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| PoutÅ«terangi | March Our monthly newsletter serves as a platform to connect the mahi of our team with insights from our policy groups, wider membership, and sector relationships. Through this lens, we aim to highlight how these combined efforts shape policy and influence decision-making.Each issue is structured around our four primary focus areas: TÅ TÄtou RÄngai | Our Sector Åritetanga me te whakaurunga | Equity & Inclusion KaumÄtua | Older People Tamariki | Children In the KaumÄtua, Tamariki, and Åritetanga me te whakaurunga sections, updates will align with the following themes: Threads in Action: Current Highlights. Key updates on impactful initiatives and accomplishments relevant to our members and sector. Weaving New Patterns: What Lies Ahead. A preview of upcoming projects and areas for potential engagement. Interwoven Impacts: Reflecting on Influence. Insight into how past work has contributed to broader sector outcomes. As always, we welcome your feedback and thank you for your continued commitment to this work. We received the news of his Holiness Pope Francis’ return home with joy. We hope this news brings comfort to our Catholic members, and wish him rest and peace in his return to health.   Are we undoing our progress toward income inequality in Aotearoa?  On 1 April every year, annual adjustments to a range of income supports and mechanisms occur. However this year, many people will be falling further behind the rest of New Zealand.  Main beneficiaries lose out  In 2024, the Government changed the approach for the annual adjustment to working age main benefits. Rather than continue with an adjustment based on the increase in average wages, main benefits are now instead increased based on inflation. Advice from the Ministry of Social Development at the time highlighted that this would mean a long term drop in main benefit rates and that this change may impact progress towards the child poverty targets. This year we are starting to see the impact of this change with less money in the pocket of some of our most disadvantaged New Zealanders as inflation rose by only 2.2% compared to average wages rising by 3.51%. For sole parents on a benefit, their households are missing out on around $330 per year, while a couple of the Support Living Payment are missing out on over $450 per year.  Minimum wage is failing to keep up with inflation  Itâs a similar story for the minimum wage increase this year. On 1 April, the minimum wage will go up by a mere 1.5% from $23.15 to $23.50, well below even inflation for the year. According to NZCTU policy director Craig Renney, this means a full-time wage worker will be $235 a year worse off in real terms.  What does this mean for New Zealand?  Significant progress was made in New Zealand in reducing our income inequality between 2013 and 2023. This progress was in no small part due to significant and intentional transfers of wealth through key support systems like Working for Families and the welfare system. However, as we see this progress start to unravel there are very real impacts for individuals, whanau and communities. Our community services are already sharing their experiences of this with people coming to them with increasingly complex needs and traditionally âmiddle incomeâ whanau needing support. Income inequality is also bad for Aotearoa as a whole, as âunequal societies are less functional, less cohesive and less healthy than their more equal counterpartsâ.  Based on the Stats NZ Gross Domestic Product data release this month, there are finally positive signs of economic growth for New Zealand and it is critical that as our economy continues to grow, these benefits are shared.  Threads in Action: Opportunities for EngagementConsultation on taxation for not-for-profits opens Inland Revenue is seeking feedback a proposal to tax charities who generate âunrelated business incomeâ and to remove Fringe Benefit Tax exclusions. This could remove resources available to social services to support the communities they serve. We encourage you to make a submission here. NZCCSS will be making a submission and we want to thank those who have shared their insights with us. Consultation closes on Monday 31 March.  Everyone connected campaign âLoving our neighboursâ means ensuring they are warm and well. Electricity is essential for this, yet many families are going without electricity because they canât afford it. Each year electricity companies disconnect around 8,000 households who canât afford their bills. Common Grace are campaigning to highlight upcoming cost increases. From 1 April this year, power bills will rise by an average of $10 per month. Common Grace are seeking help with sourcing lived experiences of electricity hardship and people who are willing to speak to reporters about it. You can sign their petition and link them to any of your contacts here. For those who may be struggling with electricity or gas bills, they may also qualify for a recoverable grant with MSD. Recent submissions relating to Equity and Inclusion: We advocated for strengthening our legislation to protect the public from firearms in our submission on the Arms Act. We supported an aspirational vision of a good life being at the centre of changes to our Disability Support Services. Weaving New Patterns: Government Procurement Rules Consultation The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is seeking feedback on revised Government Procurement Rules. Procurement rules provide the foundation for how government contracts services, including the commissioning of social services. Changes proposed include a greater focus on economic impact, clearer contract management requirements for government agencies and scrapping a requirement for a living wage in government contracts for cleaning, catering and security guard services. We are preparing a submission and would welcome your insights. Please email [email protected] to provide your feedback to inform our submission. Find out more here. Submissions close on Friday 8 April 2025.  Threads in Action: Concerning information in Ombudsman’s report Earlier this month the Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier released a report outlining the insights he gained from visiting secure aged care facilities between July 2021 and June 2024. 148 facilities were visited during this period, 19 of which were not for profits and likely managed by member organisations.  The observations were conducted under the Ombudsmanâs responsibility to safeguard peopleâs rights and in this case were part of ensuring that Aotearoaâs responsibilities under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture were being upheld in the aged care space. âSecure facilitiesâ or âsecure wardsâ are within the Ombudsmanâs remit because the residents, who have diagnoses such as advanced dementia and Alzheimers, are not free to leave as they wish.  The report found that there were several systemic features that have the potential to cause harm to those who cannot leave the facility they live in. Lack of centralised oversight on whether there is appropriate legal authority for residents to be housed in a secure ward, and therefore denied their freedom, was a significant point of note. Most of the visited facilities had at least one resident without the legal basis for placement, such as a missing or inactivated Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA). An EPOA assigns a Wellbeing guardian who can make choices on behalf of a person who can no longer make competent choices for themselves. These must be arranged before a person is deemed incompetent and must be activated before any actions are taken on behalf of the person.  Our members have noted the difficulties that a lack of EPOA can have on older people, especially those with significant vulnerabilities. Education around how to create and activate an EPOA is sorely lacking as part of estate planning and progress through a Needs Assessment process. The Needs Assessment itself is often a stand in for an EPOA, where a Needs Coordinator assigns someone to a secure facility because they meet the care threshold. Without a current EPOA the correct process to bring someone into a secure ward would be the lengthy Personal Order process through the Family Court. We are interested in working with organisations, such as Community Law who provide EPOA services, to advocate for greater access to EPOAs to ensure that people can have a say in the care they are provided even when they are no longer competent to make the choice themselves.  The report brings up a number of other areas of concern, all of which are familiar to those working in the aged care space. Staffing pressures, isolation, restrictions on activity, and poor facility design were all noted by the Ombudsman, but so were the consistently compassionate and dedicated staff who care for those in secure wards, and the willingness for those observed to reflect and respond meaningfully to the feedback they received. We know that those who work with those who need to be housed in secure wards are doing their best under the ever-increasing pressure of the aged care system, and we welcome the Ombudsmanâs focus on the wellbeing of older people.  Read the Chief Ombudsmanâs report here. Weaving New Patterns: Ministry of Health Long-Term Insights Briefing to focus on Seniors Ageing Well Over the last year we have been engaged with a number of Long-Term Insights Briefings that haver related to ideas around âAgeing Wellâ and âPositive Ageingâ. These Briefings have been across government, and now we are looking forward to being part of discussions to shape the next stage of the Long-Term Insights Briefing on âSeniors Ageing Wellâ through the Ministry of Health. We have a long history related to supporting information and advice to ManatÅ« Hauora in this space, with a particular focus on vulnerable and disadvantaged older people.  We look forward to understanding the Ministryâs direction for what it means to âAge Wellâ in Aotearoa and to contribute our membershipâs thoughts and ideas on the matter. Our submission to the first stage of the Briefing reflected many of the same concerns as other submissions, which will be addressed in the redesigns to the next stage and the final outcome.  We will also continue to advocate for a specific older personâs health strategy to ensure that older people are empowered as key consumers who should be considered and catered for.  Interwoven Impacts: NZCCSS Aged Care Plan Review Continues The review of the Aotearoa Aged Care Action Plan is now well underway. Our thanks go out to the organisations who have already given their time to speak with Senior Analyst Rachel Mackay and give their perspective on how the plan is tracking. The support of the sector was critical in the development of the plan and it is gratifying to go back to the organisations who endorsed it this time last year and still have their support. The goal of the plan was creating a common driving goal of a better Aotearoa for our older people and this process is reinforcing that for us. If you have thoughts about the AACAP review, or have programmes that should be profiled under one of the action points, please also be in touch with Senior Analyst Rachel Mackay by emailing [email protected]  Threads in Action: Children’s Rights Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand Meetings Senior Analyst Melanie Wilson attended the Childrenâs Rights Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand (CRAANZ) strategic planning event in March, as a member of the Steering Committee.  CRAANZ acts as a collective voice for childrenâs rights in Aotearoa and aims to raise awareness of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC). To find out more about CRAANZ and any upcoming events visit https://www.childrensrightsalliance.org.nz/  Childrenâs Rights and Childrenâs Development: An Integrated Approach Edited by Jonathan Todres & Ursula Kilkelly You may also be interested in this book, recently published, on childrenâs rights and child development. The book explores UNCROC and its relevance at different stages of childrenâs development. This approach aligns nicely with our focus on middle childhood as a developmental stage, and the governmentâs Child & Youth Strategy which takes a lifespan approach to development.  Weaving New Patterns: Youth and the Future Youth Vaping We are pleased to see further work on addressing youth vaping as one of the items on the governmentâs Q1 Action Plan for 2025. This is an issue NZCCSS has been active in voicing concern about and you can read our previous submission on the Smokefree Environments & Regulated Products Amendment Bill No 2 here. We hope there will be further opportunities to engage in this issue as the government progresses this work. Oranga Tamariki Long-Term Insights Briefing We anticipate the release of the Draft Long-Term Insights Briefing from Oranga Tamariki later this year and will be seeking to engage members in providing feedback on the draft. Our previous submission on the LTIB topic can be found here.  Interwoven Impacts: Funding for Oranga Tamariki remain concerning We continue to be concerned about the impacts of Oranga Tamariki funding cuts on tamariki and whÄnau, particularly considering the findings of the recent Experiences of Care report from Aroturuki Tamariki indicating that tamariki and rangatahi are still not receiving adequate care under the National Care Standards.  We are prioritising this issue, as well as our concerns around the recent child poverty statistics in our advocacy and would be interested in speaking to any members who would like to share the impacts they are seeing in their communities.  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV) |
28 March, 2025
Te Raranga Kaupapa Here – PoutÅ«terangi
The March edition of our Weaving Policy newsletter
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