• Funding Boost For Community Providers
• Community Job Scheme Underway
• NBR Columns
• Community Sector Update
• Centres Of Research Excellence Fund Criteria
• Ministry Of Social Development Begins
• Final Teac Report Presented
• New Tertiary Education System Starting To Take Place

FUNDING BOOST FOR COMMUNITY PROVIDERS
Community social services will receive additional funding this financial year as part of the Government moves to priortise support for children and families.

Social Services Minister Steve Maharey announced the extra funding following the tabling in Parliament of a report detailing the $71.6m in funding provided to over 1,750 individual organisations across the country in the 2000/01 financial year. Services were provided by organisations operating nationwide including Women's Refuge, Barnardos and Relationship Services and well as many hundreds of small-community based organisations.

Steve Maharey said an additional $3.8m has been provided this financial year to compensate community providers for price increases they have faced in recent years on a case-by-case basis. Child, Youth and Family funding advisers are currently working with individual organisations to determine their eligibility for the additional funding.

Non-government organisations to deliver a wide range of preventative social services including family violence counselling and home parenting skills support which the Government wants to support better. Key initiatives which began during the finanancial year which ended in June include:

• provider and workforce development projects have been agreed with 145 Iwi/Maori organisations to build their ability to respond to the needs of their communities;
• enhanced funding was provided for family violence prevention services; and,
• funding for budgeting services was increased.

Funding decisions detailing how the addition money is to be spent are expected to be announced later this month.

COMMUNITY JOB SCHEME UNDERWAY
The Government's new Community Employment Organisations (CEOs) programme has begun rolling out across the country. CEOs are social enterprises in the community and voluntary sector undertaking commercial activity not in competition with the private sector to meets community needs and to create employment. A mix of advisory support and financial assistance from the Community Employment Group and wage subsidies from DWI are provided to assist CEOs.

NBR COLUMNS
Steve Maharey has begun writing fortnightly columns on policy issues for publication in the National Business Review. The first of these columns on reforming New Zealand's welfare system is attached to this issue of Maharey Notes.

COMMUNITY SECTOR UPDATE
Updated information about the Community and Voluntary Sector Steering Group has been posted to the web. The website also invites people to send the Steering Group their views on the work to improve the relationship between the community sector and government.

* visit the Steering Group website at www.msd.govt.nz/voluntary

CENTRES OF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FUND CRITERIA
Applications are now being sought for the new $60m Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE) fund. Funding was provided in the budget to establish specialist centres of research excellence which will operate at the leading edge of their field within the international research community. Operating expenditure of $40.6 million over four years, and one-off capital funding of $20m for investment in strategic research assets this financial year, has been allocated for the Fund. It is expected that 3-6 centres will receive funding.

Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey said that the Government has now signed off the selection criteria which will be used to determine which applications for funding will be successful.

The CoRE Fund is designed to encourage greater concentration and networking of high quality specialised research resources in the tertiary sector. To be successful applications will have to demonstrate that they will support research that is of excellent (world class) quality, focused on New Zealand's future economic and social development and that will lead to the transfer of knowledge. The selection process will be managed independently by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

* further information is available on the Royal Society's website at www.rsnz.govt.nz/funding/core

MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT BEGINS
The new Ministry of Social Development came into being on 1 October. The Ministry was formed by a merger of the Ministry of Social Policy and the Department of Work and Income. Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey said the decision to establish the Ministry of Social Development fits into the wider Government objective to strengthen the centre of the public service and signals a move from social welfare to social development. The benefits of integrating the policy and delivery functions of both organisations will be felt over time as the Government adopt a social development approach to our welfare system. This means taking a more cohesive approach to way the Government invests in working age people who find themselves needing income support.

FINAL TEAC REPORT PRESENTED
The final report of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission (TEAC) has been presented to Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey. The report, on on potential changes to the tertiary education funding system, completes a quartet of reports advising the Government on how to reshape New Zealand's tertiary education system to meet changing economic and social needs.

Steve Maharey said the report will be printed and then released for public consultation in November. As with the other three reports already received from the Commission, the Government will seek widespread feedback before Cabinet decides on the shape of the new funding system.

NEW TERTIARY EDUCATION SYSTEM STARTING TO TAKE PLACE
The key building blocks of a new refocused tertiary education system are starting to fit together and will all be in place within nine months, Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey told delegates to the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education annual conference last week. He said the Government inherited a tertiary education sector in crisis and has quickly set about building consensus with all stakeholders on the way forward. All the components of the new tertiary education system would be in place by July 2002.

The Tertiary Education Advisory Commission has consulted extensively with tertiary educators and students, business groups and other stakeholders. The Government has been actively working with the casualties of the education marketplace built up over the 1990s to bridge those institutions successfully into the new system. Three regional polytechnics at severe risk of closure have been put on a secure footing and we are currently working to preserve quality tertiary education provision in Wanganui.

In July 2002 the permanent Tertiary Education Commission will come into being and it will have responsibility for the integrity of the entire tertiary education sector.

In Labour's tertiary education policy, Nation Building, tertiary education was identified as a key tool to promote the social and economic development New Zealand needs to face the challenges of the 21st Century. Steve Maharey said this goal is being realised.