Achieving better outcomes for New Zealanders

These are some of the challenges and opportunities being addressed by the finalists of Te Tohu mō ngā Hua E Pai Ake Ana | Better Outcomes Award at this year’s Te Hāpai Hapori | Spirit of Service Awards.

Here we look at how the National Predator Control Programme, Driver Licensing Improvement Programme and Learning Community Hubs have set out to achieve significant outcomes for the long-term wellbeing for New Zealanders.

Te Papa Atawhai | Department of Conservation's National Predator Control Programme (NPCP) protects New Zealand’s remaining populations of vulnerable native species like kiwi, kōkako and bats from introduced predators across 1.8 million hectares of public conservation land. 

While the tools for eventually eradicating rats, stoats and possums are being developed, the NPCP is holding the line for threatened native species by regularly controlling predators at nationally significant sites across the country.

Delivering the NPCP is a massive team effort achieved through collaboration with many partners. It delivers predator control on a scale far beyond the capability of local communities, to a very high standard, and reliably sustains this effort over time. 

The programme seeks to develop sustainability within New Zealand’s complex, specialist, predator control industry. It builds internal capability via a specialist training programme and supports external contractor and supply businesses through close engagement and cooperation, alongside other industry stakeholders.

NPCP works alongside iwi, hapū, local government, TBfree, hunting and conservation groups, and local communities to gain support for predator control and combine efforts to achieve the best outcomes for native species and stakeholders. 

Monitoring shows that as a result of this predator control, many populations of threatened species are now stable or recovering. Thanks to the NPCP, New Zealanders can increasingly experience healthy native forests alive with birdsong.

For more information about the NPCP, visit DOC.govt.nz. 

Getting a driver licence opens the door to many opportunities including jobs, education, family support and healthcare, but a Ministry of Transport review showed that access to driver licensing is more difficult for around 10% of New Zealanders. 

The Driver Licensing Improvement Programme (DLIP) was set up by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) to address the challenges revealed in the review. The programme is a cross-government and community organisations partnership involving six agencies: NZTA, Ministry of Social Development, New Zealand Police, Te Puni Kōkiri, Ministry of Transport and ACC.

The DLIP supports communities with low licence rates who experience significant impacts from not having a licence. They include people unable to obtain employment without a driver licence, people eligible for a benefit, people living rurally, people at risk of, or currently within, the justice system, disabled people and recent migrants.

Barriers such as the cost, distance to testing sites and lack of learner support have been addressed through funding 15,000 driver licence places per year with community providers and creating a new Community Driver Testing Officer (CDTO) role. CDTOs provide practical driver testing for the community providers’ students with flexible test times in a familiar location.

The initiative has opened doors to many opportunities that a driver licence provides including employment, education, support for whānau and healthcare, and enabling more people to become safe licenced drivers. 

For more information about the DLIP, visit NZTA.govt.nz.

Learning Community Hubs play a vital role for ethnic communities accessing and understanding the New Zealand education system and supporting their children in school. 

Evidence shows that parent engagement directly helps to lift attendance, participation, progress, and educational achievement at school, so Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | Ministry of Education set out to support this participation and engagement in learning.

The learning hubs promote educationally powerful connections – a shared responsibility between home, school and the community. They also provide a long-term view to transformational approaches to learning, teaching and engaging with the different parts of the education system to fulfil the needs and realise the aspirations of ethnic communities.

The initiative is community-led and has been designed and delivered as the community sees best for them. It puts students, together with their families, at the centre of what education can offer. The Ministry of Education provides support by delivering workshops and information on topics such as the NZ curriculum, transition and pathways and school policies and processes. 

In 2023 the hubs delivered 334 workshops, supported 1925 families and 1195 students across 52 ethnicities. 

An independent evaluation of the learning hubs found that they have a positive impact on the students from ethnic communities as well as the schools’ understanding of the student’s needs and goals. 

For more information about the Ministry of Education’s work, visit Education.govt.nz.

Te Hāpai Hapori | The Spirit of Service Awards recognise initiatives that deliver great outcomes for people in New Zealand and young leaders who show outstanding innovation and leadership. The winners will be announced on Thursday 26 September.

The awards are made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors ANZSOG – The Australia and New Zealand School of Government, DXC Technology Australia and New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington School of Government, Westpac New Zealand, and Deloitte.

For more information, check out our Spirit of Service Awards page.