• Regional Job Fund Projects Announced
• Unallocated Cases Continue To Fall
• Knowledge Nation
• Heretaunga Campus Working Party Report
• Celebrate Children's Day

Apologies to Maharey Notes readers - this week's issue, which was published on Tuesday, was not e-mail to subscribers. Issue #54 follows. Happy weekends to you all.

REGIONAL JOB FUND PROJECTS ANNOUNCED
New employment projects to support beneficiaries to move into the paid workforce were announced by Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey last week. The twelve regional programmes, which will operate from Whangarei in the north to Dunedin in the south, are the first to be funded from the Transition to Work Contestable Fund established in the budget. Ministry of Social Development Regional Commissioners were asked to develop programmes which remove barriers keeping beneficiaries from moving into work or remaining in employment.

Steve Maharey said the projects are concrete examples of the Government's Making Work Pay strategy to ensure that beneficiaries are always be better off getting a job and staying in it.

Projects have been developed across the country targeting the barriers to work which beneficiaries face in their communities. Examples include:

• in Northland accommodation and relocation assistance will be provided to unemployed job seekers prepared to relocate from the Far North to Whangarei to work in the luxury yacht industry;
• in South Auckland targeted financial assistance will be provided to address the particular problems which have led some domestic purposes beneficiaries to move on and off the unemployment register; and,
• on the East Coast up to 650 beneficiaries will be assisted with literacy, numeracy and life-style coaching to move into employment with Heinz Wattie.

The Government is investing $1.183m this financial year on the twelve projects. A further sum has been set aside for partnership projects under discussion with Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs. An evaluation will be carried out on each of the twelve projects and it is hoped that successful examples can be progressively expanded nationwide.

UNALLOCATED CASES CONTINUE TO FALL
Child, Youth and Family's focus on reducing its number of unallocated cases is achieving good results but the focus on improving response times will continue.

Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey last week released statistical information showing the Department had 1,792 unallocated cases - a drop of nearly 60% since March - and the time that these cases have been waiting to be formally allocated to a social worker for on-going case management. Hard work by social workers combined with extra funding in this year's Budget is responsible for getting the backlog reduced. An extra $1 million was provided to form teams of mobile social workers for areas with the highest number of unallocated cases.

The department has also issued new policy instructions to staff about the management of critical and very urgent cases.

Steve Maharey said ultimately the best way to keep unallocated cases down is to change adult behaviour. All New Zealanders have a responsibility to work for better outcomes for our children.

KNOWLEDGE NATION
Business, polytechnic and political representatives are being bought together for the first time next month to discuss how the polytechnic sector will ensure that New Zealand is adequately skilled to capture the knowledge wave. Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey joined Association of Polytechnics in New Zealand Executive Director Jim Doyle last week to launch the Skilling the Nation conference which has been charged with proposing strategies for going forward. The conference is being held from 1 November to 3 November in Palmerston North.

Steve Maharey said polytechnics have the opportunity to stamp their mark on New Zealand's economic and social development over the next few years. Polytechnics are at the centre of partnerships between business, regional economies and iwi needed to ensure New Zealanders have the skills industry needs to create a value-added economy.

A key to the success of other similar-sized countries such as Ireland, Singapore and Finland has been a well-educated and skilled workforce which can turn its hand to modern technology and industry practice. New Zealand needs to move quickly to catch the knowledge wave with a matching skill wave.

The conference comes at a very important time. The August Knowledge Wave conference set the direction. The Skilling the Nation conference gives the polytechnic sector the opportunity to achieve a common direction and sense of purpose on the contribution they plan to make to the development of our knowledge society.

* further information on Skilling the Nation can be found on-line at www.apnz.ac.nz

HERETAUNGA CAMPUS WORKING PARTY REPORT
A report on potential alternative uses for the former CIT Heretaunga campus has been presented to Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey. An independent working party was established in May to review the options for the Heretaunga campus and report to Government on feasible uses for it. CIT was merged with the Wellington Institute of Technology in July and the Heretaunga site will not be needed after February 2002.

Steve Maharey said the Working Party has received fourteen formal expressions of interest in the campus. Details are been kept confidential at this early stage until further negotiations are completed and a preferred option is identified.

The use of the land and buildings at Heretaunga was a key issue identified during the public consultation phase of the process on the future of CIT. The site is a valuable Crown asset and its future use is an important issue for the Upper Hutt region.

The Government is now considering the working party report and expects to be in a position to announce the approach it intends taking in the next few weeks. Ideally, the Government would like to have a recommendation on the future use of the Heretaunga site before the Wellington Institute of Technology vacates it.

CELEBRATE CHILDREN'S DAY
Children's Day 2001 is being celebrated this Sunday (October 28). The annual celebration allows New Zealanders to honour the way that children's lives enrich all our lives.

* to find out more about Children's Day events in your community visit www.childrensday.org.nz