Executive Summary

Context

1 In November 2001, the Report of the Advisory Group on the Review of the Centre highlighted the need to achieve better integrated service delivery to address complex social problems which involve multiple agencies, and to achieve better citizen-focused service delivery. The Integrated Service Delivery: Regional Co-ordination workstream set out to examine existing successful models of local collaboration and suggest how government agencies could work better together and with local stakeholders.

2 The Integrated Service Delivery: Regional Co-ordination workstream undertook a review of the New Zealand and international literature on collaboration, carried out fieldwork in three regions in New Zealand, and drew on a range of relevant government reports. The findings of the work have been used to develop both the Final Workstream Report and Mosaics:Whakaahua Papariki: Key Findings and Good Practice Guide for Regional Co-ordination and Integrated Service Delivery (available at www.msd.govt.nz).

3 A key purpose of this Final Workstream Report is to provide an account of the regional co-ordination project. Like Mosaics it also describes the key good practice principles and actions required to develop and improve collaboration. Some key case studies of successful collaboration in action are also identified.

4 The report also highlights the key issues that may require a policy response from Ministers and central government including the need to:

• remove structural barriers to collaboration eg by addressing service boundaries and funding mechanisms
• emphasise ways to ensure that government systems and processes support and incentivise collaboration eg by addressing departmental accountabilities, managerial delegation at local level and evaluation arrangements
• undertake further policy work to support collaborative working with stakeholder groups eg by addressing Treaty partnership relationships and whole of government approaches to working with local authorities
• develop better monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to determine where collaboration is effective.

5 There is evidence that collaboration can improve services and offer benefits for organisations, including better processes, improved relationships, greater capacity to respond to local needs and more efficient use of resources. However, there is currently little clear evidence, either in New Zealand or internationally, that collaboration improves outcomes. This is largely due to the lack of effective evaluation of collaborative initiatives.

6 Collaboration is time- and resource-intensive, and there are limitations to what it can achieve. Organisations need to make decisions about when collaboration is appropriate and consider the necessary trade-offs in devoting time and resource to joint working. Moreover there is no single approach to developing collaboration that will work in all cases. Different models will be needed to achieve specific objectives, and different approaches will be needed at various stages of the collaborative process.

7 Nonetheless, where the decision has been made that collaboration is appropriate, the fieldwork and literature provide some guidance about what makes collaborative mechanisms function effectively.

Definitions

8 The workstream identifies two levels of collaboration regional co-ordination and integrated service delivery.

9 Regional co-ordination is multi-agency collaboration at a strategic level. Its purpose is to provide an overview of needs and activities in an area, and engage in forward planning and alignment of resources across a whole region, population group or cross-cutting issue. The principal regional co-ordination mechanisms are: Networks, which are relatively informal groups which focus on relationship-building and information-sharing; and Partnerships, which are more formal arrangements with a focused objective around the production of strategies, systems or services.

10 Integrated service delivery involves organisations working together at an operational level. Its purpose is to develop the delivery of services requiring the input of more than one agency, focused on specific local areas, client groups, communities, families or individuals. Three models of integrated service delivery are identified. These are case management approaches, "one-stop-shop" single access points for service delivery, and joint-funded contract service provision.

11 Findings show that the key principles for developing effective regional co-ordination and integrated service delivery include:

• clarity of purpose and function
• relationships and information-sharing
• taking account of the local context
• appropriate mechanisms and processes
• governance, leadership and accountability.

Role of central government

12 Government organisations, both at the centre and at local level, have a key role to play in supporting effective regional co-ordination and integrated service delivery. Systemic change will be required to embed collaboration into all activities of organisations. While some government actions to support collaboration require barriers to be removed at national policy level, participants in the field work observed that many of the necessary changes may be developed and implemented by government agencies at the local level within existing structural arrangements.

13 To support collaboration, government at the centre will need to:

• Foster a collaborative culture, attitudes and values within organisations by valuing and rewarding collaboration in performance and accountability measures, and providing leadership and positive role modelling of collaborative behaviour at all levels. This also means building relevant capacity and developing skills to support effective collaborative working among staff, stakeholders and contract service providers.
• Develop appropriate organisational structures to address the inconsistency of service boundaries and the fragmentation of government agencies and funding pools in the long term. There is also a need to increase the flexibility of government organisations at a local level to act on opportunities to collaborate and to work across boundaries in the short term.
• Enable flexible systems and processes which allow sufficient time and resources to support collaborative initiatives and enable information-sharing.
• Support responsive policy development by ensuring policy is informed by regional perspectives and that departments at the centre set frameworks and guidelines and empower managers to develop local solutions.

Working with Stakeholders

14 Government organisations also need to work effectively with local stakeholders such as iwi/Maori, local government, community and voluntary sectors and Pacific groups. It is important to involve stakeholders in collaboration both as representatives of local communities and as service providers in their own right.

15 To work effectively with local stakeholders government agencies will need to:

• Build sustainable relationships between government agencies, local authorities and communities by developing open information sharing, joint consultation processes and clear accountabilities for meeting objectives and representing local communities.
• Strengthen Treaty partnership relationships between government and Maori. This underpins issues of service delivery to meet the aspirations of Maori by developing formal recognition of Treaty partnership relationships, strengthening partnership working and developing joint accountability mechanisms between government and iwi/Maori.
• Develop effective consultation and involvement of stakeholders by consulting groups together to build understanding and facilitate dialogue and supporting community and voluntary sector groups to participate.
• Improve the responsiveness of government agencies to Maori and Pacific groups. This includes recognising the diversity of experience and aspirations amongst Maori and Pacific groups, improving cultural awareness within organisations, providing more flexible services and building the capacity of Maori and Pacific staff.
• Develop the capacity of communities and community providers by ensuring sustainable funding to support collaborative activity long-term, and developing joint training to share knowledge and capacity across sectors.

Further policy work required

16 Most of the good practice principles for developing collaboration can be applied by government agencies at the centre and in the regions within existing structural arrangements. However findings indicate that policy work will be required within government departments and by central agencies over the medium to long term to reduce some of the more systemic barriers to collaboration which currently exist at a number of levels.

17 Key issues for further policy work include:

• achieving better alignment of departmental service boundaries as this has been identified as one of the structural barriers that impedes effective collaboration
• rationalising existing funding pools and resource allocation for cross-cutting policy issues
• building collaboration into departmental accountabilities
• increasing flexibility at a local level so managers are able to make decisions and allocate resources to meet local needs
• describing what a 'whole of government approach' will mean in practice when working with local authorities - particularly given the new Local Government Act 2002
• formalising the basis for Treaty partnerships
• improving monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to determine where collaboration is effective.