Families and Whānau Status Report 2018
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Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit Families and Whānau Status Report Families 2018 Families and Whānau Status Report 2018 The Families Commission operates under the name Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (Superu) Our purpose The purpose of the Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (Superu) was to increase the use of evidence by people across the social sector so that they could make better decisions – about funding, policies and services – to improve the lives of New Zealanders and New Zealand’s communities, families and whānau. Due to Superu’s disestablishment on 1 July 2018, the families and whānau work programme is now managed by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). This report was prepared by MSD under delegation from Superu. Access to the data used in this report was provided by Statistics New Zealand under conditions designed to give effect to the security and confi dentiality provisions of the Statistics Act 1975. The results presented in this report are the work of the authors, not Statistics NZ. The results in the family wellbeing section of this report are not offi cial statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) managed by Statistics NZ. The opinions, fi ndings, recommendations and conclusions expressed in this report are those of the authors, not Statistics NZ. Access to the anonymised data used in this study was provided by Statistics NZ in accordance with security and confi dentiality provisions of the Statistics Act 1975. Only people authorised by the Statistics Act 1975 are allowed to see data about a particular person, household, business or organisation, and the results in this report have been confi dentialised to protect these groups from identifi cation. Careful consideration has been given to the privacy, security and confi dentiality issues associated with using administrative and survey data in the IDI. Further detail can be found in the privacy impact assessment for the Integrated Data Infrastructure, available from www.stats.gov.nz Ministry of Social Development Email: [email protected] ISBN 978-1-98-854017-7 (print) ISBN 978-1-98-854018-4 (online) Acknowledgements Superu and the Ministry of Social Development would like to thank all the individuals and organisations that have contributed to the publication of this report. In particular, we acknowledge the assistance, expert advice and contributions from the following: Families Commissioner: Len Cook Deb Potter, Vinay Benny, Shari Mason, Shirley Dorsey, Sonia Chen, Whetu Wereta, Polly Atakoa-Carr, Conal Smith, Malcolm Menzies, Ella Cullen, Patricia Laing, Kerrie O’Hara-Pepper and Hohepa Patea for their support, advice, and peer review. The chapter contributors to the Families and Whānau Status Report: Health and New Zealand families Eric Krassoi Peach Multiple disadvantage research Eric Krassoi Peach and Jacinta Cording programme Wellbeing of sole parent families Eric Krassoi Peach and Jacinta Cording Ka mua ka muri – Walking backward into Kahukore Baker (Te Upokorehe, the future. Māori Housing and wellbeing Te Whakatōhea) Housing quality, health and Professor Tahu Kukutai (Ngāti Tīpa, Ngāti whānau wellbeing Kinohaku, Te Aupōuri) Andrew Sporle (Ngāti Apa, Rangitāne, Te Rarawa) Dr Arama Rata (Ngāruahine, Taranaki, Ngāti Maniapoto) Use of the Whānau Rangatiratanga Dr Chelsea Grootveld (Ngāi Tai, Ngāti Framework to inform an evaluation of Porou, Whānau-ā – Apanui, Whakatōhea, E Tū Whānau Te Arawa) and Sarah Widmer 01 Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit Executive summary The Families and Whānau Wellbeing research programme reflects both Western science and te ao Māori perspectives as we develop, interpret and contextualise our research about the wellbeing of New Zealand families and whānau. his executive summary presents an overview of the families and whānau work programme as the platform for the 2018 Families and Whānau Status Report. We describe research findings and key themes across the family and T whānau work streams, followed by implications and a summary of report chapters. For the first time we present a discussion about the commonalities arising from the families and whānau research findings and we conclude with the future direction of the families and whānau wellbeing programme. The Families and Whānau Wellbeing work programme When we first established the families and whānau work programme, we developed two distinct frameworks for viewing family and whānau wellbeing (see pps 23-25). The Family Wellbeing Framework identifies four core family functions, and the factors that influence and contribute to the ability of families to function well. The Whānau Rangatiratanga Framework takes a Māori world view. This framework uses tikanga Māori principles and capability dimensions to frame our approach to measures of whānau wellbeing. The family and whānau wellbeing work streams, which are grounded in separate conceptual and measurement frameworks, have three common key focus areas: • Ongoing development of our families and whānau wellbeing frameworks. Over the past five years, the frameworks have guided our development, use and analysis of family and whānau wellbeing data. As a consequence, we will continue to develop the frameworks and further explore and update wellbeing indicators. • Growing the evidence base. Our research will include a growing range of quantitative and qualitative evidence. As part of our ongoing wellbeing work, both work streams will focus on improving the quality and availability of wellbeing data at the family, whānau and individual level. 02 • Evidence to action. A key function of the research is to show how evidence can support the development of policies and programmes that focus on the wellbeing of families and whānau. Both work streams will continue to seek opportunities to inform policy, programme development and evaluation from a family and whānau wellbeing perspective. An overarching theme emerging from ongoing development of our families and whānau work programme is: to grow our understanding and capability in working between both Western science and te ao Māori world views. Family wellbeing research: key findings Over the past year, Superu has collaborated with the Ministry of Health and Statistics New Zealand to successfully add family type classification to the individual records of the New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS) for the first time. Soon, family type will be an ongoing feature of the NZHS data, allowing for new research to be undertaken on health and family wellbeing. Health is a key focus for improving the wellbeing of sole parent families We took a broad analysis of the 2015/16 NZHS to examine the health outcomes, health behaviours, and access to health services for adults and children across family type. Our analysis found: • Sole parents continue to be a group of concern with high rates of psychological distress, smoking, obesity and asthma. They also struggle with food security – 40 percent cannot always ‘eat properly’ and over a quarter rely on others or food banks to provide food when they don’t have enough money to meet their needs. • Poor mental health is more prevalent for families with one adult than for coupled families. We found a quarter of older people living alone and nearly a third of younger people living alone have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Additionally, young people living alone have high rates of psychological distress, nearly double that of all adults. • Unhealthy behaviours/risk factors are highest among sole parents, young people living alone and those not in a family nucleus (eg flatting). Multiple disadvantage research programme The 2017 Families and Whānau Status Report presented our (and New Zealand’s) first measure of multiple disadvantage, and the findings from our analysis of the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS). This original measure uses 17 indicators from the GSS to assess whether someone is experiencing disadvantage in any of eight life domains: Income, Material Wellbeing, Employment, Education, Health, Housing, Safety and Connectedness. This year, we report the results of two projects that build upon the foundational work presented in the 2017 Status Report. The first uses combined General Social Survey (GSS) data to examine whether there are differences in the rate and type of multiple disadvantage faced by families across region and ethnic grouping. The second leverages the recent addition of 2014 GSS data to the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), a large database of linked government administrative data, to explore how government expenditure maps to individuals with different levels of disadvantage. 03 Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit Prevalence of multiple disadvantage across regions differs but the types of disadvantage are broadly the same In our analysis of multiple disadvantage across regions in New Zealand, we found: • At a national level, the prevalence of multiple disadvantage is 16.9 percent of adults, with this figure ranging from 14.1 percent (for Wellington) to 26.2 percent (for Northland) across the regions. • Education and Health are, generally, the two areas where disadvantage affects the highest proportion of adults in each region. The exception is Otago (Income is the largest issue followed by Education) and Auckland (Housing is the second-largest issue behind Health). Māori and Pacific families are more likely to experience disadvantage, particularly in the area of housing Overall,