Ministry of Health – From Ngaire’s desk

Warm greetings from Kirikiriroa!

The Year In Progress

It’s been a busy year with lots of progress being made in engagement with schools, young people, parents and communities to support improved sexual health and wellbeing.

NZSHS Conference

The NZSHS Conference is almost here again and we look forward to catching up with those who are attending in Taupo in October. Congratulations to the organising group for putting together another exciting event for us.

Sexuality Education guidelines for schools

An absolute ‘must read’ document is the Sexuality Education: A guide for principals, boards of trustees, and teachers. Ministry of Education, 2015. This is easy to read and fully supports all the mahi we are doing in schools.

Results Based Accountabililty

RBA workshop, Auckland, Aug 2015

Results Based Accountability (RBA) has been implemented into some new provider contracts and new reporting templates are close to completion to capture the key measures of How Much / How Well and is Anyone any Better Off?

Other highlights

There have been too many highlights to mention already but of special note are the following:

• PASHANZ is a legal entity! Congratulations to everyone working to make this great network for SH promoters a formal and sustainable organisation. If you don’t already belong please consider joining and participate in the next workforce development day preceding the NZSHS Conference (contact PASHANZ Coordinator, Jonathan Selu).
• Exposure International our Auckland-based organisation specialising in education and prevention around Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) will now have a sustainable national presence.
• Youth Cultural Development (YCD) our Christchurch specialist service for ‘street youth’ has secured accommodation for their homeless young people as part of an innovative pilot.
• THETA’s Sexwise said farewell to Gareth and welcomed Stephanie to the whānau. Their new theatre ‘storyline’ has been very well received with some excellent outcomes being measured. Of special note has been the impact this programme has been able to make in rural Māori communities with support from providers such as Pirirakau Hauora.
• Family Planning is progressing their ‘future proofing’ plans with new ways of reaching people using technology, service-user feedback data and epi data to improve access and acceptability for service users. Watch this space!
• Lastly congratulations to our very own Marama Pala from INA (Māori, Indigenous & South Pacific) HIV/AIDS Foundation who has recently been elected chair on the international board of directors for ICASO-until we end AIDS. Well done e hoa!

Best wishes

Ngaire Sandel (Portfolio Manager- National Health Board)