Regional Plan for Canterbury

CONTENTS:

• Message from the Chief Executive
• Regional Commissioner’s report
• Our region
• Our regional strategies
• Objectives and key tasks
• Achieving our key tasks
• Our community commitment
• Consultation

MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to introduce this Regional Plan to you. It is a summary of what we ’ve achieved for this region during the year, but it is also a strategy for how we will be doing even better in future.

I am always very proud to be able to tell people about the Department of Work and Income’s successes, and the hugely significant role our staff play in achieving that. I believe this Plan illustrates just how hard they have been working for the people of this region.

While highlighting the positive steps we’ve taken in the local labour market to really make a difference for those living and breathing the special nature of this region, this Plan also looks further ahead, to the goals we ’ve set our sights on for the coming months. We are taking every opportunity we have to meet our commitment to help all New Zealanders achieve independence.

We are engaging with communities more than ever before. A strong foundation for our ability to do this is our regional flexibility strategy –local solutions to local needs.

Already we ’ve seen good indicators that this focus will move us ahead very quickly in meeting the needs of the individuals who make this region the special place it is. As always, we will be closely focused on the local client base. We ’ll be organising our resources to target local needs in the most appropriate way for a particular area, or client group.

‘Closing the Gaps’ is also at the forefront in every case. The Department is in a special position to make a difference here, with our Maori and Pacific clients already a key target area for our specialised programmes to assist people in taking a full part in the economic, community and educational life of their locality.

I know this Plan sets the right challenges to meet the needs of this community, and I believe it demonstrates the special local understanding, knowledge and expertise our staff can offer. Working together, and in local partnership, we can only have success.

CHRISTINE RANKIN

REGIONAL COMMISSIONER’S REPORT

This year’s plan builds on the work and progress made by staff over the last 12 months. The past year has been a busy time for the Department and its staff. Significant progress has been made in stabilising staff movements, training, and property issues from the merger. Stressful at times, we have responded well to an intense year of media interest and reviews of the Department’s activities. We look forward to the challenge of taking on-board the constructive feedback provided in how we can improve our service delivery.

I am pleased to say that we have made a significant contribution in assisting Canterbury people into employment over the past year. Particularly pleasing has been a high level of stable employment placements, a measure that provides comfort that our targeted interventions are achieving a reasonable level of quality outcomes.

Our team of Service Centre Managers has worked hard over the last year to build and maintain community relationships within their geographic area. This, and the work of our regional staff, has resulted in an increased number of partnerships, and opportunities, as we work with external stakeholders towards a common interest in assisting those in need. We have also made a reasonable investment in developing staff awareness of Maori culture and the challenges faced by Maori. I believe that our external work with communities places us well in terms of renewed Government priorities of closing economic and social gaps for Maori and Pacific Peoples.

We have worked hard to develop relationships with social and advocacy groups that are reflective of the people we serve. This is an important external link for our management team as it is often these groups that get to identify the patterns and themes of the issues people face when dealing with the Department.

Frontline staff have been busy coping with increasing their knowledge and providing the best service they can. This can often be a demanding task particularly with some 6,000 case management appointments weekly. Our Work Brokers have also worked hard to maintain employer relationships and provide assistance to other staff as we have tried to build and maintain our employment focus. The reality is however that a large percentage of our 325 Canterbury staff provides social assistance in terms of income support. With over 100,000 people receiving benefits and pensions in Canterbury and one in three children living in income assisted homes,there are significant challenges for us as a wider community.

We have seen the development of a number of significant partnerships. Points of interest include a stronger relationship with local iwi, Ngai Tahu and the Christchurch City Council, involving a broader youth strategy for Canterbury, public forums with the Council of Social Services, work with the deaf community in the research and identification of their needs, better active involvement in Strengthening Families initiatives and collaborative network relationships concerned with community-wide employment co-ordination.

Priorities for the coming year will focus on several areas – Maori, Pacific Peoples and improving business relationships. Initiatives currently underway that link with the Department’s strategic outcome of self-determining solutions for Maori include enhancing our iwi partnership with the extension of community-based whanau workers to work more closely with Maori clients, participation of Maori community leaders in the governing of things we do Maori, and working closely with Maori-based training providers to assist in helping to build provider capability. To help improve social and employment outcomes for Pacific Peoples we will establish, as a trial, a community liaison co-ordinator position. We will also develop industry-specific pre-employment training modules. Business relationships will also be improved with management and Work Broker teams focusing on improving our labour market positioning, extending business partnerships and generally improving operational performance.

I am confident that we are part of an emerging trend in partnership development as Government agencies work more closely together in a cross-sectoral way with the community towards common goals. This next year will see the expansion of our partnership activities and a greater focus on building our regional capability and supporting our frontline staff to deliver more effective employment and income services to the people we service. Of particular importance in how we measure our success will be our progress towards closing the economic and social gaps faced by Maori and Pacific Peoples. This has become a high priority for Government and one that will benefit us all.

OUR REGION

Introduction

There are 12 Department of Work and Income service centres – three rural and nine urban. The rural centres are Rangiora and Kaiapoi in North Canterbury, and Ashburton in South Canterbury. The urban centres are Shirley, New Brighton, Papanui, Stanmore, Linwood, Christchurch (High Street inner city), Riccarton, Hornby, and Sydenham.

The greater Christchurch area has a number of distinct labour markets – Hornby and Sydenham tend to be industrial with meat, poultry and seasonal vegetable processing, Riccarton and the central city are retail, services and niche manufacturing, Papanui is retail, distribution, sawmills, apparel industry and meat works while eastern Christchurch is largely trade-related small employers, electronics assembly, light metal work, bakery and newspaper industry.

For the rural Rangiora site, major activity is shown in pip and stone fruit, agriculture and horticulture, together with the change of land to small lifestyle diversification and dairying conversions. In addition, the new $250 million township being planned near Woodend is expected to provide 1,500 houses, and a new $50 million employment park (industrial area) near the Northern Motorway will provide greater opportunities for activity. The planning clearly demonstrates how the growth of Christchurch will spread northward.

Kaiapoi is part of the lifestyle change with block developments in Ohoka and Fernside. Equine and related breeding activities, as well as floriculture, are underway.

Ashburton, being another rural area, majors in dairying, agriculture and horticulture. Manufacturing provides 27% of all full-time employment, construction provides 8.9% and retail provides 15%. This area also has notable service provision to an aging population.

The present-day Canterbury economy most closely resembles the New Zealand economy with all key sectors well represented. The economy is becoming increasingly service, knowledge and innovation based. For example, there are 60 call centres or intelligent back offices in Canterbury, strong electronics manufacturing and software development, and increasing events and functions being hosted.

Over the last decade, areas that have shown particular growth are tourism, service industries, manufacturing, financial and distribution services.

Some of these have flow-on effects. For example, increased tourism is expected to give solid growth in retail and accommodation in the longer term. International visitors contribute more than $400 million to the Canterbury economy each year.

Growth has also occurred in education, including international fee-paying students. On average, each foreign student pays NZ$10,000 per year to their high school for tuition and other fees. For example, Papanui High School currently has over 330 overseas students of whom 85 are fee-paying.

Factors such as these have resulted in Canterbury experiencing a net job gain of 36,000 between March 1991 and March 1999 taking the annual average growth rate to 2.3% for this period.

Of special interest is the increase in exports. In the year ended March 1999, around $3.3 billion exports passed through Lyttelton Port and Christchurch International Airport, an increase of $210 million from the previous 12-month period. While this means that regional annual average growth slowed from around 9.4% in the mid 1990s to 6.9% for the latest year, this is still significantly higher than the national export growth rate of 3.6% for the same period.

Comparison with New Zealand trends reveals Canterbury region experienced the highest percentage employment growth of all the Department’s regions in 1999. Employment grew by 9% compared to the New Zealand average of 1.5% in the 1999 calendar year. This in part reflected the improving rural economy and growth in higher-skilled manufacturing industries and the growth in tourist numbers. A cautionary note for this is that the figures for the March and June 2000 quarters suggest that employment growth may have peaked. The year ended 30 March 2000 shows a net decrease of - 0.6% compared to the New Zealand average of +1.4%.