The Unfinished Business of Social Services Reform

3/3/2025

I came across this report while reviewing public sector reform literature:
Final Report: More Effective Social Services – The Treasury (2015)

It’s not new, but it’s worth revisiting. Nearly a decade on, many of the issues it identified are still with us. The report is a sobering reminder of how hard it is to shift the machinery of social services. We keep circling the same problems. We keep proposing similar solutions. And yet, here we are: we are still talking about the system’s inability to evolve.

The report paints a picture of a system that is too rigid, too centralised, and too slow to change. It makes a clear case that top-down control is part of the problem. When decision-making remains concentrated in Wellington, there’s limited room for innovation at the front line. Local providers and communities are left navigating layers of compliance, while trying to meet real needs in real time.

Commissioning is another focus. In theory, it’s meant to enable smarter, more targeted service delivery. In practice, the report suggests it often falls short — fragmented, inconsistent, and too focused on process. There’s not enough genuine engagement with the people who actually use the services, or the providers who understand what works on the ground.

Then there’s the issue of learning. The report notes that while the system generates lots of pilots and trials, it doesn’t do enough to evaluate them, let alone embed what works. Promising models are left on the shelf. Underperforming services persist. It’s not a lack of ideas that’s holding us back, but the system’s inability to act on them.

The report is also clear about the importance of data. Without strong feedback loops, it’s hard to know whether services are making a difference. The report calls for better infrastructure, clearer outcome tracking, and more consistent use of evidence in decision-making. These are basic requirements for any system that aims to improve.

And crucially, it flags the limited space currently given to Māori and iwi-led approaches. The report doesn’t treat these as niche alternatives, rather it recognises them as essential. Māori institutions, it says, often have deeper relationships, cultural alignment, and the trust needed to deliver better outcomes. But they continue to operate at the margins of the system.

Overall, the report argues for a shift in the role of government — away from command and control, and towards stewardship. That means creating the conditions for others to lead, setting clear goals, and focusing on system performance rather than micromanagement.

“Ka mura, ka muri.”
We walk backwards into the future.

This whakataukī reminds us that we carry the past with us. What has gone before, the missed opportunities, the unfinished reforms continues to shape the present. And the future we move toward will reflect the choices we make now.

The report doesn’t just diagnose what’s wrong. It offers direction: devolve decision-making, commission more intelligently, support Māori leadership, build better data systems, and stop reinventing the wheel.

None of it is radical. None of it is new.

But it remains unfinished business.