Mental health minister scrambles as Suicide Prevention Office caught in cuts

Friday, 5 April 2024

Government ministers are seeking to distance themselves from the sharp edge of the cuts going across the public service.

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey scrambled a late evening press release insisting the Suicide Prevention Office was not a victim of the Government’s cost cutting driving, as news of public service cuts continued on Thursday.

Doocey’s assurance was at odds with the Public Service Association, which said the office would close after the Ministry of Health confirmed 134 job losses.

His comments also appeared to clash with the Ministry of Health itself.

Earlier, Deputy Director-General of Health Robyn Shearer said the Suicide Prevention Office would merge into a wider directorate as the ministry continued to work towards “the Government’s priorities”.

But at 5:55pm, Doocey said: “The closure of the Suicide Prevention Office has not been raised with me and I have spoken with the Director-General of Health to make my expectations clear that the office will remain open.”

It remained unclear, at the time of publication, what the future of the Suicide Prevention Office would be.

It was one of the many units caught up in ongoing cost cutting, with ministry leaders across the state sector working to meet savings targets of either 6.5% or 7.5% ahead of the Government’s Budget in May.

Thursday delivered another round of restructuring and cost cutting in the public service.

It is now an “anxious wait”, according to staff at ministries including Health and Social Development - which both announced plans to cut staff on Thursday.

Why it matters

• Doocey appeared to be blindsided on Thursday by news that Suicide Prevention Office was “closing” (according to the PSA) or being “integrated” (according to the Ministry of Health). Whichever way you spin it, the office was facing major cuts - but the minister then stepped in late on Thursday to try and defend it. It’s unclear what will happen now.

• The Government has made no secret about its desire to “trim the fat” of the public service, and imposed savings targets of either 6.5% or 7.5% for most departments.

• However, it’s only now that the public is starting to get an idea of how these cuts will be realised.

Key players

• Matt Doocey, who became the first mental health minister in November, says he expects the Suicide Prevention Office to remain open. He declined Stuff’s request for an interview on Thursday, but issued a late evening statement saying he considered it “misleading” to say the office would close.

• Health Minister Shane Reti distanced himself from the other cuts at the ministry, calling it “an operational matter”.

• Dr Diana Sarfati, the Director General of Health, on Thursday confirmed 134 jobs would go from the Ministry of Health. Of those, 59 would be from the Public Health Agency, 39 from policy and legislation team, and 34 from clinical, community and mental health. The Public Service Association (PSA) said the entire Suicide Prevention Office would close as a result.

• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis are ultimately responsible for the Budget, set to be released on May 30.

The breakdown

Shearer appeared to confirm, before Doocey’s statement, that the Suicide Prevention Office would, effectively, close.

“With the changes required in resourcing and with the role of the Director of the Suicide Prevention Office currently vacant, it is proposed this role would be disestablished,” she said.

Further to that, the ministry was proposing to disestablish four of the eight Suicide Prevention Office roles, with the remaining roles being absorbed into a wider mental health team.

But Doocey claimed he hadn’t been told of any closure.

The arguments

Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said Luxon had been wrong to categorise these jobs as “wasteful” and “back office”.

“These hard-working people do not deserve to bear the brunt of Nicola Willis’ reckless fiscal promises. Her tax cuts are not worth losing the very people who help prevent suicide in this country, our smokefree legislation that would save lives and our pandemic preparedness,” she said.

Shearer said the role of the Suicide Prevention Office had changed a lot since it started in 2019, with functions moving to Te Aka Whai Ora and then Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ, when the Māori Health Authority closed.

“The Suicide Prevention office has always been established as a team within the Ministry of Health with an option to review its tenure,” she said.

“The Ministry of Health will continue to monitor progress on suicide prevention as it has done.”

The history

The Suicide Prevention Office was set up in 2019, following a Government inquiry into mental health and addition.

Former prime minister Jacinda Ardern and then health minister David Clark announced the creation of the office in September, 2019, saying they hoped it would create resources to help whānau who have experienced suicide as well as implement a 10-year plan to reduce suicide.

In other news

Anxiety across the public sector is continuing, as ministries confirm cost cutting programmes will continue into May.

An MBIE staffer said the ongoing redundancy process was having a toll. She said morale was low and questioned whether future Government policy could be implemented, given many ministries were looking to cut policy and legal expertise.

On Thursday, an MSD staffer said the office was highly anxious and caught by surprise when CEO Debbie Power confirmed a voluntary redundancy would likely be followed by further restructuring.

As Stuff reported ahead of Power’s announcement, many MSD staff hoped their suggestions would have lessened the blow of job losses. In February, Power and deputy chief executive Nadine Kilmister crowd-sourced cost cutting ideas from staff. From that brainstorming, they ended up settling on reducing the frequency of office cleaning, getting rid of plunger coffee, office plants, and “nice tea”.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it would be “tough” for public servants losing their jobs, but defended the move.

“This is not just a one off exercise for our Budget. This is about a discipline of financial discipline that we’re expecting to put back into the public service,” Luxon said.

Learn more

• Stuff is keeping track of public service changes, through an updated article file here.

• Ministry of Social Development staff were asked to find alternative ways to cut costs, and are now going without plunger coffee, “nice” tea bags, alternative milk and as much stationary, according to an Official Infromation Act response to Stuff.