The Brief from ACC

ACC reviews its investment in Safe Communities

Like many government agencies, ACC manages hundreds of contracts with external providers. One of those is a contract with the Safe Communities Foundation NZ. For over 20 years, ACC has supported Safe Community coalitions around New Zealand. These are collaborative groups that work together to reduce injuries and improve safety in their local area.

ACC had previously undertaken two internal and one external report to better understand the return on their investment in Safe Communities. The most recent report recognised the challenge of attributing a reduction in injuries to the Safe Communities model.

The reports left ACC uncertain about its investment in Safe Communities. Before making a strategic decision about this long-standing relationship, ACC wanted to have a strengths-based conversation about how to unlock the potential of Safe Communities.

ACC engages Business Lab to understand how to unlock the potential of Safe Communities

ACC realised they needed more than just a one-off survey or event to genuinely engage the diversity of Safe Communities. They turned to Business Lab as engagement experts to guide and facilitate the process, having heard about our involvement with the Smart+Connected programme with Marlborough District Council.

Our Approach

A scoping process to understand the opportunity

We began with a scoping process with ACC and SCFNZ. We interviewed a small number of key people to help both parties understand whether this was an opportunity they wanted to take forward.

We then supported the formation of an Oversight Group with members from ACC, the Foundation, the Ministry of Health and several Safe Communities. This group was to become our codesign partner. Their input was crucial to help us design an approach that would make sense to people involved in Safe Communities.

Working with friction

We encountered some resistance to the project at the outset. In reviewing this later, Geoff Wilson, SCFNZ Trustee, reflected:

Friction is a positive sign in engagement, as we’ve written about in “Is Low Trust Hamstringing Your Organisation?”. Friction builds trust. The opposite of friction is complete silence - and that’s never a good sign when you are engaging people on something that matters to them.

In response, we adapted our engagement approach as we went based on feedback from the Oversight Group and Safe Community members.

A range of methods to enable participation and build momentum

The engagement process spread across 12 months and included a range of methods to enable participation around the country:

• 40 one-one-one interviews

• a survey of over 100 Safe Community members

• two events with partners and potential partners in Wellington

• conversations with Safe Communities led by ACC’s regional staff

• regular updates for senior ACC staff.

Throughout the process, we worked with the Oversight Group to narrow the focus to a small number of high-leverage opportunities. The purpose was to identify a small number of opportunities that would unlock the potential of Safe Communities. And how did we get on?

The Result

In July 2019, we wrapped up our work with the project - and the next phase began. We handed over a collective plan to guide the future direction of Safe Communities and some recommendations about how ACC and the Foundation could take those opportunities forward in partnership with other organisations and the Safe Communities network.

We’re now working with ACC to share the outcomes of the process internally - both to embed the outcomes of this process, but also to share the lessons learned from this process.

And we’re excited by the potential for the Safe Communities network to work in a more cohesive way nationally - with a vision that more clearly explains the value of Safe Communities to government agencies in Wellington.

Do you want to unlock the potential of your strategic partnerships?

Good partnerships don’t happen by accident. Our role is to be the “glue” that sticks good organisations together as partners. So if you’re keen to unlock the potential of a strategic partnership, let’s talk.