And welcome to Superu’s eNews, keeping you up to date with the latest news, events and social sector evidence. In this issue we thought you should know about:
From the Chief Executive – A families focus for Superu
This is my first eNews column, and as the new chief executive of Superu I want to begin by thanking departing CE Clare Ward, and all the staff who’ve worked so hard for us since our inception, for their insights, energy and expertise. I’m excited to be continuing our work advocating for families and supporting better use of evidence and evaluation in the NGO sector. Read more...
From the Families Commissioner
Len Cook is the Families Commissioner and Chair of the Superu Board. In his personal blog he talks about the challenges of providing effective social services in complex societies… Read Len’s blog
Children's research fund – Round 2 closing soon
Superu manages the Children and Families Research Fund, and research applications for round 2 close on 20 October. There is $750,000 available for researchers wishing to use Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) data to explore issues of national and international relevance. And the 72 month GUiNZ external dataset will be available to successful applicants from early 2018. Read more...
Looking after our mental health
Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week and we were proud to share photos on Twitter of the things that give Superu staff a sense of wellbeing, and links to our research. Read more…
Research
New publications, collaboration and recognition for our evidence team It’s been another busy month for the team, with two publications, a new collaboration and more success for our evaluation handbook. Read more…
Another collection for The Hub
The team is pleased to announce the addition of the 59th agency on The Hub. The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) is an independent educational research organisation generating ideas, questions, tools, products and services to meet educational needs now and for the future. NZCER has a proud history and a deep commitment to Māori education. You can now search through NZCER’s collection of over 100 research publications on The Hub and check outNZCER’s blog to keep up to date with their latest news and events.
If you have any questions about The Hub, or would like to add any government work to our collection, please contact us at:hubadmin@superu.govt.nz
Conferences and events
Australasian appearances
Carolyn O’Fallon and Isabelle Collins are Superu’s principal advisors, and both have been in demand recently to present at conferences about their work in evaluation planning and using evidence.
Carolyn attended the recent Australasian Evaluation Society’sconference in Canberra and made two presentations. The first used the example of the Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health Project (YMHP) to talk about the challenges of evaluating complex programmes. The YMHP comprises 26 individual projects, and Superu commissioned and managed the evaluation, which had to take into account the range and number of agencies and jurisdictions involved, as well as the varying nature of the projects themselves.
Carolyn’s second presentation was on the challenge of building an evidence-based social sector in New Zealand. Here she talked about the approach used by Superu to integrate evidence use and evaluation planning into The Treasury’s budget process, and what was learned from this. Carolyn’s presentations can be downloaded here.
The Australia and New Zealand School of Government is running a two day workshop – Better Evidence for Better Programs – where Carolyn and Isabelle will be facilitating sessions on the use of quality evidence in New Zealand’s budgeting process, and developing outcomes and evaluation plans. These sessions will be based around Superu’s Evidence rating scale for New Zealand, and the handbook, Making sense of evaluation.
Empowerment and Success: A positive path for the NGO sector
This two day conference is being held in Auckland later in October and features speakers from The Treasury, Oranga Tamariki and the Social Investment Agency as well as not-for-profits and philanthropy organisations. Co-hosted by Community Networks Aotearoa and the NZ Council of Christian Social Services, the conference will tackle the challenges of new policy directions and explore options for the sector to better prepare itself for change.
Social Service Providers Aotearoa conference presentations online
Beyond Boundaries: Collaboration in Action was the theme forSSPA’s 2017 Conference held in September. Check out the website for presentations and downloads from keynote speakers including Judge Andrew Becroft, the Children’s Commissioner, Grainne Moss, CEO of Oranga Tamariki and Jonathan Boston, Professor of Public Policy at Victoria University.
Science in Society
This is the catchy name for the latest Master’s programme offered by Victoria University of Wellington. It’s been developed as a response to society’s need for more complex yet everyday science to be clearly communicated and explained. The university expects the course to appeal to science graduates working in government, with NGOs, Māori organisations and in business. Check out Vic’s website for more details.
