2. Social Services—Social Investment ApproachDAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) to the Minister of FinanceSocial Services—Social Investment ApproachDAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): My question is to the Minister of Finance—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The House needs to settle. I have asked David Bennett to deliver his question.2. DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) to the Minister of Finance: What steps is the Government taking to improve early intervention in social services as part of responsible fiscal management?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): The Government believes that the effectiveness of public spending not the size of it is what matters for delivering New Zealanders the public services they deserve. We saw for instance that up to 2008 when the previous Government's social spending increased by 70 percent in the 5 years to 2008 many social statistics were going backwards. So while we have lifted spending in health education and justice we are at the same time investing in systems that measure the impact of those dollars on people's lives. This will allow the Government to concentrate resources on interventions that change lives particularly for the long term.David Bennett: What reports has he received showing how targeted early intervention can make the biggest difference for at-risk youth?Hon BILL ENGLISH: In the context of the discussion about investment and spending on further prison beds earlier today the Ministry of Justice provided new figures on serious offending among youth. It reports that over 2 years 1800 14- to 16-year-olds were dealt with by police for a serious offence. On average each child had previous contact with police six times and is expected to have contact a further eight times. Eighty-two percent of these children have been notified to Child Youth and Family for care and protection matters and 45 percent have already received some support for mental health issues. Our ability to now get detailed insights about individual young offenders will allow us to shape services more effectively to change the trajectories that these young New Zealanders are on because they are negative.David Bennett: How does the Government's investment approach reveal the case for early intervention and help to lift the quality of public services?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Social investment works in the first place by simply showing to the policy makers and to front-line deliverers of service what happens with people if no intervention is made. We know that for some individuals for instance the Government will spend over a million dollars before they turn 35. The Government has said that it is prepared to make targeted investments today to deliver better long-term social outcomes. This system depends on increased information-sharing among Government agencies but also on changing our systems of delivering support to New Zealanders in need because some of the ways we deliver it now make it harder for them rather than easier.David Bennett: What other innovations are on track to help improve public services?Hon BILL ENGLISH: One of the important innovations is being able to understand and identify those New Zealand families who cannot find their way to our mainstream services. Most of our services are delivered through hospitals schools and prisons and actually most of the time people are not sick much of the time they are not at school and too many of our most vulnerable families do not benefit from those well-funded universal services. The ability to share information among agencies is now giving us much better insight. For instance a case I heard of the other day: what looked like a normal fairly unfortunate family violence case turned out to be a young woman with 85 serious injury reports and no Government agency was aware of the scale of misery and abuse in her life. Now they can act on it.Carmel Sepuloni: How can he reconcile his statement that the amount spent is not a factor in the effectiveness of services with Shamubeel Eaqub's statement in reference to National's investment approach that an investment approach cannot work if there is no new money no focus on every stage of life and it is motivated by economics-speak?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I think I disagree with every one of those statements. I would invite him or any of the other columnists who opine on these matters to turn up at the front line and watch some of the innovations that are occurring whether it is the family violence pilot in Christchurch some of the fascinating changes going on in Gisborne or the South Auckland Social Investment Board—all of which are reporting to us that better ways of working can make a huge impact. Sometimes more money is required but it is not the fundamental requirement.