The triplets: Investment in outcomes for the vulnerable – reshaping social services for (some) New Zealand children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol28iss2id220Keywords:
vulnerable, social investment, outcomes, social work, neoliberalAbstract
Social work and social services are in a period of significant change built around three key terms; investment, vulnerable, and outcomes. Those terms are not simple neutral descriptors. Rather, they are shaped in critical ways by the neoliberal framework which informs them. The framework is critically examined here by exploring how it is reflected in the specific meanings and implications of each of the three terms. Social work practice and social services delivery will be heavily influenced by the political and ideological framing of investment, vulnerable and outcomes. The paper takes up some of these implications and raises a series of questions for children and families, for practitioners and for agencies. The responses to those questions will be critical for social work and for those with whom and for whom social workers work.
References
Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers. (2013). Code of Ethics. Christchurch: Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers.
Brown, K. (2015). Vulnerability and young people: Care and social control in policy and practice. Bristol: Policy Press.
Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods. (4th ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cabinet Social Policy Committee (2015). Investing in Services for Outcomes: Community Investment Strategy – Completion and Sector Engagement. SOC 15(24). Wellington: New Zealand Government.
Cheyne, C., O’Brien, M., & Belgrave, M. (2008) Social Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand (4th ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Crichton, S., Templeton, R., & Tunmen, S. (2015). Using Integrated Administrative Data to Understand Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes as Young Adults. Wellington: Treasury. Analytical Paper 15/01. Retrieved from http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/research-policy/ap/2015/15-01/ap15-01.pdf
Dean, H., & Melrose, M. (1999). Poverty, Riches, and Social Citizenship. New York: St Martin Press.
Dwyer, P. (2004). Understanding Social Citizenship. Themes and Perspectives for Policy and Practice. Bristol: Policy Press.
English, B. (2015, September). Speech to the Treasury Guest Lecture Series on Social Investment. Speech presented at Wellington, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-treasuryguest-lecture-series-social-investment
English, B. (2015, June). Annual John Howard Lecture to Menzies Research Centre. Speech presented at Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved from https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/annual-johnhoward-lecture-menzies-research-centre
Gramsci, A. (1982). Selections from the prison notebooks. (Q. Hoare & G. Smith, Eds. & Trans.). London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Grey, S., & Sedgwick, C. (2013). The contracted state and constrained democracy. Policy Quarterly, 9(3), 3-10.
Harris, J., & White, V. (2009). Afterword: Intensification, individualisation, inconvenience, interpellation. In Harris, J., V. White (Eds.). Modernising Social Work (pp. 165-171). Bristol: Policy Press.
Hemerijck, A. (2011). Two or three wave of welfare state transformation? In Morel, N., B. Palier & J. Palme (Eds.). Towards A Social Investment Welfare State? (pp. 33-60). Bristol: Policy Press.
Humpage, L. (2015). Public Change, Public Attitudes and Social Citizenship. Bristol: Policy Press.
Keddell, E. (2014). The ethics of predictive risk modelling in the Aotearoa/New Zealand welfare context: Child welfare protection or neoliberal tool? Critical Social Policy, 35(1), 69-88.
Kemshall, H., Wilkinson, B., & Baker, K. (2013). Working with Risk: Skills for contemporary social work. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Larner, W. (2000a). Neo-liberalism: Policy, ideology, governmentality. Studies in Political Economy, 63, 5-25.
Larner, W. (2000b). Post-welfare state governance: Towards a code of social and family responsibility. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, 7(2), 244-265.
Minister of Social Development (2015). Investing in Services for Outcomes: Community Investment Strategy - Completion and Sector Engagement. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://www.msd.govt.nz/
documents/about-msd-and-our-work/work-programmes/community-investment-strategy/cis-cab-papercompletion-and-sector-engagement.pdf
Ministry of Social Development (2015). Investing in Services for Outcomes: Community Investment Strategy. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/workprogrammes/
community-investment-strategy/
Modernising Child Youth and Family Expert Panel (2015a). Interim Report of the Expert Panel: Modernising Child Youth and Family. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Social Development. Retrieved from http://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-ourwork/work-programmes/cyf-modernisation/interim-reportexpert-panel.pdf
Modernising Child Youth and Family Expert Panel (2015b). Expert panel final report: Investing in New Zealand’s children and their families. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Social Development. Retrieved from
https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-andourwork/
work programmes/investing-in-children/investingin-children-report.pdf
Ministry of Social Development (2014). Investing in Services
for Outcomes. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-andour-work/work-programmes/investing-in-services-foroutcomes/
Ministry of Social Development (2012). White Paper for Vulnerable Children: Vol. 1. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.
Ministry of Social Development (2011). Green Paper for Vulnerable Children. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.
Morel, N., Palier, B., & Palme, J. (2011a). Social investment: A paradigm in search of a new economic model and political mobilisation. In N. Morel, B. Palier, & J. Palme (Eds.). Towards A Social Investment State? (pp. 353-376). Bristol: Policy Press.
Morel, N., Palier, B., & Palme, J. (2011b). Beyond the welfare state as we knew it? In N. Morel, B. Palier, & J. Palme (Eds.). Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? (pp. 1-19). Bristol: Policy Press.
Neilson, B., Sedgwick, C., & Grey, S. (2015). Outcomes Plus: The added value provided by community social services. Wellington: New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services.
New Zealand Productivity Commission (2015). More effective social services. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://www.productivity.govt.nz/sites/default/files/social-services-final-report-main.pdf
New Zealand Treasury (2016). Characteristics of children at risk. Treasury infographic. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://www.treasury.govt.nz/statesector/socialinvestment/data
New Zealand Treasury (2014). 2014 Briefing to incoming Minister of Finance. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/briefings/2014-priorities/bim-14-priorities.pdf
Nowland-Foreman, G. (1995). Neither mendicants nor dealmakers: Contracting, government funding and voluntary organisations. Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services.
Office of the Children’s Commissioner (2015a). Giving children the best health care possible: Submission on the update of the New Zealand Health Strategy. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://www.occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads/submissions/Russell-Wills-Submission-to-Update-of-NZ-Health-Strategy.pdf
Office of the Children’s Commissioner (2015b). State of Care 2015: What we learnt from monitoring Child, Youth and Family. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://www.occ.org.nz/assets/Publications/OCCState-of-Care-2015.pdf
Shlonsky, A. (2013). Risk assessment in child protection services. New York: Oxford University Press.
State Services Commission (2012) New Zealand Government. Delivering Better Public Services, Supporting Vulnerable Children. Result Action Plan.
Wellington: State Services Commission. Retrieved from https://www.ssc.govt.nz/bps-cab-papers-minutes
State Services Commission (2013). Better Public Service Results Targets. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from https://www.ssc.govt.nz/bps-supportingvulnerable-children
Ritter, K., & Corbet, S. (2015, December 11). New draft climate deal emerges as Paris talks near end. New Zealand Herald.
Taylor Fry, & Ministry of Social Development (2016). Valuation of the Benefit System for Working Age Adults as at June 30, 2015. Wellington, New Zealand: Authors. Retrieved from https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/newsroom/mediareleases/2016/nz-msd-valuation-2015-final-27-jan-2.pdf
Vaithianathan, R. (2012). Can administrative data be used to identify children at risk of adverse outcomes? Auckland, New Zealand: Business School, Department of Economics, University of Auckland.
Vulnerable Children Act. New Zealand Statutes 2014.
Webb, S. (2006). Social work in a risk society: Social and political perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Welfare Working Group (2011). Reducing Long Term Benefit Dependency: Recommendations. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from http://igps.victoria.ac.nz/WelfareWorkingGroup/Index.html
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.
You and any co-authors
If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.
First publication
By submitting the work you are:
- granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
- confirming that the work is original; and
- confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.
Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.
Copyright
You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.
The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.
A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.
Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.
This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.
Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.
The copyright of others
If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:
- falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
- that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.
