People, Partners

1
People, Partners and Prosperity
Presentation to Welfare to Work Conference St.
Johns November 16, 2003
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Background

• 1996 What the People Said Reports of the
  Social Policy Advisory Committee
• 1998 Strategic Social Plan approved by Government
• Commitment to completion of a Social Audit by the
  end of 2003

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The Vision

• A healthy, educated, distinctive,
• self-reliant and prosperous people
• living in vibrant, supportive communities
• within sustainable regions

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The Values

• Self-reliance
• Social justice
• Equity
• Fairness
• Collaboration

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The Goals

• VIBRANT COMMUNITIES where people are actively
  involved
• SUSTAINABLE REGIONS based on strategic investment
  in people
• SELF-RELIANT, HEALTHY EDUCATED CITIZENS living in
  safe communities
• INTEGRATED AND EVIDENCED-BASED policies and
  programs

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SSP Implementation Structures

• Minister responsible for the SSP
• SSP Ministerial Committee
• Premiers Council on Social Development
• Deputies Committee
• Six Regional Steering Committees
• SSP Office
• Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency

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Links Between Social and Economic Development

• SSP approach recognizes and actively encourages
  linkages between social and economic initiatives
• Examples
• Joint socio-economic development conferences
• Funding for expanded literacy survey

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Evidence Based Decision Making

• Development and maintenance of the Community
  Accounts an innovative and comprehensive online
  information tool
• Developing capacity to use information
• Emphasis in departments on evidence based
  decision making
• From the Ground Up
• Socio-economic indicators
• Snapshot in time

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Regional Development

• Six Regional Steering Committees
• Representatives from school and health boards,
  economic development organizations, 3 orders of
  government
• Identification of local priorities
• Sharing of knowledge and resources
• Commitment to joint problem solving

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External Advice

• Premiers Council on Social Development
• 19 citizens from across the Province
• Broad perspectives on social and economic
  development
• Provide advice to government on key social
  initiatives and the implementation of the SSP

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Within Government

• SSP emphasizes internal and external
  collaboration.
• Sharing of resources.
• Involvement of stakeholders in policy and program
  development.
• Use of evidence in decision making.

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Monitoring Outcomes A Social Audit

• Are we doing the right things?
• Choices based on good solid evidence?
• Are we doing them the right way?
• Are we making a difference?
• How do we know?

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Social Audit

• Being conducted in four phases
• Phase 1 public release of the Community Accounts
• Phase 2 Indicators Report From the Ground Up
• Phase 3 External evaluation of how government is
  doing business
• Phase 4 Evaluation of key programs

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From the Ground Up

• A picture of where we are today in terms of
  well-being indicators
• Future audits will use same indicators to measure
  progress over time
• Where possible information is provided by region
• Premiers Council wanted a living document
• Which people could use
• Would provoke discussion
• Challenge people to talk about real issues

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Healthy People

• Living longer than we used to but
• Compared to Canada we dont live as long
• NL men 75.2 years, NL women 80.2 years
• Cdn men 76.3 years, Cdn women 81.7 years
• Mortality rates for heart attacks and strokes,
  etc. down by about half since 1979 but
• for heart attacks about 20 higher than Canada
  for both men and women
• for strokes, etc. about 31 higher for men and
  18 higher for women

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Healthy People

• Lifestyle
• Compared to Canada
• Less physically active women less active than
  men
• Smoking rate higher NL 29, Canada 26
• Heavy drinking rate higher
• 41 of NL men and 16 of NL women who drink
  reported heavy drinking

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Educated People

• Education levels of population
• In 2001 compared to 1979
• Higher proportion has completed high school
• Higher proportion has university degree
• High school graduation rates improving
• Three-quarters of high school graduates now
  enroll directly in college or university

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Educated People

• But Census 2001 tells us that
• Education levels of young people are not
  consistent across province
• In the St. Johns region
• 28 of 25-29 year olds are university graduates
• Only 11 have not completed high school
• Not so good in rural areas of the province
• Only 8 to 12 are university graduates and
• From 17-28 have not completed high school

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Prosperous and Self Reliant People

• Income
• Personal income per capita
• is increasing
• about 25 lower than Canada over past decade
• Income equality is similar to Canada
• Assets
• More people own their own homes in NL
• Avg. cost of housing in 1996 was 52 lower than
  for Canada

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Prosperous and Self Reliant People

• Employment
• Employment rate for NL aged 20-64 is 59 - up
  from 52 in 1976
• In 2001
• 52 in labour market worked all year
• 43 worked for an average of 25 weeks
• 5 could not find work

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Prosperous and Self Reliant People

• Poverty
• Based on Market Basket Measure 2000
• 32 of NL children living in poverty (Can. 17)
• 61 of NL lone-parent families (Canada 36)
• 25 of children aged 0-4 (6200 children) were in
  families who received social assistance in 2001
• NL has the highest percentage of seniors
  receiving the GIS in Canada (66)

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Vibrant, Distinctive and Supportive Communities

• Business Environment
• Employment growth was second highest of all
  provinces at an average of 2.9 annually
• Retail sales have been increasing
• Exports have shown real average growth of 2.7
  annually

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Vibrant, Distinctive and Supportive Communities

• Volunteering
• 27 of men and 36 of women aged 15 and over
  volunteered
• The percentage of volunteers dropped slightly
  between 1997 and 2000 those who did volunteer
  gave more hours

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Safe Communities

• Feeling Safe
• Most people feel safe or very safe walking alone
  in their neighbourhoods at night considerably
  higher proportions than Canada
• Fewer women than men feel safe walking alone in
  their neighbourhoods at night
• Crime rate is lower than Canada

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Sustainable Regions

• Demographic changes
• Population dropped 10 since 1991 highest
  decline in country since 1996
• Extent of decline varies in province
• Decline of 1.2 (St. Johns region) high of
  11.5 decline in Eastern region (1996-2001)
• Births dropped 62 since 1972
• Fertility rate is 1.3 compared to 1.5 for Canada
• Number of births and deaths are almost equal

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Cross Linkages

• Health
• Better health is linked to
• Higher education, higher income, being employed
• Worse health is linked to
• Lower education, lower income, being unemployed
• Literacy and Numeracy
• Students in top-quarter of socio-economic status
• at national level for reading and science but
  below for mathematics
• Students in lower three-quarters
• below the national level in reading, science and
  math

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Ongoing

• Looking internally to see
• If government has begun to do business in line
  with the SSP goals
• Are resources being directed at social and
  economic priorities
• Program evaluations
• Are programs and services achieving desired
  outcomes?

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Successes / Challenges

• Successes
• Establishment of the regional process
• Commitment and growth of dialogue
• Development of Community Accounts
• Release of From the Ground Up
• Challenges
• Community engagement
• Linking social and economic development
• Next steps for Phase III and Phase IV
• Sustaining the directions and momentum of SSP