Government unveils $190m social investment fund with focus on early intervention

The Spinoff

15-05-2025

Nicola Willis is betting on a 'top of the cliff' model of social services, backed by data and led by former a former police commissioner, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin.
Social investment funding prioritises early support
Finance minister Nicola Willis has announced a $190 million social investment fund to support 'services that deliver measurable improvements in the lives of those who need our help, guided by data and evidence'. The fund is part of a wider $275 million allocation to the newly empowered Social Investment Agency, and was unveiled in a pre-budget speech yesterday, The Post's Luke Malpass reports (paywalled).
Three projects will receive initial funding: an Autism New Zealand programme providing early support to 50 families; an expansion of Emerge Aotearoa's work with at-risk youth; and He Piringa Whare, a data-informed programme to support at-risk Māori. Additional investments will focus on parenting in the early years and preventing children from entering state care, part of the Crown's response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care.
A renamed agency with renewed purpose
The announcement builds on changes made last year, when the Social Wellbeing Agency was rebranded as the Social Investment Agency and repositioned as a central government agency with system-wide oversight, explains RNZ's Russell Palmer in his comprehensive explainer on the past and present of social investment in NZ. Early moves such as reprioritising Oranga Tamariki contracts and overhauling Whānau Ora commissioning have caused some friction – not least with John Tamihere, who has taken the government to court over his agency's lost contracts.
From policing to public services
The agency's CEO is Andrew Coster, whose time as police commissioner was marked by both controversy and reform. Criticised early on by National and Act for being 'soft on crime', he was labelled 'cuddles Coster' by his critics, while former National leader Simon Bridges accused him of being a 'wokester'. The government has since largely changed its tune, with the PM saying Coster had 'delivered bigtime', reports Palmer.
Now, Coster is excited to work at the 'top of the cliff', he tells Newsroom's Laura Walters, and to change a system that is hampered by fragmented funding and an excessive focus on compliance. He believes 'the culture of adding on services, rather than assessing the effectiveness of current services, has led to more money being spent but not always better outcomes being achieved', Walters writes. Says Coster: 'We want to know whether [a service] made a difference, not just that it was delivered.'
A policy redux
Social investment has long been associated with former prime minister Bill English, who promoted the idea of using data to intervene early and reduce the long-term fiscal burden of entrenched disadvantage. His approach was data-driven to the extreme, writes Eileen Joy in the Conversation, including commissioning an actuary firm to calculate the lifetime welfare cost to the state of people on benefits and which type of beneficiary 'is going to cost us the most money'.
While English's model was praised for its logic, it gave no consideration 'to structural factors such as colonisation and poverty', writes Joy, and ultimately delivered few tangible results before being sidelined by the Labour government in 2017. Willis, once a staffer for English, has picked up the baton with a broader framing – emphasising both social and financial returns and apparently seeking to avoid English's ideological rigidity.
Joy says she remains sceptical. 'Given the government's drive to remove any special policy considerations based on … the Treaty of Waitangi, the risk remains that some Māori will again come to be viewed as a 'cost' to the state.'