Emerging and Enduring Themes

that impact on our ability to be a thriving sector

The Role of Platform
Members are essential for the development, legitimacy and independence of Platform. Our role is to nationally raise issues that impact on our member’s ability to provide services, advocate for greater resources funding and improved delivery mechanisms for the wider NGO community mental health and addiction services.

We provide a national network for NGO providers, encourage collaboration and provide a contact point for nationwide feedback on issues relating to mental health and addiction NGOs.

We also work in alliance with wider networks in the community sector where there is common ground or similar purpose; these may be formal groupings, associations or informal networks.

Introduction
The paper identifies key topics been raised by individuals, organisations and networks about the issues that are most impacting upon them. We have grouped them around themes and will more input from regional meetings and the Platform Collaboration Forum (18th August) we believe could form the basis of a solution focused work plan for Platform.

Contracting Process
The feedback relates to contracting processes with the funders of DHBs and the Ministry of Health and continues be of major concern for many organisations. There are many good practice guides specifically designed by and for the use of the public sector around the contracting process with the community sector. However, despite such resources the experiences of many community organisations indicate that this continues to be an area of substandard and often disrespectful practice. There is no transparent approach for agencies to challenge bad practice and limited opportunities for funders to describe their priorities, intentions and what they are seeking to achieve.

The following range of themes are shared by many NGOs (irrespective of size of the organisation) however the capacity in relation to time constraints has more impact on smaller agencies where it is the leader ( director, CE etc) who often undertakes this work.

The time and resources it takes to respond to request for proposals, the use of this protracted process for even small pieces of work and delays in response to know of the outcome of the process.

One year contracts are again being presented by some DHBs as the only choice, this creates financial and planning uncertainty and there often little discussion as to the rationale for this practice
National, regional and local inconsistency and no transparency in the price paid for services. There are major local variations in the practice of handing on cost of living adjustments to community organisations
Little or no new work for NGOs to contract for, with little growth in community developments despite under spend of mental health money in some places and money being returned to the Crown
High turnover of DHB funding personnel has eroded the sense of shared or common purpose that NGOs know is important if we are to continue to support communities with the complex issues of mental health and addiction

Reporting Information and Measuring Progress
There is frustration with the current reporting mechanisms. Many providers believe that the current contract reporting to Health Pac is a ‘waste of time’ and does not reflect the real activity they undertake. The inability to access useful information about local activity has lead some funders to require a variety of additional localised data from providers.

There appears to be no focused central attempt to create meaningful information collection that useful to the funder, the NGO provider, the service user and whanau and the community. In this vacuum the ability to quantify and make meaning about NGO activity is haphazard. Some NGOs have developed their own information collection and management, some are working collaboratively and others have chosen to wait until there are clear indications of the intended direction and financial implications. These issues have been raised over many years with the Ministry of Health and their contracted agents and were widely discussed at the He Kakano NGO workshop last year.

Sharing Ideas and Trying New Things
NGOs have expressed interest in trying to find ways to share information about what is working. This often needs a catalyst or means that is beyond the capacity of a single agency. There are a few places where the funder has invested in local meetings, networks and collaborations that bring together community organisations to collaborate on shared issues. There are other areas where this has been self organising.
Some comments:

“Our Crime Prevention reporting is useful so we also send that to the health funder”

“We have nowhere to describe and share information about the activity we undertake in developing new initiatives with a PHO”

“Sharing success stories is exciting - its like hitting the refresh button”

“When the Ministry describes our service we don’t recognise it: we want others to learn and copy some of the practical things we are doing”

“Everyone talks about ‘intrasectoral collaboration’ and in mental health we try hard but it’s mainly about working with Police / Housing etc not much with business maybe we could find ways to link with business because that what most of us are.”

Workforce
NGO workforce concerns such as training, pay, career development, clinical support, flexible options, were repeatedly raised by individual agencies and have been well documented in the past by Platform. The sector sees very little progress, interest, investment or commitment by the Crown in the development of the NGO workforce.

Smart Social Business
Good governance, effective operational systems, contemporary business practice, business mentoring and the many other practical issues are critical if NGOS are to make good decisions and run effectively. Many organisations have suggested that they know this is important but it gets put aside. There has been positive feedback when specific board training has been offered i.e. Northern region. More NGO collaboration to support initiatives that promote smart business has been suggested.

Marion Blake
Platform Charitable Trust