'Heartland Services' Project - Update
A project to improve face-to-face delivery of government services to rural areas (and to support local community/voluntary groups) is being put in place over the coming months. The 'Heartland Services Initiative' is made up of two parts (which may or may not happen in the same place at the same time):
- government agency staff (from, for example, ACC, the Maori Land Court, Housing NZ, IRD, the Department of Work and Income) would synchronise their visits from regional offices to remote rural towns once or twice a month as part of an 'outreach' service; and
- 'service centres' would be set up in certain smaller provincial towns (so related government and community services can be delivered from one central place in the town).
Background
Restructuring of services and the economy over the last 15 years has led to many businesses and services leaving rural New Zealand. Even the commercial centres of rural districts now have few government agencies other than schools, health centres, the Police, and the Department of Work and Income. Voluntary networks are finding it harder, and more costly, to deliver services to rural areas.
At the same time though, the populations of many small towns and rural areas are growing from natural increase and migration. Migration of people on low incomes to rural towns for cheaper housing has led to the transfer of urban social problems to rural areas where there are fewer government services. Under-investment in rural centres and minor urban areas often results in these areas having higher rates of unemployment than larger cities, despite their often considerable potential for economic growth and employment based on local resources.
In time e-Government will make it easier for rural areas to access services, but currently many rural people find it hard to access e-Government (for example, due to Internet difficulties and limited mobile phone coverage).
Not all small towns and rural areas are the same, and they require different strategies to service their needs. A number of agencies may need to visit local areas. However, because the agencies do not work together to ensure services are delivered effectively, these services are regarded by many rural people as being fragmented, haphazard and lacking in co-ordination.
Service Centres
Service centres would be a central place to deliver a range of related government and NGO services, and support volunteer services. Some of the main features and benefits of this approach could be to:
- give people who need services a 'one-stop shop' to visit;
- enable agencies to share overheads;
- be a place that provides citizens advice and government information brokerage services;
- help overcome recruitment problems/lack of volunteers (for example, a number of agencies could fund one or a few people to represent them);
- provide opportunities for volunteering (particularly for older people); and
- be a site for other types of community projects (for example, homework centres).
Service centres will only be established where the community (including the district council) wants it to happen and wants to participate in its development. Other factors would relate to:
- availability of reasonably priced, existing accommodation;
- there being enough space for government and non-government agencies;
- there being a central location within the settlement/town; and
- clarity and agreement on how it would be organised, how it would operate, and how costs would be shared.
'Outreach'
The second part of the service is to take certain government services currently available in the larger centres to more remote rural towns, once or twice per month. The key to making this work is to synchronise the visits of a number of departments to occur on the same day of the week. The most important benefits of this would be to rural people themselves:
- co-ordinated services would mean that people don't have to make a number of expensive and time-consuming trips into town; and
- when services are synchronised it becomes economic for other agencies (including commercial businesses) to also deliver (mobile) services on the day when other service providers visit.
The agencies themselves would benefit as:
- workers from different agencies could network, and this leads to better co-operation and collaboration between agencies; and
- it means that if an interagency case conference is held, all the appropriate agency people will be there, together.
The outreach services most sought by rural communities are those relating to benefits and pensions, employment services, childcare and protection, rental housing, tax and family assistance, Maori land issues, identity services (births, deaths, marriages, passports, citizenship), accident compensation, and motor vehicle and drivers' licensing.
It is suggested that towns that would qualify for such an outreach service, would need to be at least of 400-500 people, isolated by a distance of at least 1.5-2 hours round trip from the nearest township.
It is intended that the outreach service would 'coat tail' onto an existing Work and Income scheme to take its services into remote towns. On the one day of the month that DWI frontline staff visit remote settlements, they would be accompanied by staff from other departments such as IRD, Housing NZ, ACC, Maori Land Court and any others that the community identify as being appropriate.
Potential Locations
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When Will It Happen?
There is no specific timetable for this project. Instead, the service centre and outreach projects will be progressively 'rolled out' as collaborative arrangements between agencies are made, and as community and local authority support is developed in a particular area.
Contact for Enquiries
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 00 83 33
Fax: +64 4 894 0720
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