Kia Kōrero
Let's Talk – November 2025

Kia ora koutou katoa – welcome to the Platform Mental Health and Addiction NGO and community sector update for November 2025.

In this month's update, let's talk about...

• What's on my desk? 
• Talks with Minister Doocey
• Platform Member Portal
• Contract renewals 2025/26
• Demonstrating value and impact
• Social Return on Investment Webinar 
• People's Select Committee: Equal Pay
• Equally Well
• Learn more about what support workers do
• Police Mental Health Change Programme
• What we heard from Regional Navigate Groups
• Cross-Party Mental Health and Addiction Wellbeing Group
• Exploring your organisation's PRIMHD data
• New Procurement Rules
• Careerforce Grant For Support Workers
• Consultations
• National Navigate Policy Group Update
• Access to online resources
• Events
• What we’re reading

What's on my desk?

We recently participated in regional Navigate Groups across the country. It was helpful for us to hear what is happening across all districts and regions, and to contribute to matters important to each different regional Navigate Group, collate consistent themes, and share what is topical and what we are collectively working on. As always there is a lot happening, some of which we cover in this newsletter.

We are pleased to share with you the Platform Impact Report 2024-2025, recently signed off by the Platform Board. This report highlights the breadth and significance of our collective work in the mental health and addiction NGO and community sector. It showcases how we raise the profile of the sector, strengthen partnerships, and inspire higher aspirations for supporting tāngata whai ora, working with communities and engaging in collaborative efforts to improve outcomes and mental wellbeing in Aotearoa. We encourage you to share this with your stakeholders and local politicians.

This month we are launching a Platform member portal on our website, which you can read more about in this newsletter.

Finally, in case you missed it, you can read here about the Government’s ‘to do list’ of actions before the end of the parliamentary year. It is important to keep an eye on these policy announcements and those from other political parties as it is likely less than 12 months before the next general elections. We are doing some work to building up our most important messages for us to collectively use in conversations with parliamentarians and political parties.

Ngā mihi nui,

Memo

Talks with Minister Doocey

On 2 October we had the opportunity to share sector insights and hold talks with Minister Doocey, the Minister for Mental Health. We noted and agreed that a move to multi-year contracts with a focus on outcomes will enable a strong and sustainable mental health and addiction NGO and community sector that plays a vital role in getting faster access and better crisis responses for tāngata whaiora. It will also be a fairer and more transparent way to address sector cost pressures. We noted the need for 2026/27 contract renewals to be completed by March 2026 and Minister Doocey agreed to convey this to Health NZ officials.

We agreed on the need to not only invest in new resources but to optimise existing ones to improve access to supports and treatment. This includes delivering community-based alternatives to reduce reliance on costly in-patient beds provided by Health NZ. Community crisis respite services founded on live experience input was just one example we discussed. We also highlighted the need to find ways to reduce Health NZ’s acute in-patient occupancy levels by working closely with our NGO and community sector.

We traversed other matters like workforce pay parity, our sector’s input on the development of a Psychology Assistant training programme by education providers, the collaborative work on NGO workforce data and the Digital Mental Health position statement we have developed.

It was reassuring to hear the Minister’s perspective about our peak body role in independently raising important advocacy matters on members’ behalf by being upfront about things which impact our sector and should be addressed.

Platform Member Portal

We are excited to announce the launch of a Member Portal on our website. This will offer a secure, members-only online space designed to support collaboration, resource sharing, and communication among Platform Members.

The Member Portal is scheduled to go live on Wednesday 12 November 2025.

Once the Portal is live, members will be able to view a library of Platform documents via a personal log in. These will include submissions, communications, updates, meeting summaries, reports and publications.

An online Noticeboard will allow members to add and publish notices, such as non-confidential proposals, stakeholder meeting notes and letters for other Platform member organisations to view.

Platform members will receive more information about the portal and how to access it in the coming days.

Contract Renewals 2025/26

Our work with Health NZ officials to address clauses of concern in the proposed new long form contracts remains a high priority. Questions about timing and next steps have come up during recent regional Navigate Group meetings. We await information from Health NZ leadership team on the approach to be taken to resolve the clauses of concern. As stated in the last newsletter, at this stage there is no reason to believe that a constructive approach to resolve the clauses will not be supported. This will become clearer when we receive the awaited information. You will hear from us as soon as we have this information.

Demonstrating value and impact

During March this year we released a resource A Sound Investment: A Spotlight on the Impact and Value of Mental Health and Addiction NGO Services in New Zealand. This month we are showcasing two practice examples featured in this resource.

The first is Ngā Kete Aronui Kaupapa Māori Mental Health Service. This service is provided by Te Waka Whaiora Trust in collaboration with four other kaupapa Māori providers – Ora Toa PHO, Te Paepae Arahi Trust, Maraeroa Marae Health Clinic and Te Hauora Runanga o Wairarapa. You can read about this practice example here.

The second is Work Counts which provides support for organisations to develop and deliver Individual Placement and Support (IPS) programmes within their services. It is one of six IPS employment support centres globally. You can read about this practice example here.

These examples show that mental health and addiction NGOs have a collaborative approach that adds value to deliver results and improves outcomes and access, which is one of five government mental health and addiction targets.

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Social Return on Investment Webinar

Last month, Platform hosted a webinar alongside Allen + Clarke and Emerge Aotearoa offering practical insights into Social Return on Investment (SROI). The session, aimed to support mental health and addiction NGOs in demonstrating the value of their services, was well attended by our members.

As part of this webinar, Emerge shared their experience applying SROI to a residential service, including how they developed a tailored Theory of Change, identified meaningful performance measures, monitoring framework and explored valuation using Treasury’s CBAx tool. The process helped clarify service goals, encouraged more intentional practice, and highlighted opportunities for better use of existing data. While valuing complex outcomes proved challenging, the work sparked valuable sector-wide conversations about evidence, impact, and future funding. Platform also announced plans to partner with Te Pou to explore wider outcomes data collection across MH&A NGOs, aiming for an options report by mid-2026.

Following the webinar, registered members received a recording and resources to support their own SROI journey. We encourage those who received the webinar recording to view it as it has some helpful insights.

People's Select Committee: Equal Pay

In our August newsletter we said we had submitted on the People’s Select Committee consultation on the impacts of Government changes to Equal Pay legislation in May.

As a follow up to our submission, The People’s Select Committee invited us to present an oral submission at the ninth hearing of the People Select Committee on Monday 6 October. The presentation was delivered by Sally Pitts-Brown, Platform Chairperson and Chief Executive of Pathways, and gave life and more meaning to Platform’s written submission. It was well received and members of the committee requested additional information which we hope to put together soon. You can view the oral submission here.

Equally Well

As a result of some of the Tupuānuku research, there have been some resources developed about diagnostic overshadowing.  Understanding overshadowing has been developed from stories shared by participants with lived experience in the research and a resource developed for clinicians working in primary care. Please share these resources with your teams and colleagues who you think could benefit from them.

Careerforce has recently made a new micro-credential available that is designed for support workers to recognise the skills and knowledge required to identify early physical health issues for people with mental health challenges and addiction issues.

Support Physical Wellbeing (Micro-credential) Level 4 - Careerforce - Qualifications for Life. Skills for Good

The Te Pou support worker professional development grants 2025 are currently open and close on Friday 7 November. The grant can cover costs of taking part in a learning activity to develop the professional knowledge and skills that enhance applicants support work role or career.  More information about the grants and how to apply is available here.

Learn more about what support workers do

Te Pou has developed two short films as a resource for support worker and mental health and addiction providers. These cover:

• ‘Understanding where we work’

This short film for mental health and addiction support workers explains what an NGO is, where they are based and the kinds of services they may offer.

• ‘Understanding what we do’

This short film for mental health and addiction support workers explains the role of support work, gives a brief history of mental health and addiction services in Aotearoa New Zealand, and where the need for support work has come from.

These films provide good introductions for support workers new to the workforce. You can view the short films here.

Police Mental Health Change Programme 

At the monthly member online forum last Friday, members received a presentation from Health NZ and NZ Police representatives about Phase 3 of this programme. This covered updated Police thresholds for:

• Requests for assistance from health practitioners
• Missing persons from health facilities and services

Implementation of Phase 3 is scheduled to start mid-November 2025. Once this happens, any non-emergency requests for assistance or missing person reports from Health NZ mental health services will be assessed against updated guidance that considers the current safety risk and the risk of significant future harm that Police powers or capabilities are required to prevent.  

We will share with members a copy of the presentation outlining the updated Police thresholds, the e-learning module and the communication tool. These should help you to adapt as appropriate your organisations processes regarding the two areas above.

A forum of MH&A NGO leaders, Platform and Health NZ continues to meet every two weeks to share updates and input into planning for Phase Three. This will ensure impact is minimised on mental health and addiction NGO providers, the support they provide to people, and their engagement with Police.

In the meantime, if you come across an issue which needs to be raised with Health NZ, please contact your local mental health / police liaison or governance group or e-mail MHPolicechanges@tewhatuora.govt.nz (This inbox is monitored regularly).

What we heard from Regional Navigate Groups

Between July and September, we participated in six Navigate Group meetings, continuing to support regional Navigate Groups and coordinating monthly meetings with Navigate Group chairs. Here are some of the key themes and insights we heard, which we are taking forward in our national advocacy with funders, system leaders and other stakeholders:

Contracting changes without consultation

Providers across the motu raised concerns about proposed new long-form contracts from Health NZ that include concerning clauses such as open book accounting, reserve reviews, and wash-up clauses, alongside requirements for clinical governance and stringent health and safety obligations, all at the provider’s cost. Both Platform and Northern Navigate have lodged with Health NZ concerns about the impact of the clauses of concern. We continue to engage with Health NZ’s national commissioning team to ensure a fair and transparent process is put in place to address concerns raised.

Visibility of contract performance reporting

In some regions there is frustration about the lack of feedback or visibility following lodgement of quarterly contract performance monitoring reports. While significant effort goes into completing these reports, there is little clarity on how the information is used. Platform has raised these concerns and met with Health NZ representatives (national and regional) to find out what information and data is being collected for and how it is being used. These conversations are key to progressing the NGO workforce data project.

Housing and cost pressures

Across several regions, including Central and Southern, providers highlighted the growing impact of homelessness and the lack of affordable housing on service delivery. These pressures are compounded by rising costs which are not being met by adequate CPI uplifts. For example, the cost of food for tāngata whaiora is estimated to have increased by 37%. Platform is working with Health NZ to receive better MH&A funded sector CPI uplifts for the next financial year.

Health and safety concerns for frontline workers

Navigate members shared a range of health and safety issues affecting staff and services, including poor project management in contracting, medication management challenges, and risks related to housing environments such as fire hazards and meth contamination. These concerns are being raised through the health and safety sub-group of the Funded Sector Tripartite Forum and other national channels.

Data reporting and transparency

There is ongoing uncertainty around data reporting to PRIMHD, particularly regarding whānau data. In the Northern region, concerns were raised about the upcoming IPMH evaluation using IDI data, with a lack of clarity around its purpose and outcomes.

Cross-sector collaboration and focus on outcomes

Some members raised concerns about an increasing focus on targets at the expense of holistic, cross-sector approaches that address the determinants of health. There is a risk of losing sight of what truly makes a difference for tāngata whaiora. Platform continues to advocate for integrated, person-centred approaches.

Regional Navigate Group meetings continue to surface valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing the mental health and addiction NGO and community sector. These meetings provide an opportunity for leaders to connect, pursue matters of collective interest and focus on a shared agenda.

Cross-Party Mental Health and Addiction Wellbeing Group

We continue our role as the Secretariat to the Cross-Party Group, and co-ordinating its activities and meetings. Since our last update in July, the Cross-Party Group has met 4 times. There has been one change to the membership with Jenny Marcroft taking over as the New Zealand First representative in place of Tanya Unkovich, who retired from Parliament in August.

The cross-party group received briefings on several matters including Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), effective drug policies, neurodiversity and the Mental Health Bill which is currently progressing through parliament. The cross-party group is still in the process of exploring a potential inquiry on neurodiversity.

On 9 October the Cross-party Group partnered with the NZ Drug Foundation to host a morning tea at Parliament mark the launch of the NZ Drug Foundation report Safer drug laws for Aotearoa New Zealand. You can watch the launch and read the full report here.

Exploring your organisation's PRIMHD data

If you work for a NGO or community service provider that holds a specialist mental health and addiction contract and reports into PRIMHD, you can access the PRIMHD data set through a secure website supported by Health New Zealand called Qlik. The data available through Qlik is a visual and analytic tool that can be useful to understand your organisation’s activities that it provides and what it reports on. The dashboards include information about both NGO and Health New Zealand district mental health and addiction services.

So how could accessing this data be useful for you? It can help to understand why reporting data accurately is important. It can also support service improvements and better understanding of service journeys for tāngata whaiora and whānau and your participation in the NGO benchmarking forums. If you work for a mental health and addiction NGO or community service provider and would like access to Qlik, you can email the business intelligence team (businessintelligence@health.govt.nz) at Health New Zealand and request access to the National Collections PRIMHD datasets available via Qlik.

New Procurement Rules

On 9 October 2025, Nicola Willis, Minister for Economic Development, announced the launch of the 5^th Edition of the Government Procurement Rules, which apply to all Government contracts worth more than $100,000 and construction contracts over $9 million.

Among the changes to the new rules are that:

• At least 10% of a decision on who an agency buys from must be based on how much the proposal benefits the economy.  
• Extra weight will be given to factors like using kiwi businesses to deliver contracts, creating jobs, and upskilling New Zealand workers.
• The new rules (down from 71 to 47) are simplified and streamlined to make it easier for small to medium sized organisations to follow the rules and apply for contracts.

The new procurement rules will come into effect on December 1. The new rules will only impact new procurement processes and existing contracts will continue to apply. You can read more about the changes here. 

Careerforce Grant For Support Workers

Save $1,000 on Mental Health & Addiction Support Apprenticeship enrolments

To help ease the burden of training costs across the Mental Health and Addiction Support Sector, Careerforce is offering 50% off the Mental Health and Addiction Support Apprenticeship from 1 October 2025 until 30 November 2025. Enrolments are priced at just $1,000 (incl. GST)*, a saving of $1,000 (Incl. GST).

This apprenticeship programme leads to the awarding of the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Level 4) (Social and Community Services) Mental Health and Addiction Support strand qualification. It is well-supported and resourced with a team of Apprenticeship Advisors providing pastoral care and support.

The programme enables learners to develop and demonstrate the skills they need to work alongside people, and their family and whānau who are accessing social and community services, to support autonomy, foster hope and develop resilience. The underpinning philosophy of this programme is to build a person-centred, critical thinking workforce.

*IMPORTANT: This applies to domestic learner enrolments. To be eligible for promotional enrolment pricing, training agreements must be received by Careerforce no later than 30 November 2025.

More information: https://www.careerforce.org.nz/mha-promotion-2025/

Consultations

We are currently working on these consultations:

• External Reporting Board: Proposed accounting standard for revenue – ED PBE IPSAS 47 Revenue
• External Reporting Board: Proposed accounting standard for transfer expenses – ED PBE IPSAS 48 Transfer Expenses

During October we participated and contributed submissions on:

• Tertiary Education Commission: Industry Skills Board Order in Council
• People’s Select Committee: Equal Pay (oral hearing submission)
• Medsafe’s consultation: Proposed changes to blood monitoring and prescribing requirements for Clozapine
• Health NZ: Mental Health Missing Person (inc AWOL) draft procedure
• Health NZ: Regional Planning, Funding and Outcome organisational structure specifically mental health and addictions.

National Navigate Policy Group Update

We’re pleased to announce that another two policies have been reviewed and uploaded to the Policy Library on our website:

• Whistleblowing Protected Disclosure Policy, and Report of Wrongdoing and Request for Protected Disclosure Form
• Smokefree Environment Policy and Procedure

We will continue to keep members updated on the developments to the Policy Library, which can be found here.

Access to online resources

Navigator Trust New Zealand recently shared new resources which could help support the work of your organisations. You can check out the new resources below:

• Governance information for new officers: This is a resource from the Charity Services provides information to help officers or trustee on organisation registered as Charitable Trusts to understand their role and how they can contribute to governing their charity well. You can also download a one-page resource here.
• Artificial Intelligence Information videos: This video resource provides a wide range of topics on 'all things AI' are suitable for a range of user experience levels. an outline guide that supports organisations across Aotearoa New Zealand to understand, track, and communicate their social impact in ways that are useful to them and their communities.
• Measuring Impact: A guide for community organisations: Across NGO and community organisations, proving impact is a crucial but often challenging task. Many organisations feel pressured to invest in costly consultant reports to demonstrate their impact. This resource provides valuable information about measuring impact and value for community organisations.

You can also find more resources that support NGO and community providers to thrive here:

• CommunityNet Aotearoa
• NZ Navigator
• Digital Stuff We Love

Events

Tuesday, 25 November 2025 (13:00 to 14:30 CET)

Register now for the Virtual Global Launch of the WHO Guidance on Policy and Strategic Actions to Protect and Promote Mental Health Across Government Sectors, taking place on Tuesday, 25 November 2025, from 13:00 to 14:30 CET.

You can register for virtual launch event here: https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pkStl_5lStKeWF_mochqpA

For the first time, WHO has set out concrete policy directives and strategic actions to protect and promote mental health across government sectors. The guidance covers 10 sectors — from education, justice and employment to housing, environment and interior — helping countries embed mental health in national policies and plans of these sectors, address the social and structural drivers that shape mental health, and put participation, equity and human rights at the centre of government policy and strategies.

The 90-minute event will include:

• An introduction to the guidance and its rationale
• Reflections from senior government representatives and stakeholders across sectors
• Discussion on how each sector — and government as a whole — can apply the guidance to advance effective, equitable, and sustainable approaches to mental health

What we're reading

Get in touch with the Platform team!

The Platform team is always available to interact with members on mental health and addiction NGO and community sector matters should you have any queries, concerns, or ideas. If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of being a Platform member and joining our collective voice, please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Memo Musa (Chief Executive): memo@platform.org.nz                                              Simon Katz (Policy Analyst): simon@platform.org.nz
Louise Hill (Membership Engagement Coordinator): louise@platform.org.nz