Nelson City Council

Social Wellbeing Policy Review 2009 – 2010

Background information for early input consultation with community organisations

Assessments and aims

Council has begun the review of its Social Wellbeing Policy and this will continue into the end of 2010. Council adopted its first Social Wellbeing Policy in August 2003, and this focussed on five key areas: deprivation, employment & economy, education, affordable housing and community cohesion.

The aim of this review is to create a policy that focuses on wellbeing at a community level, has flexibility to respond to community needs and provides clarity on Council’s role in relation to social wellbeing issues. It will be a high level policy that will set objectives for how Council will contribute to achieving social wellbeing in Nelson.

As part of the review, Council is also reviewing its Positive Ageing Policy and developing a Youth Policy and a Housing Policy. Additional consultation will be occurring specifically on these issues.

Part of the initial review work has assessed the extent to which Council implemented the 2003 policy.

Download the Social Wellbeing assessment report (141KB PDF)

The 2003 policy is also available for download from the Council website. This provides background information - it is not necessary to read this before the workshop.

Scope of the initial consultation

The aim of the initial consultation is to explore the following:

1. What are the key social wellbeing issues for Nelson?
2. What should Council’s role be to address issues? What are the appropriate boundaries between Council, central government and the community’s responsibilities and capabilities?
3. How do we prioritise where Council should focus its efforts?

Council has undertaken some initial work to identify issues – this is described below.

Social wellbeing framework and Nelson issues

The Ministry of Social Development publishes an annual report which provides information on the social wellbeing of New Zealand society. The Social Report monitors trends across 10 areas of people’s lives. Together these areas provide a picture of wellbeing and quality of life in New Zealand.

These include:

• Civil and Political Rights
• Cultural Identity
• Economic Standard of Living
• Health
• Knowledge and Skills
• Leisure and Recreation
• Paid Work
• Physical Environment
• Safety
• Social Connectedness

This provides a good framework or checklist so Council can ensure it looks at all aspects that make up social wellbeing as it reviews the policy.

Through initial work for the review, Council is starting to build an understanding of the Nelson situation in relation to these social wellbeing areas. This has been obtained from previous consultation and feedback from the community (including through submissions to the Community Plan this year), Community Whanau review information, and via analysis of data from various sources including Statistics New Zealand, the Social Report, Council’s annual residents’ survey and information from various agencies.

Key social wellbeing issues for Nelson identified through this work, and/or areas where Council potentially has a key delivery role include, in alphabetical order:

Civil and political rights

• Options for participation in decision making and building social capital
• Youth representation and participation in decision making

Cultural identity

• Council’s relationship with Maori
• Maori culture valued and visible
• Increasing ethnic diversity – integrating and valuing different cultures

Economic standard of living

• Housing affordability
• Supporting paths to employment for young people
• Support for areas of deprivation

Health

• Delivery of core services including water supply, wastewater treatment, air quality improvements and waste collection and disposal
• Council spaces and activities support healthy lifestyles

Knowledge and skills

• Opportunities for older adults to upskill/reskill
• Supporting youth who don’t fit into mainstream education

Leisure and recreation

• Providing spaces and places for recreation
• Youth feel there is not enough to do
• Changing recreation patterns - Council support for different types of recreation

Paid work

• Older adults having options to transition from full time to part time work and retirement
• Enough/types of jobs to retain youth in the city

Physical environment

• Accessibility - design of the city and facilities
• Public transport

Safety

• Road safety
• Family violence
• Perceptions of safety in the central city after dark

Social connectedness

• Integration of migrants
• Intergenerational connections/relationships
• Special role of arts and creativity in Nelson for enhancing connectedness

Background to policy development and community whanau’s involvement

In 2002 Community Whanau produced a Social Wellbeing priorities report, which was developed with wide community involvement and identified key issues for social wellbeing including rising house prices, increasing ethnic diversity and the role that schools should play within the wider community.

Following on from this work, Council completed its first Social Wellbeing policy in 2003, which identified five areas where Council should focus its resources to improve social wellbeing including: deprivation, employment & economy, education, affordable housing and community cohesion.

In 2004 Community Whanau reviewed the implementation of recommendations within its 2002 Social Wellbeing priorities report, and in 2007 and 2008 undertook a review of Council’s Social Wellbeing Policy through focus groups and surveys of Community Whanau members. Outstanding issues needing to be addressed within the existing priority areas were identified including increased unemployment, housing affordability, support for areas of high deprivation, public transport, the need for a youth strategy and job and training opportunities. These have been taken into account when identifying key social wellbeing issues above.