Individual Client Level Data Update

As most of you will be aware MSD and the Ministry of Vulnerable Children Oranga Tamariki has pulled back on their demand for individual client level data to be supplied to it from 1 July. While this represents a good respite and the beginnings of a sensible approach from government ministers and officials, at this stage it is only a reprieve with MSD announcing on its website:

Providers no longer need to collect or keep any data they have already collected. If providers expecting to have to collect ICLD from 1 July 2017 this is no longer a requirement and will not be included in your Outcome Agreements.

We intend to vary all Outcome Agreements in the 17/18 financial year once further work, as mentioned above, has successfully been completed

Once this work has been completed there will be the requirement to collect and share information for the purpose of identifying service provision and assessing the impact of this spend. We will seek to vary Provider Outcome Agreements at this point.

ComVoices, a Wellington-based collective of national organisations (including NZCCSS) lobbied hard for change, and with both the critical report from the Privacy Commissioner and the unfortunate, or perhaps fortunate, breach of privacy in the platform MSD was using to gather data this interim hold on data collection has been achieved.

The work of establishing an appropriate data system has been passed to the newly established Social Investment Agency. This Agency, emerging from the Social Investment Unit, has been doing a lot of mature thinking about data, what should be gathered, how it should be protected and what it will be able to be used for.  They have committed to working with the Privacy Commissioner and the NGO sector to develop a new way forward. As they are only newly established, how they will do this has not been communicated with us yet.  We look forward to a positive engagement leading to data collection and use policies and practices which we can all support.