Newstalk ZB interviewed me last week on the idea being floated around that kids should get to vote on any new New Zealand flag.
I was a bit sceptical about it.
The audio's here.
I suppose that if we had to let kids vote on something, there wouldn't be much damage in a flag vote.
Eric, Whanau Ora is a flash name for the contracting out of social services delivery.
ReplyDeleteThe model also rejects the deficits model of social disadvantage.
I get that. I don't get contracting out without outcome measures or clear deliverables!
ReplyDeleteI think more accurately Whanau Ora was the price of a coalition agreement with the Maori Party. To evaluate the success of the program you therefore only need to assess whether the government held together for 3 years (hot tip.....they did).
ReplyDeleteLess cynically, part of the model was "everything we've done to date has sucked, so perhaps letting a thousand flowers bloom might have a better outcome. It can't be worse than what we were doing."
Even less cynically, it's a model that allows government funding from many parts of the government to be aggregated into a citizen (or family) centred model of service delivery. It may be hard to evaluate because it's very personalised and very cross-domain area. It may also be hard to evaluate because it's heavily into NGO delivery using volunteer workforces who have little tolerance for administration.