decide which method of gathering information you will use in your survey, weighing up the nature of the questions, response rates needed, money available, time available and location of the people of interest. Telephone interviews can be quick and cost effective if undertaken locally.  Face-to-face interviews can glean more information but are more time consuming than phone surveys.  Mail questionnaires avoid any interviewer bias and take up less time than interviews, but they often don't get to the right person and can have low response rates. Focus groups are good for generating fresh ideas and uninhibited responses, but they require a good facilitator, can be difficult to coordinate, and strongly extroverted people can influence opinions.

Determine who to survey.  What people are most relevant to your survey and what sample size is appropriate given the required accuracy of your results, the time and money available, the proportion of the population with the attributes being measured, and the expected level of non-response?

Decide how you will select your sample to ensure its results will be similar to your population of interest.

Design your questionnaires. 

Check the questionnaire and each question for the following pitfalls:

• Difficult to understand or ambiguous questions.
• Educated, complex or technical words or sen-tences.
• Abbreviations that respondents may not un-derstand.
• Questions that do not fit with the objectives.
• Questions that are too long or have too many options.
• Unreasonable recall period needed to answer questions.
• Double negatives.
• Questions that assume a situation exists.
• Leading or biased questions.
• Questions that require knowledge or skills that respondents may not have.
• Response options that do not cover all possible op-tions.
• Being too long, crowded, hard to read, hard to fol-low or untidy.
• Poor layout.
• Inconsistent use of terms.
• Sequence of questions that confuse, lead or threaten.
• Do a small trial run of the whole process to identify unforeseen problems.
• Conduct the research and set up a filing/retrieval system for storing the information you have gathered. 
•  Analyse your data, write up your research plan and draw up recommendations and an action plan based on the findings.

For more information, the Department of Statistics produces a readable and concise book that will expand on this material, titled "A Guide to Good Survey Design".
From "Employment Matters"
June 2004; Dept Labour

Government Accused of Illegal Child Discrimination

Currently around 300,000 of New Zealand's poorest children  are missing out on vital financial support because the government is denying them access to the Child Tax Credit due to the source of their parents' income.  The Human Rights Commission is taking the CPAG complaint about the discriminatory nature of the Child Tax Credit so seriously it has - at CPAG's request - invited top government officials to front up to a mediation on the issue.
Source: http://www.cpag.org.nz/

Advice From Auditors

Operating Your Bank Account

As we hope most of you are aware, cheques that are drawn on your organisation's bank account should have two signatures. This is what we call an internal control, in other words, no one person may pay a bill or make any other payment without the cooperation of at least one other person. This reduces the likelihood of error and also re-duces the likelihood of theft.
In recent times four organisations that we audit have had money stolen by a senior person within the organisation. In three out of four instances the other signatory on the cheque book had pre-signed cheques.
Pre-signing cheques defeats the purpose of the two signatory in-ternal control and leaves an or-ganisation open to problems.  The other issue is that when you sign a cheque you are saying - "I accept that this organisation must pay this money".  Really this means that the presigning signatory is, at law, liable for amounts drawn from the bank account for unauthorised purposes when they have signed the cheque.  So, our advice is - NEVER EVER PRESIGN A CHEQUE.

Your Constitution

Regardless of whether you are a Trust, an Incorporated Society, Maori Authority or a Company, your organisation will have a constitution (sometimes known as a Deed).  It often surprises us when we deal with people from community services organisa-tions to discover that many of them do not know their organisation's constitution, in fact many of them have never seen it.
An organisation's constitution sets out the rules by which it must operate, its purposes and often provides limitations on what the governing committee (board, trustees, directors) can and cannot do.
If you ever do something that is in breach of your organisation's constitution then you run into a very serious problem. From our point of view as auditors we are always looking to ensure that an organisation has complied with its constitution.  Failing to do so can result in liabilities for the organisation and its committee and may put your organisation in jeopardy.  Therefore, KNOW YOUR CONSTITUTION AND ENSURE THAT YOU FOLLOW IT.

Hobden & Martin Audits
Cited in Whangarei COSS Newsletter
August 2004

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Interview with Adrian Sinfield (CPAG UK)

During his recent visit to New Zealand, Prof. Adrian Sinfield, Vice Director of CPAG UK, gave an interview on Chris Laidlaw's programme on National Radio.  Prof. Sinfield has acted as a consultant to the UN on industrial social welfare and the OECD long-term unemployment and its wider impact. He has also worked with the European Commission on pilot programmes against poverty. In this interview he compared a number of international income, work and tax policies in terms of their impact on child poverty.

Some countries, he says, with a strong commitment to collective well-being, backed by a combina-tion of powerful policy measures, have maintained child poverty rates of 5% or less, even in times of high unemployment - while others like NZ and the UK have seen the rates skyrocket in recent decades, to around 33%.

He says policies like NZ's Child Tax Credit (and its replacement in 2006, the In Work Payment), which reserve some state assistance exclusively for children whose parent/s are in paid work, are not only deeply discriminatory but also lock vunerable chil-dren into poverty, to the detriment of society as a whole.  Furthermore, no retired person sees their superannuation cut for having been made redundant at one time, for example.

"It's interesting that in NZ, by contrast with the distinction you operate in relation to children in poverty between those with parents in paid work and those with-out, your national superannuation seems to be a much more "citizens" pension, without these distinctions; [there is] an acceptance that if you want to have a decent society  then retirement at a decent level is something that is central to that.  We haven't got that acceptance in relation to children."
http://www.cpag.org.nz/

Family Violence

A new Family Violence Intervention programme will be estab-lished within Work and Income.  The programme will enable specialist-trained staff to provide a more effective response to Work and Income Clients who are af-fected by family violence. This includes assessments of their needs, specialised case management and referral to community service providers where appropriate.  The new programme will be implemented in stages over the next three years.

Government is also investing in a new family violence prevention programme for Pacific communi-ties. The programme, developed in collaboration with Pacific communities, will see information resources developed and pro-vided to Pacific community lead-ers. Implementation will begin later this year.

Family Safety Teams

A pilot scheme, aimed at improving responses to family violence, will see four family safety teams set up to provide a collaborative approach to dealing with family violence issues. Each team will consist of a supervisor, three police investigators and three adult and three children victim advo-cates: Two national coordinators will also be appointed.
The first two family safety teams will begin work in January 2005 with the remaining two teams to be established in 2005 & 2006. An evaluation of the pilot's effectiveness will be done over a three year period.

Appointments to the new Families Commission: - the Chief Commissioner will be Dr Rajen Prasad, his deputy will be Sharron Cole, and the rest of the team comprises Mason Durie, Sandra Alofivae, Carolynn Bull and Lyn Campbell. 

Rural Bulletin - 2004

New Zealand losing more skilled workers

Visa changes in Britain allow skilled New Zealanders the potential to stay in Britain for good.  After two years working they can apply for a highly skilled migrant visa, and then apply for residency.
Bernie Kelly of Global Career Link recruitment company said in the Dominion (August 16) "Demand is very strong and the supply of talented professional trades people is weak" so more trades people and other skilled careers will go to the UK. For example, nurses earning $40,000 in New Zealand can earn the equivalent of $100,000 in Britain.
Many industries have reported raids on skilled workers such as in electricity supply, construction, and nursing.  With global labour supply problems in the devel-oped world, immigration policy responses such as those in the UK are more likely to increase and place further strain on access to skilled labour, already a major factor in restricting New Zealand firm output.

Training Talk #122

August 2004

From Strength to Strength
A two-day workshop in strengths-based practice for people working with children and families. 
Auckland: 15, 16 September 2004
Whangarei: 2, 3 November 2004
Gisborne: 16, 17 February 2005
New Plymouth: 10, 11 May 2005
Cost: $225 per person. 
Further information from James Family, 1083 Eruera Street, Rotorua.  Ph (07) 349-0990 Fax (07) 349-1500  Email training@jamesfamily.org.nz

Lottery News

Applying for Lottery Grants On-line

Applications for Lottery Community grants are now available on-line. Applications can be made through your homepage.  All information can be found there.  Go to www.cdgo.govt.nz for COGS funding online. Freephone for more information on: 0800 824 824.

Lottery Closing Dates

National Community Committee:
9 September 2004 and 14 January 2005
Regional Community Committees: 12 November 2004 and 1 April 2005.

SKIP Local Initiatives Fund

This fund is to support community organisations in promoting the benefits of positive parenting and providing practical knowledge and skills for parents and caregivers of children aged 0 to 5.  It encourages collaborative and locally defined projects. 
It will not provide funding for capital items, ongoing operational costs, resources or staff training.  For more information see http://www.msd.govt.nz/work-areas/families-whanau/skip.html

A decision panel of representatives from the Ministry of Social Development, relevant government agencies and non-government organisation/community representatives will assess applications.
For application forms and information contact: Gael Surgenor, SKIP, Ministry of Social Devel-opment, P O Box 12136, Wellington.  Ph.(04) 916 3633 email: skipinfo@msd.govt.nz  Closing date for the application is 5.00pm on 31 October 2004.

Adult Literacy Learning Pool 2005

The Tertiary Education Commission will be taking applications from education providers to de-liver literacy programmes to adults through the Adult Literacy Learning Pool. The purpose of the Pool is to provide funding for quality literacy learning opportu-nities for adults. Application forms should now be available on the TEC website. Applications will close at noon on Monday 27 September 2004.  For an information sheet contact Clare Ward, Group Manager, Steering and Investment, Tertiary Education Commission.  www.tec.govt.nz

National and Street Appeals

If you are planning a fundraising activity, you may wish to take the following national appeals into account:
5 - 7 September: Barnado's Butterfly Day Appeal
6 - 12 Sept: St John Week
7 - 13 Sept: Epilepsy Awareness
14 - 20 Sept: Stroke Foundation
20 - 26 Sept: Deaf Awareness Week
21 Sept: World Alzheimer's Day
24 Sept - 2 October: Arthritis Orange Appeal
1 - 31 Oct: Breast Cancer Awareness Week
4 - 11 Oct: RNZ Plunket Appeal
8 Oct: Pink Ribbon Day
9 - 16 Oct: ADRA Appeal
11 - 17 Oct: Canteen Bandanna Week
16 - 22 Oct: Save the Children
26 Oct - 1 Nov: Blind Week
1 - 7 November: Parkinson's Awareness Week
5 Nov: World Asthma Day
8 - 14 Nov: Animal Welfare Week
9 - 15 Nov: Leukaemia & Blood Foundation
15 - 21 Nov: Meningitis Trust Toddle Waddle
17 - 23 Nov: Victim Support National Appeal
23 - 30 Nov: Diabetes Awareness Week
30 Nov - 31 December: Christian World Service Christmas Gift Appeal
3 Dec: Red Ribbon Day
13 - 19 Dec: SAFE NZ Appeal

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COMING EVENTS

National Council of Women National Conference: 'Sustainable Development: My Impact is Important' Date: 23 - 26 September 2004 Venue:  Palmerston North Girls High School Enquiries to: NCWNZ, 10 Park Street, P O Box 12 117, Wellington  Tel: (04) 473 7623, Fax: (04) 499 5554 Email: ncwnz@ihug.co.nz  www.ncwnz.co.nz   New Zealand Family Planning Association When:  29 - 31 October 2004 Where:  Wellington Town Hall Sex Matters - A conference hosted by the New Zealand Family Planning Association that will examine current critical sexual and reproductive health issues.  The conference will review what has worked and will explore public and personal health issues and policy directions. Further information and Call for Papers are available from www.fpanz.org.nz or contact FPA (04) 384 4349 New Zealand Assn for Adolescent Health and Development INVOLVE '04 September 20-22, 2004 Waipuna Hotel and Confer-ence Centre, Auckland INVOLVE '04 offers a wonderful opportunity for all those who work with young people to come together to share knowledge, ideas and experiences about youth health and development.  Further information from Sheri Marander, Conference Conve-nor, NZAAHD / INVOLVE '04  PO Box 91795, Auckland  Ph (09) 373 7599, email s.marander@auckland.ac.nz  www.involve04.org.nz WHY NOT?  Let's Make it Happen A conference to identify and explore opportunities for those who don't believe in being held back by disability. Rutherford Hotel, Nelson 22 - 24 November 2004 Hosted by The Achilles Foundation & Westbourne Solutions Early Bird Registration:  1 October 2004 For more information and registrations contact Westbourne Solutions, Event Organisers, 43B Michael Street, Masterton.  Ph. (06) 377 0255, Mobile 021 300 380, fax (06) 377 0251, email mark@hamillharris.co.nz Ministry of Social Development  'What Works?' 25 to 26 November 2004 I would like to extend an invitation to everyone who is researching, developing, implementing or evaluating social policy in New Zealand to take part in the second Social Policy, Re-search and Evaluation Conference The conference will have a practical focus. We aim to encourage the use of research and evaluation in social policy and practice. What Works?' to improve social outcomes for New Zealanders will be a major theme running through the keynote addresses and seminars.  This will help us to explore the factors that impact on social outcomes and the contribution social development makes to economic growth. The inaugural conference, held in April last year, was a great success. This year's conference will build on this success and promises to add to our knowledge of what works. I look forward to seeing you there. Peter Hughes Chief Executive, Ministry of Social Development Further information from Conference Managers, PO Box 90040, Auckland.  Ph (09) 360 1240, email sprec@tcc.co.nz or www.msd.govt.nz/events/conferences/social-policy-04/index.html Centre for Justice and Peace Development: Conference New Frontiers in Restorative Justice: Advancing Theory and Practice. An international on Restorative Justice Albany, Auckland, 2-5 December 2004 This conference will interest those who are curious about future possible applications of restorative justice, and of the forms that restorative justice might take as a consequence of those applications. Participants are welcome to submit presentation proposals, either as 30 minute papers, 90 minute Shared Sessions, Poster presentations, artistic displays, musical presentations, and documentaries. Presenters may wish to submit their papers for consideration in an edited, published text that will contain a limited selection of the conference material. Further information from Centre for Justice and Peace Development, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Massey University, Private Bag 102 904, North Shore MSC, Auckland.  Ph (09) 4140800, email newfrontiers@massey.ac.nz  www.justpeace.massey.ac.nz

Published on behalf of the New Zealand Council of Social Services by the Council of Social Services in Christchurch, Chch Community House, 141 Hereford St, Christchurch.  Ph (03) 366 2050, fax (03) 366 8535, email ccoss@ihug.co.nz
The opinions expressed in Network News are not necessarily those of the Council of Social Services.  Every effort is made to ensure correctness of facts and information.  However we cannot accept responsibility for errors.