System leadership

One of our roles is to work with agencies across the social services system to align resources for greater impact and make better investment decisions to support individuals, families, whānau and communities to achieve better outcomes.  

We know from previous work(external link) undertaken by the Social Sector Commissioning Hub in 2021 that social sector agencies spend at least $6 billion annually on contracted services (this is now likely to be around $8billion). Social Investment Fund Ministers recently asked us to accelerate planned work to update our knowledge and visibility of our contracted spend across the social sector. 

This 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. 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 will benefit from smarter, more transparent use of public funding in the social sector. By improving how government understands and manages contracted spending, we can reduce duplication, cut administrative burdens for service providers, and make it easier to direct resources where they’re most needed. Over time, this will strengthen collaboration across agencies and create a more consistent approach to social investment—one that delivers better outcomes for people and communities.