5 'social sector trials' to be abandoned

Social Development Minister Anne Tolley. Photo / File

Five experimental "social sector trials" won't be continued after poor results.

At the sites, funding for youth services run by Police and the ministries of education, health, justice and social development was handed over to local communities.

Social Development Minister Anne Tolley announced today that 11 out of 16 trials had produced good results and would now be transitioned to new "community-led models".

"The trials brought together decision-makers at a local level, such as mayors, stakeholders and agency representatives to collaborate on how social services were funded and delivered. They were most successful where there was good co-ordination from those involved."

But trials in five sites will be ended at June 30 - in Whakatane, Rotorua, Waikato, South Taranaki, and Wairarapa.

Those trials have been running since July 2013, but results meant continued funding could not be justified.

The Ministry of Social Development said, broadly, the problems with the scrapped trials were that in some areas other programmes were already operating that resulted in "crowding", and when trials covered large geographic areas they had "been difficult to embed".

The ten sites that will continue are South Waikato, Gisborne, Kaikohe, Waitomo, Taumarunui, Kawerau, Horowhenua, Porirua, South Dunedin, and Gore.