Council survey reveals increased demand for local social services

ROTORUA 16.08.13: Results from Rotorua District Council’s (RDC) latest ‘Examining the Environment for Social Service Organisations’ survey reveal local social services, and emergency and relief organisations reported increased demand for social support, counselling and food parcels during the year to June 2012.

Eleven Rotorua-based social services, emergency and relief organisations were surveyed, and their experiences examined over a 12 month period.

RDC policy and research officer Caroline Matangi said it was the third year that the council has collected this type of information from community organisations in the district.

“Budget advice, and social support and counselling, were areas across the social sector reporting the greatest increase in demand for client assistance for the period.”

Other significant findings from the survey include:

• 75% of agencies reported that they had experienced increases in building or property related expenses/costs compared to a year ago.

• 75% of agencies reported that clients had requested assistance with food, the highest reported area of service for the period.

• 18% of agencies identified health and household assistance requests compared to 54.5% and 36.4% respectively a year ago.

• 57% of agencies reported an increase in the range of duties expected from volunteers in 2011/12 compared to 28.6% a year earlier.

• 86% of agencies reported the length of time a client waited for their service from the time of referral was less than 24 hours in 2012, compared to 60% in 2011.

The full ‘Examining the Environment for Social Service Organisations’ report is available on Rotorua District Council’s website rdc.govt.nz [under the ‘Our City’ tab, then ‘Community Development’ and ‘Social Services Survey’].

ENDS

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