Chair's comment
SPEaR's chair, Professor Richard Bedford, reflects on the importance of the forthcoming Social Policy, Research and Evaluation Conference.
In 2001, the government commissioned the Improving the Knowledge Base (IKB) project. In addition to the contributions of SPEaR and the Programme of Official Social Statistics (POSS), an important element of the IKB project was the biennial Social Policy, Research and Evaluation (SPRE) Conference, convened by the Ministry of Social Development.
The SPRE Conference offers us a unique opportunity to participate in a focused and interactive forum involving policy makers, researchers and evaluators, and non-governmental social service agencies, and has become the largest social policy conference in Australasia.
The third SPRE Conference will take place from 3 to 5 April 2007 in Wellington, on the theme of "investing in social success". I encourage you to attend. This major international conference provides a platform for discussion and debate about the key social policy opportunities and challenges New Zealand faces into the future. It also presents a rare chance to connect policy, research and practice in an engaging and stimulating environment.
The SPRE Conference 2007 is organised around four key sub-themes:
- social investment – ensuring effective, fair and sustainable social outcomes for New Zealanders
- social dynamics – how New Zealand values and cultures will change over time
- enduring social challenges – New Zealand families now and into the future.
- the global context for social policy – the opportunities and challenges we face as New Zealanders in a changing world.
Three internationally regarded keynote speakers will lead the discussion. Professor Holly Sutherland (Institute for Social and Economic Research, Essex, UK) is a microsimulation modelling expert specialising in the distributional effects of social policies, gender effects of re-distribution policies, and child poverty measurement and analysis.
Professor Keith Banting's (School of Policy Studies and the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada) research interests primarily focus on public and social policy in Canada and other Western nations.
Professor Joakim Palme's expertise relates to social policy in a comparative perspective, including research related to social insurance and health, as well as on social policy reform. Joakim is the Director of the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm, Sweden.
The question of how to best invest in social success is one we must grapple with in the coming years. Researchers, evaluators and practitioners all play key roles in providing a robust evidence base to underpin social policy advice to government.
The SPRE conference series is an important component of the IKB project, and plays a major role in the development of networks across the sector. I hope to see you there.
