Report on Visit to Barnardos New Zealand

Abstract

Barnardos in New Zealand began as a fundraising support group of British ex-patriots for Barnardos UK. It began to develop services in New Zealand in the late 1960s and when the current Chief Executive, Ian Calder, joined twenty two years ago there were only a handful of staff providing services in Auckland (North Island) and Christchurch (South Island) while he was based in the capital, Wellington, which remains the headquarters of Barnardos in New Zealand. Today, Barnardos has an extensive range of services throughout New Zealand and employs approximately 850 staff (NZ population - 3.6 million). They have revised their management structure this year and a chart of the new structure is attached. Of interest is the fact that, in addition to six National Directors (Service Delivery x 2, Strategic Planning, Service Policy, Children’s Trust and Finance and Administration) reporting to the Chief Executive, they also have four advisors - Information Technology, Human Resources, Communications and Cultural Relations (not shown on chart), who also attend senior management meetings. During my visit I attended and spoke at their Management Group conference, which comprised about fifty middle and senior managers.