Annual Report 2011

This has been a red-letter year for the Families Commission. We have refined our purpose, moved strongly into knowledge management and refocused our advocacy so that it is more strategic and more effectively heard by those whose decisions impact on the wellbeing of families and whānau.

Before my appointment as Chief Commissioner, the Minister for Social Development, the Hon Paula Bennett, requested a review of the Commission. This review had two purposes: to find the best way to consolidate the Commission’s position as an important voice in debates about family-related policy in the social sector; and to ensure the Commission operated effectively and efficiently.

In response to the review, the Commission has fine-tuned its purpose and strategy, positioning itself as a “a centre of excellence for knowledge about family and whānau in New Zealand”. This vision preserves the Commission’s original purpose of acting as “an advocate for the interests of families in general” and also ensures that our advocacy comes from a strong evidential base. The Commission has re-committed itself to ensuring it is:

• relevant to New Zealand families and whānau
• a reliable source of knowledge about policies and practice
• respected as a source of knowledge about families and whānau.

In general, the Commission continues to be a trusted advisor on matters relating to families and whānau. The year ending in June 2011 has seen the Commission carrying out this role to the full. Against this backdrop it seems perhaps unfair to single out individual pieces of work for special praise, but I think two of our achievements in particular embody everything the Families Commission of 2011 holds dear.

The first of them, part of our Connected Communities and Support Structures workstream, focused on innovative ways of engaging families and communities, and sought to understand how they would like their support needs met. Whereas most social support services are premised on providing services to families, seeing families and whānau as the solution rather than the problem is turning this conventional thinking on its head. We started this work with our 50 Key Thinkers Forum, and are now rolling it out nationwide. It represents a theme that runs through much of our other project work. We would like to claim that this line of work is groundbreaking and innovative, but it is simply tapping into existing community-led, grassroots solutions to local social problems. When it comes to the future of social service delivery in New Zealand, we can say the future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed yet.

The second project is He Ara Whakamua (‘building pathways together to the future’), looking at models of Māori success. While this work was formally launched in the 2011/12 financial year, the bulk of the work to form relationships, do the research and produce the writing was carried out in the previous year. Like the 50 Key Thinkers work, this project challenges conventional thinking, using a strengths-based lens to understand Māori resilience and success. And what success this project reveals! It demonstrates clearly how connection with whānau and immersion in kaupapa can nurture success in education, entrepreneurship, environmental stewardship, political life and the rich expression of culture. This is important, because our research shows you can do more to enhance the wellbeing of family and whānau by focusing on growing their strengths than you can by focusing on problems.

The very successful event – He Ara Whakamua – we held at Pipitea Marae in August 2011 was just the start of an ongoing conversation about rethinking our assumptions about fostering success in Aotearoa. Or, to paraphrase a line from Bill Clinton that I have been in danger of overusing, “there is nothing wrong with New Zealand that we can’t fix using what is right with New Zealand”.

I have highlighted these two projects because they show that the real value of the Commission’s work is not just in the reports we publish, but also in the quality of the thinking we do. In the year I have been in the chief’s chair, I have learned two very important things about the Commission. The first is that it punches way above its weight in terms of the volume and quality of work it produces. This is testimony to the great team at the Commission, and their dedication to making a real difference to families and whānau in New Zealand.