Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey
Photo: Rnz / reece baker

Money that is earmarked for mental health services, including managing serious labor deficiencies, was “re -prioritized” to pay for the government’s controversial innov fund for mental health of $ 10 million.

Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey awarded the money in April last year, after his budget bid for $ 20 million in new funding to create the Innovation Fund was rejected by Finance Minister Nicola Willis, documents released to the RNZ Show. The fund was a national campaign promise.

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (Ranzcp) says that money would have been better served to deliver National’s Prelection to train more psychiatrists, rather than an innovation fund with an unproven track record.

“There are now 650 vacancies for mental health, including 130 psychiatrists. Some regions have a 30 percent vacancy rate among psychiatrists,” said Ranzcp national chairman Hiran Thabrew.

It was a disappointment that the national -led coalition did not respect its promise to allocate money in the budget in 2024 to train another 13 psychiatry registrars, he said.

“We were told that there was not enough money to offer more. That is clearly not the case.”

The Innovation Fund – which was launched in July and has already released $ 2 million to three organizations – aims to provide cash to time -limited initiatives in the mental health sector of grassroots and society to improve the results of mental health.

But it has get under fire for their “unfair criteria” It prevented many organizations from accessing the money.

It comes at a time when public health services are in crisis, before increasing demand, longer waiting times for patients and fewer workers to treat them.

Doocey said the fund was aimed at using available mental health workers in society and the NGO sector to release demand in the public sector, and he rejected the criticism that it had so far received.

The design of the Innovation Fund was based on what the sector wanted, he said.

“When I was in opposition, a number of groups for mental health sector talked to me about wanting a matched fund strategy.

“My opinion is that it has been well received and already made a difference.”

Photo: Delivered

Photo: Delivered

Money reworked after rejected budget bid

But documents released to RNZ according to the official Information Act show that the fund almost did not make it to budget in 2024 at all.

After Willis rejected Doocey’s budget bid for new funding, he had to go back to the board.

He asked the Ministry for Health officials to find a way to finance a “scaled up” version of the project from existing budgets.

Officials found $ 9.72 million in the forecast “Support” from Health New Zealand’s (HNZ) mental health and dependent budget for 2023/24. The money was identified in February 2024 and was unlikely to be spent at the end of the financial year in June.

The money was originally awarded by Labour’s budget in 2019 and budget in 2022 to pay for emergency mental health services in hospitals, community -based services and labor development.

It included $ 810,000 for forensic mental health services, $ 750,000 to improve the quality of specialized alcohol and drug services; $ 1.4 million to increase specialized mental health and dependence on the labor force; $ 2.6 million for access and choice of labor and $ 1.6 million to extend the range of access and choice, a flagship work policy that provides free mental health and addiction support for those with mild to moderate needs.

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Another $ 0.28 million of unlimited funds from Health -Nz base lines awarded in 2025/26 also reused to replenish the Innovation Fund to $ 10 million. Uncomeded funds mean that there are no contracts yet for that expenditure.

Doocey couldn’t say why the money was not spent as budgeted. He initially blamed the former government for poor planning before RNZ reminded him that the last half of the financial year 2023/24 had been on his watch.

“We had only been in service about eight weeks when the under -the -February underpinning was on the first focus was on setting up (my new) role and delivering our coalition agreements,” he said.

HNZ said it would answer RNZ’s questions about why the money had not been used under the official information law. The Information Act is traditionally about accessing copies of government documents and reports, not answering questions, which are usually the domain for PR staff.

“Plugging a hole while another delicious”

Thabrew said that the underwrite was probably due to the fact that services that were not provided or contracted due to labor shortages.

He questioned why the money was not then directed to growing the labor force for mental health as promised.

He estimated $ 10 million could train up to 20 new psychiatrists. The money could also have been used to retain existing mental health workers who left in muniacs, he said.

And while he applauded the Innovation Fund’s focus on prevention and early intervention, he questioned whether it would work.

“How financing has been proposed to use is only two years, which does not give organizations a lot of time to set up, deliver services or show results. Grassroots groups actually need stable, long -term financing, not just a short term boost.

“Moving money away from hospital and labor financing is not the answer. We just connect one hole while another delicious.

“We have to do both. We must ensure that special services are well financed and well -served in terms of labor, while investing in prevention and early intervention.”

Doocey did not think he had broken a promise before the election to finance more psychiatrists.

“The first budget was about delivering the coalition agreement.”

The mental workforce plan, which was published in September, would deliver 17 more psychiatry practitioners per year from 2025, he said.

Ranzcp, however, disputed the figures that said it gave more like 5 extra places per year.

‘So many questions’

Health Zealand’s officials were also surprised at how the Innovation Fund would be paid for, according to the HNZ -E mail messages released to RNZ.

They show senior officials – who believed that the project was dead in the water after Willi’s rejection – was stored in the dark about the Ministry’s plans to create a slim fund with its forecasted underdevelopment.

The news that it was still passed on was spent on them just a month out of the budget day.

“This is a problem because we have been very clear that we cannot roll forward the underwear to use this in the coming years for an innovation fund,” an older staff wrote to a colleague after hearing the news.

“Yes – Come as a surprise to me. We must understand which mechanism has been proposed,” the colleague replied.

“Well, looks like it has just been redistributed for him … I have so many questions. Although no one is useful for this conversation,” replied the first staff.

The officials were confused as there are strict rules for what happens to unused money in government budgets. Any underdevelopment at HNZ is automatically returned to Governmentists.

A minister usually has the power to roll forward any underdevelopment or unauthorized means for a future year, but needs cabinet approval to transfer it to a completely different expenditure area.

Unaware of HNZ personnel, the cabinet had approved the transfer of funds from their mental health and dependent budget to the Innovation Fund just a day before.

The HNZ staff, who were then accused of getting it running as quickly as possible, also raised concerns about the pitfalls by rushing such a project considering that there was not enough time to consult or get involved in the sector, E -mail showed .

“There is a risk that we will receive limited answers to the first RFP (request for proposals) -financing criteria (especially the matched financing requirement) may exclude many suppliers, or they will need more time to prepare.

“We will unlikely to spend $ 5 million allocation in year 1.”

Fund applicants had to contribute at least $ 250,000, which the government would match Dollar-for-dollar up to $ 1 million per year per initiative, and was able to independently prove that their project provided a good return on the investment.

The first funding part of Innovation Fund was announced in December. Just over $ 2 million was shared between Youthline, Sir John Kirwan Foundation and Mates in Construction.

More recipients will be announced soon, says Doocey.

‘Significant balances’

The Ministry of Health also caused concern.

At the end of March, one month before the Cabinet, the transfer of funds approved, did Doocey Willis to present his new proposal to use existing mental health budget to pay for it.

A Ministerial Miefing essay given to Doocey before that meeting warned him of the risks of doing so.

“With reprioly, significant balances will come between the provision of existing health care services,”

“This may result in reduced delivery of other mental health and abuse services or reductions to frontline staff; or balances with planned extension of mental health and addiction services,” warned it.

Doocey disagreed with that advice.

“It is probably opaque official, because I cannot conclude that money that is under -utilized in Wellington … will affect when it is actually of a technical definition that is not used in the first place,” he told RNz.

“At the end of the day, we have $ 2.6 billion for financing mental health and addiction every year in New Zealand and I want to make sure it actually delivers in the front line.

“The last government proved to us that it is not about money. This is where you spend that money.“

The Innovation Fund’s goal was to finance the social sector to take the pressure from the limited public mental health system, he said.

“Gumboot Friday is a good example of that strategy. Several hundred advisors on a platform are financed so that they can deliver real -time services, quite often within 24 hours, to take pressure from our publicly funded young people’s mental health system.”

‘Vanity Project’ -Labour

Labour’s spokesman for mental health did not agree and said that the fund favored major suppliers at the expense of less ..

“Mental Health Innovation Fund is basically a rushed vanity project for Matt Doocey, who rob Peter to pay Paul,” Ingrid Leary said.

“There was no consultation. There was a mysterious last minute $ 250,000 CO-Fund, which has effectively locked front-line community groups of state funding, and some have even had to close their doors as a result.

The government ignored the “devastating” labor crisis by not delivering its promise to educate more psychiatrists, and $ 280,000 from the Baseline Health financing to replenish the Innovation Fund was a front line, said Leary Leary

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