57457 (2025). Hon Jan Tinetti to the Minister for Social Investment

57457 (2025). Hon Jan Tinetti to the Minister for Social Investment: Has the Minister identified any risks or challenges to achieving the intended outcomes of the Social Investment approach, and, if so, what steps are being taken to mitigate them?

Hon Nicola Willis: The social investment approach amounts to a complex system-level shift. The Social Investment Agency was established to address persistent, systemic challenges that have limited the effectiveness of New Zealand's social sector for many years across multiple governments. These challenges include the social sector's limited capability for coordinated system-wide implementation, the social sector's longstanding inability to measure what works, for whom, and at what cost, and insufficient coordination across portfolios. To address these challenges the Social Investment Agency is working across government to set standards for social investment practices to ensure consistency across government agencies and contracted providers; prioritising cross-system coordination to ensure services are connected; building investment in the Integrated Data Infrastructure and through the Social Investment Fund, providing a benchmark for outcomes-based funding.