Project Brief

• Introduction
• Aims
• Objectives
• Background
• Methods
• Timeframe

Introduction

This brief describes a project aimed at developing a community profile of Christchurch. The profile will include information on local demographic and social trends and social service provision. This information will act as a basis on which agencies can plan and determine priorities.

The project is a partnership between Child, Youth and Family and Christchurch City Council working in collaboration with a number of other agencies and networks, including Community Development Group, Department of Internal Affairs and Safer Community Council.

Aims

The Community Profile aims to:

1. identify key demographic and social measurements and trends;
2. identify current social services provision in the community;
3. identify current trends in government provision and resourcing of services;
4. identify key stakeholder’s perceptions of effective interventions and local solutions
5. review relevant reports to identify broad principles relating to provision and funding;
6. analyse the relationship between the trends and the current mix of services.

Components of the information gathered will also be available to the wider community to facilitate greater access to services.

Objectives

1. The key objectives of the demographic, social and economic data analysis are:

1.1. to gain a picture of the demographic measurements and trends at the local level;
1.2. to identify the social and economic trends that may impact on future provision;
1.3. to gain a picture of the other trends affecting needs (including social, economic, health and safety) at the local level.

2. The key objectives of the community social services stock take are:

2.1. to gain a picture of the current provision of social services in Christchurch, including types and range of providers, the targets and the client profiles;
2.2. to ascertain the future intentions of current and potential service providers;
2.3. to identify the perceived gaps in service and additional service needs;
2.4. to gain local feedback on effective interventions and local solutions

3. The key objectives of the government direct and indirect provision stock take are:

3.1. to gain a picture of the current and planned service provision by government agencies;
3.2. to identify trends in the funding provided by government agencies, including levels of funding, funding priorities, funding targets;
3.3. to identify the perceived gaps in services and funding.
3.4. to gain local feedback on effective interventions and local solutions

4. The key objectives of the identification of key stakeholder’s perceptions of effective interventions and local solutions

4.1. to gain service providers and government agencies feedback on gaps in service and additional service needs effective interventions and local solutions (as in objectives 2.3 and 2.4 and objectives 3.3 and 3.4)
4.2. to identify referrers / clients / advocates perception of the gaps in services and funding
4.3. to gain referrers / clients / advocates feedback on their perception of the effectiveness in terms of positive outcomes
4.4. to seek referrers / clients / advocates ideas about how services could be improved

5. The key objectives of the review of previous research reports (limited) are:

5.1. to identify some interpretations of best practice;
5.2. to gain a picture of needs identified in previous reports/studies;
5.3. to identify interpretations and analysis of the impact of certain trends;
5.4. to identify critical success factors highlighted in the research and evaluation reports.
5.5. to identify local initiatives that are perceived to be achieving successful outcomes
5.6. to identify opportunities for local service improvement /development

6. The key objectives of the comparative analysis are:

6.1. to examine emerging trends and issues that will impact on service planning;
6.2. to examine the appropriateness and effectiveness of the current mix services;
6.3. to identify potential roles of government and non government agencies in relation to resourcing and provision of services;
6.4. to identify key issues and areas where further investigation or action is needed.

Background

The project was initiated by Child Youth and Family as part of its Local Service Mapping initiative and the City Council as a component of its Long Term Council Community Plan Process.

Child, Youth and Family initiated Local Service Mapping in order to:

• Better respond to the needs of children, young people and families;
• Develop fairer and more open funding arrangements;
• Better combine statutory and non-statutory services
• Better balance of preventive and remedial work;
• Better alignment of government and community social services for children and families;
• Achieve a better relationship between Child, Youth and Family and local communities; and
• Assist the chief executive of Child, Youth and Family to meet her statutory duties to encourage and promote cooperation between organisations engaged in providing services for children, young people,families and family groups.

Local Services Mapping is a locally-driven approach to services planning. Each community will implement the initiative differently. The process comprises five key stages for matching services with needs in local communities: 1) shared vision of service provision; 2) stocktake of local social service needs and current service; 3) response planning; 4) funding, service provision and accountability agreements and information sharing arrangements; and 5) outcomes review. This research relates to the Community profile/stocktake component of Local Service Planning.

The new Local Government Bill requires that Council develop a Long Term Council Community Plan. Although the Local Government Bill has yet to be passed, it seems reasonable to assume the principles in the Bill as introduced into Parliament will survive more-or-less intact. That is, no matter what the final details are, there will be new processes for planning and reporting, including the requirement to identify a set of community outcomes and priorities and the roles the Council wishes to pursue.

Methods

It is proposed that the project will primarily use information that is already available as many agencies collect and report on measures and trends or have recently undertaken needs assessments and data analysis.

There are also a number of projects that are running concurrent with this project. It is proposed that, where possible, this project will draw on the information gathered in those projects rather than duplicating it, for example the Big Cities Quality of Indicators project; the MSD, Council and SPIN Joint Planning project; the Council LTCCP project; Healthy Christchurch and the Libraries' ‘localeye’ project.

Child Youth and Family and Council will provide the appropriate resources needed to undertake this project. The project will seek the cooperation from other government agencies through Strengthening Families Management Group. It will use existing networks and relationship to seek community agency cooperation.

Timeframe