A Journey through Kaipara: Telling the story of the Kaipara Community Outcomes Process Steering Group (K-COP)

1. Community outcomes – the background for Kaipara

Kaipara District Council began considering new ways to engage with its local communities prior to the passing of the Local Government Act in 2002.

Recognising the importance of local and central government and other organisations working together to promote community wellbeing, K-COP was brought together by the Council to oversee the process of identifying community outcomes. By the time the Act was passed, Kaipara was well on the way to developing a shared responsibilities approach to facilitating community outcomes processes.

	“Kaipara…were proactive in bringing people together before the Local Government Act 2002. There was strategic thinking and the staff were in place to do that thinking and take action. It was clear that the Mayor, Councillors and staff were aligned and there was shared leadership. The community were involved in conversations about who they were and prioritising outcomes, particularly those at the southern entrance to Dargaville and connected to the Twin Coast State Highway project.”

“Kaipara…were proactive in bringing people together before the Local Government Act 2002. There was strategic thinking and the staff were in place to do that thinking and take action. It was clear that the Mayor, Councillors and staff were aligned and there was shared leadership. The community were involved in conversations about who they were and prioritising outcomes, particularly those at the southern entrance to Dargaville and connected to the Twin Coast State Highway project.”

The K-COP Steering Group

The Steering Group involved:

key government agencies - Te Puni Kokiri, Department of Conservation, Ministry of Social Development
local/regional bodies - Northland District Health Board, Northland Regional Council and the Kaipara District Economic Development Trust (also known as the Kaipara Development Agency)
local iwi/hāpu - Te Uri o Hau (2), Ngati Whatua and Te Roroa.

It served the immediate purpose of setting up community consultation processes in various Kaipara localities to identify community outcomes.

The political arm of the Council was also supportive. The Mayor at the time was actively involved in promoting a collaborative approach with government agencies.

The Steering Group also had support from the Northland Intersectoral Forum, a regional network of local government chief executives and regional managers from central government agencies.

Kaipara – Our Future – Together consultation process

In late 2002, the Council organised numerous community consultation opportunities under the banner Kaipara – Our Future – Together. These ran throughout the latter part of 2003 and provided the people of the Kaipara with an opportunity to have their say about the future of the district.

As well as distributing feedback pamphlets to all households and organising a telephone survey of 300 residents, Council and Steering Group members held thirteen community meetings around the District. Meetings were also held with iwi and hapū, visits were made to schools, and three meetings were held with employee groups.

In total over 850 responses were received from a district of 6,435 households (2001 Census), signalling significant interest from local people:

	“People joined in and by the time the council went out with its Long Term Council Community Plan in 2003, people had decided what was important. There were new ideas, people were coming home, new businesses were being established.”

Kaipara’s community outcomes

From the process of working alongside their local communities, the Council was able to identify and quickly prioritise four outcomes for the wellbeing of the District.

The community outcomes

Sustainable economy	Kaipara District has a diversified and sustainable economy that supports the wellbeing of its communities and residents.
Strong communities	Kaipara District is built on strong communities where people have a sense of belonging and work together to shape their collective future.
Safety and a good quality of life	Kaipara District is a safe place to live and raise a family, where people enjoy a good quality of life.
Special character and healthy environment	Kaipara District is proud of and renowned for its beautiful environment and sound management of natural resources, where residents enjoy a clean, healthy environment.

A Kaipara Scorecard was developed from the four community outcomes. This enabled the community outcomes to be used by Council, government agencies and other organisations to inform and guide their planning and decision-making.

The Kaipara Scorecard identified key areas to be monitored in achieving the outcomes. Thus it put in place a framework of accountability of these bodies to the Kaipara District and its communities.

Early focus on social policy

The alignment between Kaipara District Council’s political wing (led by the Mayor), the Council’s Chief Executive and policy staff meant that the Council was able to advocate to central government, on behalf of the district, for a policy focus on social wellbeing.

To this end, Kaipara District Council and the Ministry of Social Development’s Regional Commissioner worked together to secure a social policy advisor position in the Ministry of Social Development’s regional office in Whangarei. A component of this pilot position was to develop an interagency response to the community priorities.

The position, established in 2003, was the first of a number of Ministry of Social Development policy positions to be regionally based.

	“This was really creative - for a small Council to take the opportunity to negotiate and argue for the value of a large Ministry doing work with such a small Council.”

Developing the Terms of Reference

With momentum building, the interagency Steering Group was expanded and became formalised. In 2004/5, with the assistance of the Department of Internal Affairs central-local government Interface Facilitation Team, terms of reference were developed for the Steering Group (See Appendix one: Community Outcomes and Priorities: Project Team Terms of Reference).

The expected results were:

more informed decision-making by organisations to better meet community outcomes
better coordination and use of government and community resources within the Kaipara District
stronger relationships between agencies, organisations and community.

The focus of K-COP began to shift to look at how to address the outcomes identified by the community. As a result, other organisations and groups that could also contribute towards achieving community well-being were brought into K-COP. This was with a view to developing joint projects, through smaller working groups (now called project groups), and bringing them together under the K-COP umbrella.

K-COP explicitly aimed at developing better collaboration and working relationships with, and between, central government agencies that were delivering services in Kaipara, and the Council.

	“Having the [Steering] Group helps keep Dargaville in the focus and attention of government departments, and we get to see what other agencies are doing.” “The original purpose of the group is still important – to leverage resources for Kaipara. It was successful for getting Kaipara on the radar and into the focus of central government agencies.”

“Having the [Steering] Group helps keep Dargaville in the focus and attention of government departments, and we get to see what other agencies are doing.”

“The original purpose of the group is still important – to leverage resources for Kaipara. It was successful for getting Kaipara on the radar and into the focus of central government agencies.”

For Council’s leaders, the process of developing these relationships was vital. Through the establishment of connections and trust-based relationships the various agencies were able to work together in new and practical ways, for the first time.

	“Council used its newly forged relationship with central government to bring other skills to work alongside theirs – it was unusual for small Councils to have the confidence to work in an all-embracing way with central government.”

(2) Te Uri o Hau also has an MOU with Kaipara District Council that outlines the roles, responsibilities and relationship between the two parties.

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