Prime Minister Announces More Funding for Family Violence Programmes

In her speech to Parliament today, the Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a move towards sustainable funding for many community services. She indicated family violence was a priority area, saying that preventing family violence and youth offending were “critical to building a safer and more sustainable society for us all”.

The funding will be implemented through the Pathways to Partnership initiative, which aims to improve the funding and working relationship between the Ministry of Social Development/CYFS, the Ministry of Justice, and the community sector.

Ms Clark said “Our new funding model will see essential services with which we have multi year programmes, such as parenting programmes, support for at risk youth, women’s refuge services, family violence programmes, and services for victims of crime, funded for the full cost of delivering the agreed services”.

For small service providers, a move to grants-based funding will mean they face less bureaucracy and fewer compliance costs.

“The new sustainable funding path will begin with an extra $37.5million in 2008/09 and build to an annual increase of $192.8million in 2011/12 and out years – that’s a total of $446 million over the next four years”, Ms Clark said.

Pathway to Partnership Questions and Answers can be found here www.msd.govt.nz/media-information/press-releases/2008/pr-2008-02-12.html