The Strengthening Families Strategy: an Enduring Model of Interagency Collaboration in an Era of Change

Abstract

1.1 Research Aims and Objectives The topic of this doctoral research is interagency collaboration in the field of social services. In New Zealand, as in many other countries, the introduction of new public management reforms during the mid 1980s to 1990s are widely considered to have contributed to increased service fragmentation and departmental siloisation. During this period, and partly as a consequence of the reforms, there was a marked breakdown in interagency coordination and cooperation. At the same time, relationships between government and community agencies involved in the delivery of social services to families with multiple needs became severely strained.