System leadership

We know from previous work undertaken by the Social Sector Commissioning Hub in 2021(external link) that the government needs to gain a joined-up view of social sector spend. To spend that money effectively and be a good partner, government needs to understand what it's funding, where, and what results are being achieved.  

With that in mind, Social Investment Fund Ministers asked us to accelerate planned work to update our knowledge and visibility of our contracted spend across the social sector. Ministers have made this a priority because they have heard from the sector about the burden of dealing with government complexity. This project will create the evidence to better understand where we can improve.

The Social Investment Agency is working with government agencies to create visibility of social services commissioning. This involves uploading and analysing social service contracts to understand Government’s social sector spend. 

This is about understanding government’s own contracting patterns not evaluating providers. Providers do not need to do anything and their contract information remains protected and confidential. 

The work will give us a view of commissioning patterns across the social sector, providing visibility of who's funded, what services are being delivered, where, for how much, and what outcomes are being measured. We know that overlaps exist and that there are gaps in how we invest to improve outcomes. With a better picture of social sector commissioning, we can move to reduce the compliance burden on organisations who provide social services and identify collaboration opportunities that would otherwise be invisible when agencies are working in isolation. 

New Zealanders stand to benefit from a smarter and more transparent approach to using public funding in the social sector. By strengthening how government understands and oversees contracted spending, there is potential to help agencies work together more effectively and contribute to a more consistent approach to social investment — one that aims to improve outcomes for people and communities. 

Contract Analysis FAQs

Read Frequently Asked Questions about the Contract Analysis Project on the Contract Analysis Project FAQs page.