Our 2011 election manifesto - Labour Party

Engaging with the community: A social inclusion approach
The Fifth Labour Government made a commitment to a new way of working with
communities based in partnership in social development. New relationships and a deeper
understanding of government and community roles did emerge from the partnership
approach; but overall the partnerships didn‟t achieve the kinds of potential and produce the
results they might have.
Community sector and government relationships remain quite fragmented. Labour is not
convinced New Zealanders are getting all the benefits of cooperation, prevention, smart
community knowledge on where the problems are, who is involved, and how to fix them.
While we have seen some real innovation in areas including Māori social services (which
Whānau Ora has built upon), there are many other areas where we still haven‟t got the
machinery in place for bringing that knowledge and expertise into the heart of policy and
programming processes.
Where this really matters is in areas where no single agency, government or community can
fix the problem on its own. These are areas where people are experiencing multiple
challenges, or making transitions in their lives that can see them falling between the cracks
because no one agency has the job of looking after them. Homelessness and rough sleeping
for example, often involve people with challenges in housing, work and income, mental
health, substance abuse and more, and need input from health, housing, local government,
and social development agencies. Without well led, strongly coordinated efforts, these
people end up being dealt with by the police. Young people considering leaving school early
face different hurdles: but can easily end up neither in work, nor school, nor training.
A social inclusion approach puts coordination around complex issues and needs at the top of
the agenda. It appoints a „social inclusion commissioner‟ (or equivalent) with the power to
identify issues, see what works and require coordination between government agencies, with
identified counterparts in the leader and ministers‟ offices. It monitors outcomes, and refocuses
efforts which are not working. It finds international experience, investigates how it
has been evaluated, and what evidence there is for its success. It cements the best
approaches into place with public service agreements at central level, complemented with
better coordination at local level. Under Labour in New Zealand, it will also need to forge the
best possible working relationships with community groups and agencies, and, where
appropriate, local government.
Labour‟s Social Inclusion approach will be a new way of working together with
communities in the areas where that way of working can make the most difference. It
is an approach we have seen working well elsewhere: but that we want to develop
here in our own, can-do Kiwi version.
Internationally there have been a number of areas where this approach has yielded real
benefits, both in terms of problems and opportunities. The problems have included:
Homelessness and rough sleeping
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