Expand your mind
A curated list of readings that Frank collects to stretch your policy thinking.
Parliament’s financial scrutiny cycle
This one-page resource includes a diagram showing Parliament’s financial scrutiny cycle, which lasts two-and-a-half years. The cycle starts with the Budget Policy Statement, steps through other parts…
Policy Quality Framework
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet hosts the Policy Project. This Policy Quality Framework sets out the dimensions of quality policy advice and is useful for policy professionals…
Developing papers with the Policy Quality Framework
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet hosts the Policy Project. This checklist for peer reviewers, which helps identify what good looks like for different parts of a paper, is one of the…
More effective social services at a glance
This is a summary diagram the 2015 Productivity Commission report, More effective social services, that looked into social service provision in New Zealand, asking why – despite the hard work and…
Social Investment Unit: Briefing to the Incoming Ministers
This 2017 Briefing to the Incoming Minister sets out why social investment matters, and what a successful social investment approach could look like. The components to enable a social investment…
Let it go: Devolving power and resources to improve lives
New Zealand’s system of social supports does not meet the needs of some people, and significantly fails a small group of people. More resources are not enough to address this failure. Instead,…
Demonstrating the complexities of being poor; an empathy tool
This 2014 research report came out of the Families 100 project, which involved extensive research with 100 families experiencing poverty in Auckland. The report uses ‘composite characters’ to…
Speaking for ourselves: The truth about what keeps people in poverty from those who live it
This 2014 research report came out of the Families 100 project, which looked into the lives of 100 families who use foodbanks, to understand what prevents them from moving out of poverty. Eight key…
Learning what works for whom at what cost
Understanding what works for whom at what cost starts with asking the right questions. Questions should be framed to help a policy professional: • understand the population who will be the target of…
Risk management framework: Invercargill City Council
This policy sets out what is required for officers at Invercargill City Council to manage risk, but is helpful to any local government officer or policy professional seeking to understand risk. It is…