Te Whatu Ora is committed to further reduce spend on consultants and contractors

Te Whatu Ora is the largest people organisation in the country, we employ over 90,000 people nationally and manage an operating budget in excess of $26 billion annually.

Our spend on contractors and consultancies is a very small part of our overall costs, but something we’re monitoring and managing carefully. We are committed to continuing to bring down the costs and we’ve been doing that.

It does not make sense to retain some of the highly specialised skills that we get through contractors and consultants in house permanently. We’re using these for a period and at a point in time as we build Te Whatu Ora and what we need for the future.

The largest proportion of our contractor consultant spend is on capital projects in data and digital and infrastructure investment.

We only use consultancies when the benefits outweigh the costs, usually because there is no practical alternative, and they provide the specialist support we lack.

Our contractor numbers have fallen every month since last December. The health reforms provide us with an opportunity to reduce duplication of roles across the motu and streamline our work.

Nationally we are implementing a new organisational structure that unifies and simplifies the health system. As the change process progresses and we start making permanent appointments, our use of contractors will reduce further.