Social investment approach

From 1 July 2024 the Social Wellbeing Agency will become the Social Investment Agency and it will have the following functions for social investment: 

• Setting the standards for social investment practice to ensure there is consistency across government agencies and contracted providers
• Advising on and facilitating the creation of the necessary data and evidence infrastructure for social investment
• Working with other agencies to apply the social investment approach
• Leading an ongoing review of social sector spending to measure outcomes.

A Social Investment Board will be established as a Ministerial Advisory committee and the social investment work programme will be governed by a group of Social Investment Ministers. 

A Social Investment Fund will be established to commission services for vulnerable New Zealanders. The fund will begin investing in 2025.

Social investment involves:

• Understanding people’s needs using data and evidence
• Setting clear, measurable goals and focusing on what works
• Improving services by systematically measuring and comparing their effectiveness and feeding this information back to decision-making
• Enabling local providers to deliver services tailored to the needs of their communities.

Agencies gather, share, analyse and use data and evidence to identify people who have the greatest needs, and key points in their lives where preventative support makes the most difference. They design services that can best meet these needs and track and monitor those services to ensure they are having the desired impact.