Role of HOP

The primary role of the He Oranga Pounamu trust is to re-organise and re-distribute Crown funding for health and social services to improve access, choice and service quality for Māori residing in the Ngai Tahu rohe. He Oranga Pounamu acts as a broker for affiliated Māori service providers and Māori community organisations securing funding contracts with the Crown and other funding agencies. He Oranga Pounamu will subcontract to affiliated groups and provide business support services, monitoring and evaluation, opportunities for new development and research to support ongoing development of providers and services.

Other roles include:

• Developing linkages between affiliated groups and with mainstream service providers to work towards more integrated service provision in the community;
• Involvement in community projects to ensure affiliated groups are represented where appropriate;
• Development and rationalisation of service capacity for Māori providers to ensure their ongoing viability and success;
• Development of an enrolment process acceptable to Māori.

The Health and Social Services Strategy identified three key activities to support He Oranga Pounamu. These three activities will continue to be the responsibility of Ngai Tahu Development Corporation but their continuance at an operational level will be a key role for He Oranga Pounamu. Thus the goals and objectives for He Oranga Pounamu flow from these activities and the role of He Oranga Pounamu already described.

The three key activities are:

• Firstly, to provide leadership to the health and social service sectors within Ngai Tahu rohe by establishing a Treaty based relationship with Crown entities and funding agencies; and
• Secondly, to establish participation in the governance and management of health and social service resources in the Ngai Tahu rohe; and
• Thirdly, to engage in prioritisation and planning of health and social services for Māori in the Ngai Tahu rohe linked to identified local needs.