Deepwaters Consulting is continually being brought on board by different initiatives, agencies and businesses to help realise emerging opportunities and overcome their various challenges. One of those initiatives, and one we believe will have far-reaching positive impact on the lives of New Zealanders all over the country, is the Health Workforce Development Fund – managed by Health Workforce New Zealand, Ministry of Health.

To better protect the health of future generations, and to ensure healthcare providers cando the best for New Zealanders, the Health Workforce Development Fund is accepting applications from health workers all over the country to help fund post-entry development programmes. This give those health workers the best skills to help tackle the ever-changing nature of New Zealand health.

Our Director Giselle, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, designed and developed the model and process by which the Health Workforce Development Fund would operate, keeping at its core the priorities it would carry forward when selecting programmes to fund:

  • focus on equity and need
  • enable more innovative and participatory models of care
  • professional and service collaboration, and development and intelligence in more than one area.

The HWNZ Fund invests in areas of innovation within the health workforce sector, making sure that health workers are able to develop their skills and abilities in a way that will benefit New Zealanders of all stripes. The fund considers four aims when reviewing funding applications, designed to ensure the greatest outcomes for the health sector:

  • improving the quality, safety and patient experience of care
  • improving the health and equity for all populations
  • obtaining the best value for public health system resources
  • enhancing a healthy and productive workforce.

These aims were laid out , as a way to ensure that the Health Workforce Development Fund would be able to invest in training and development programmes that strive to bring the best results to the Health Sector.

Giselle’s role in the project was as project manager, and the six-month project required her skills to the utmost. Establishing the project itself fell to Giselle after consultation with the Ministry of Health it was up to her to plan timelines, define its scope, and providing briefings to the HWNZ board and the Minister of Health on the progress of the fund’s development.

With the fund now accepting applications for funding from a contestable pool, Giselle’s design and development work is poised to pay off big time, both for her own satisfaction, for Deepwaters, and for the New Zealand health workers who will benefit immensely from training programmes funded through successful applications.