Source: Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
Details of how the 2019 Wellbeing Budget Taking mental health seriously funding was spent have been made public by Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.
In a new report released today, the Commission shows that 92% of all funding allocated had been spent or committed by 30 June 2023. Of the unspent $163.8 million, almost $62 million was set aside for capital works.
“The vast majority of the $1.9 billion investment has been spent and we can now show where the money went,” said Karen Orsborn, Chief Executive.
“We have documented where the money went because we thought it is important to clear up any public misunderstanding about an investment of this size.”
“It’s part of our monitoring role to bring transparency to investment decisions. Without it, people can lose confidence in the system’s ability to deliver.”
“Going forward, we need to ensure allocation of resources is underpinned by a long-term vision and strategy. Investment is still needed to sustain and scale up current and new initiatives in priority areas,” Ms Orsborn said.
The Commission received data about the status of the funding allocated for mental health and addiction initiatives in Budget 2019 to Budget 2022 from all 13 responsible government agencies. The specific areas funding was used for is detailed in the report.
The key findings of the report show that 92% of the 2019 Wellbeing Budget $1.96 billion funding allocated had been spent or committed by 30 June 2023:
- 29 initiatives received funding across 12 portfolios
- 57% went to Health ($1.12 billion over four years)
- $1.54 billion was for new initiatives, $225.2 million for cost pressures, $194.1 million for a combined initiative.
“This report looks at the numbers and what the agencies have achieved with the funding investment by the government. In an upcoming report, we’ll take a closer look at the Access and Choice programme following its five-year roll-out milestone,” Ms Orsborn said.
Thirteen agencies which received funding through the 2019 Taking mental health seriously budget priority were asked by the Commission to provide details about spending in April 2024. Data is complete up to 30 June 2023, the final of the four-year budget cycle following the May 2019 budget announcement. There are no plans to update this data to account for any unspent funding in the financial year beginning 1 July 2023 or onwards.
