McDonald - Senior Citizens Briefing

THE SENIOR CITIZENS UNIT

Key Points

The placement of the Senior Citizens Unit within the Department of Social Welfare is a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Senior Citizens Unit is currently working to full capacity, but is facing an increasingly heavy workload.
The issue of the resourcing of the Senior Citizens Unit requires urgent attention.

History of the Senior Citizens Unit

Following the November 1990 election, the incoming National Government decided that a Ministry for Senior Citizens would not be established, but rather, it would establish a Senior Citizens Unit located within the Department of Social Welfare to carry out a policy advice and ministerial servicing role for the Minister for Senior Citizens. The current focus of the Unit has meant that this arrangement has been beneficial to both the Senior Citizens Unit and the Department. In May 1992, the Department of Social Welfare restructured into six business units and the Senior Citizens Unit became a distinct unit within the Social Policy Agency.

Structure and Functions of the Unit

Vision:

Mission: The Senior Citizens Unit provides Government with the best advice to enhance the well-being of older people.

Statement of Purpose:

providing the Minister for Senior Citizens with the best advice to advocate for older people at government policy-making forums; and
promoting positive attitudes to older age in society.

Relationships and responsibilities

The key functions of the Senior Citizens Unit have been to:

provide the Minister for Senior Citizens with advice on policy issues affecting older people;
assist the Minister for Senior Citizens in advocating for older people and in representing their interests at government policy-making forums;
provide policy advice and secretariat services to the multi-party Accord on Retirement Income Policies;
co-ordinate and be a member of the inter-departmental officials group which services the Accord on Retirement Income Policies;
liaise with the Retirement Commissioner on retirement income policies;
provide policy advice and secretariat services to the Ministerial Advisory Council for Senior Citizens;
liaise with other government agencies and provide input into policy affecting older people;
consult widely with older people, organisations representing their interests, kaumatua and kuia, community leaders and researchers; and
provide ministerial services.

Budget

Of the $707,000 (GST inclusive) appropriated to the Department of Social Welfare for the output class Senior Citizens Services, $215,000 is attributed directly to work related to the production of the first Periodic Report on Retirement Income Policies. The Senior Citizens Unit therefore operates on a total budget allocation of $492,000 (GST inclusive), or $437,333 (GST exclusive). The operating budget for the Unit has remained rather static since 1992/93.

The basic budget breakdown (GST exclusive) for 1996/97 is as follows:

Salaries	272,690
Training	7,500
Other Personnel Costs	15,710
Total Personnel	295,900
Airfares, taxis and accommodation	13,800
Senior Citizens Advisory Council	28,746
Other Administration Costs	9,100
Total Administration	51,646
TOTAL OPERATING BUDGET	347,546
OVERHEADS*	89,787
BUDGET TOTAL	437,333
* The overhead costs include occupancy, depreciation, capital charge and support services costs.

The budget shows the constraints on the Unit’s ability to travel for consultation purposes and to purchase, or carry out, research. The total discretionary funding available for such purposes is only $22,900 (excluding GST).

Project Areas

The Senior Citizens Unit undertakes project work in a variety of areas ranging from elder abuse to transportation. Underpinning each of the projects is the Unit’s vision: “Well-being in Older Age”. What follows is a brief overview of current major areas of work of the Unit.

Consultation with older people

The Unit aims to undertake regular consultations with older people and groups representing their interests. Such consultations provide both an opportunity for the Unit to raise its profile and share information, and also provide a forum for the discussion of issues of concern and interest to older people. The information gathered at these meetings provides a basis from which policy advice may later be provided to the Minister and other interested agencies.

A publication, Raising the Issues, was produced as a result of extensive consultations undertaken by the Unit throughout 1993. This document has been widely distributed amongst older people and groups representing their interests. The findings from these consultations have been invaluable in guiding policy advice both within the Unit and to outside agencies.

Liaison with government agencies

The Unit has been successful in contributing to policies being developed in other portfolio areas by utilising its well developed inter-departmental network. By formally networking with other public sector agencies on a regular basis, the Senior Citizens Unit has become recognised as a key advisor to Government on issues of interest and concern to older people. Recognition of this point is evidenced by the fact that other government agencies contact the Unit seeking comment on their policy proposals.

Liaison with community

Officials of the Senior Citizens Unit work alongside groups representing the interests of older people, including Grey Power New Zealand and Age Concern New Zealand. The Unit has recently established a network of community organisations, both national and local, based in the Wellington area and which work for and with older people. The network meets quarterly to share ideas and information.

Maintaining a close liaison with national and local groups is a mutually beneficial process, enabling the Unit both to pass on relevant information on policy issues, and to respond to concerns at an early stage. To assist in this process, the Senior Citizens Unit provides informative material for publication in both the Grey Power and Age Concern New Zealand official publications. The Unit also maintains links with professional bodies providing services for older people through publication of information in the New Zealand Association of Gerontology quarterly newsletter.

On a more pragmatic level, the Unit has worked closely with community organisations on a number of projects. One example is the Police Volunteer project, which oversaw the development of guidelines for the recruitment of volunteers to work in community police stations. This project drew on the skills and expertise of Unit officials, Police personnel, Age Concern representatives, and older people already working as volunteers in community police stations.

Ministerial Advisory Council for Senior Citizens

The Ministerial Advisory Council for Senior Citizens provides independent advice to the Minister for Senior Citizens on issues related to the well-being of older people. One half full-time analyst position in the Unit is allocated to secretariat support and policy advice to the Advisory Council.

Elder abuse and neglect

Age Concern New Zealand has established six elder abuse and neglect pilot projects throughout New Zealand. The aim of these projects is to prevent elder abuse and neglect by implementing pre-crisis intervention strategies and to respond rapidly to recorded incidents of elder abuse and neglect. The Senior Citizens Unit is represented on the National Advisory Group overseeing the elder abuse and neglect pilots.

Promoting positive attitudes to ageing

The Unit not only promotes well-being in older age by providing Government with quality advice on issues of interest to older people, but also works to promote positive attitudes to older age in society through a variety of community-based projects. These include:

International Year of Older Persons

1999 has been designated the United Nations International Year of Older Persons. The Senior Citizens Unit has already undertaken some preliminary planning for the celebration of this year. It is anticipated that the Unit will play a major role in the overall co-ordination of the New Zealand Government’s response to this international year.

International Day of Older Persons

1 October each year is the United Nations International Day of Older Persons. The Unit works with older people’s organisations to promote activities on the Day which demonstrate the value of older people in the community. It is expected that celebrations of International Day of Older Persons each year will gradually build up towards the national celebration of International Year of Older Persons in 1999.

Greats and Grands Month

The Unit promotes each October as “Greats and Grands Month” to highlight the role of grandparents and other older people who have a significant role in family life. Schools throughout New Zealand are contacted and encouraged to organise intergenerational events.

Future Directions

Given the current focus of the Senior Citizens portfolio and the functions of the Senior Citizens Unit, officials are of the opinion that the Unit is most beneficially located within the Department of Social Welfare. The Unit benefits from being part of the Social Policy Agency environment which is committed to the provision of sound and strategic policy advice and to fostering a learning culture. In addition, the Unit enjoys access to a wide variety of policy information and, subsequently, the opportunity to contribute to policy development in many areas. Importantly, its location within the Social Policy Agency allows the Unit to take advantage of the economies of scale available to larger organisations, resulting in cost-efficiencies, particularly in overhead costs.

Equally, the Department of Social Welfare is committed to the well-being of older people. The Director-General of the Department identified the development of strategies to improve the well-being of older people as a Key Result Area in her performance agreement with the previous Minister of Social Welfare. The placement of the Senior Citizens Unit within the Social Welfare structure provides the Department with an “in-house” source of expertise on older people’s issues and, in particular, adds strength to the Social Policy Agency’s aim to be the expert in the delivery of well-being policy advice to Government.

In recent years, the profile of the Senior Citizens Unit has been raised and the Unit has gained recognition as a key advisor to Government on issues of interest and concern to older people. To date, the Senior Citizens Unit has consistently met or exceeded its performance standards and the Minister has expressed his satisfaction with the service provided to him by the Unit. However, an increasing workload, stemming largely from the recent and high demands of the Accord on Retirement Income Policies and the Task Force on Positive Ageing have stretched the Unit’s capacity to meet the expectations placed on it by the Minister, other parts of the Department of Social Welfare and the general public.

An adequate level of staffing is central to the Unit’s ability to operate effectively. Over the past years, the Unit has maintained a stable and enthusiastic team. However, the ability of the Unit to undertake new projects is severely limited as current staff resources are entirely utilised in meeting existing commitments. Extra hours are often worked to meet work demands.

The tension between the funding required to administer the Advisory Council and the funding required to operate an effective policy advice unit is a matter which needs to be addressed. Time spent in servicing the Advisory Council is not only costly in a monetary sense, but it also has an opportunity cost in terms of other project work that could be undertaken by analysts. As a result, the Senior Citizens Unit is limited in the extent of work in which it can engage.

Further, the ability of the Senior Citizens Unit to accurately represent the views of older people is contingent on staff actively pursuing an ongoing programme of consultation with different sectors of the older community. Current budgetary constraints and limited staff resources restrict the Unit’s capacity to undertake such consultations on a regular basis and risk compromising the ability of the Unit to continue to provide quality policy advice.

It is therefore imperative that the level of resourcing available to the Senior Citizens Unit is reviewed in the near future. Without increased staff numbers and an administrative budget that allows for regular consultation, the Unit will simply not have the capability to undertake any new project work in the medium term. Furthermore, as issues relating to older people become more significant due to the ageing population, with its present level of resourcing, the Unit’s ability to meet the increasing demands from the Accord work and from the work expected to arise from the report of the Task Force on Positive Ageing is severely restricted.

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