Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says the programme is meeting expectations. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
- Health Ministry advised Minister to renew Gumboot Friday contract with "some changes"
- Ongoing risk with fee-for-service arrangement that counsellors could invoice for services not delivered - two removed
- Improved vetting - but no complaints against counsellors to date
- Wait times up.
Gumboot Friday's youth counselling initiative has had its $6m annual contract renewed, despite health officials identifying ongoing risks that practitioners could bill for services of poor quality or not delivered.
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said the programme was meeting expectations, with more than 10,000 young people receiving free counselling in its first year, and the government was "backing Gumboot Friday to deliver more".
A partially-redacted briefing to the Minister dated 30 May, released by the Health Ministry on Wednesday - along with other documents - noted "ongoing risk through this arrangement that practitioners invoice I Am Hope for services and do not deliver them".
Some sections of the document were blanked out, citing the need to preserve "confidentiality of advice tendered by Ministers and officials".
The briefing - which recommended the contract be renewed with some changes - noted the risk of non-delivery was no different to other "fee for service" arrangements.
It said the charity had "significantly improved and streamlined some of its processes since the contract was developed".
These included spot checking, auditing, client surveys and an electronic system to pick up "any unusual invoicing".
"To date, I Am Hope [the parent charity of Gumboot Friday] has identified two practitioners that have departed from the agreed procedures and has removed them from the platform."
In total there were more than 700 qualified counsellors registered on the platform.
In the same section, entitled "Delivery Risks", Health Ministry officials wrote there was also a risk that Gumboot Friday's practitioners could "act unprofessionally" or fail to deliver quality service.
A Ministry of Health weekly report said I Am Hope had "enhanced" its vetting process to include mandatory police checks for all practitioners registered before October 2024, and updated its Practitioner (Policies) Handbook in March.
The charity now used CV Checker to speed up its verification process, but had limited ability to "scrutinise practice" since client and practitioner sessions had to remain private and confidential.
All practitioners were members of professional associations, and the Ministry had not been advised of any complaints to date.
Gumboot Friday and I Am Hope were working on evaluations of service delivery and the experiences of young people, while the Ministry was preparing an evaluation framework.
Potential 'double-counting'
In a preface to the documents, the Health Ministry said demographic information from I Am Hope's platform may have produced "potential double counting" of clients, as individuals reappeared across months.
"It nevertheless provides additional information about the groups that are engaged in Gumboot Friday."
The 30 May briefing said the Gumboot Friday service was "operationally different" to the original design.
It recommended some changes to the contract, including increasing the number of sessions and clients, and removing some performance measures "which divert resources and create barriers to maximum performance".
The officials advocated for scrapping the monthly limit of $500,000 (to allow for higher demand in some months) and current measures of reporting on wait times, which were not being consistently recorded as some young people contacted counsellors directly rather than going through the website.
The original contract required Gumboot Friday to ensure most people could receive services "within 24 to 48 hours of seeking support with 3 to 5 days as a maximum wait time for the first meeting with the person" and provide monthly reporting of wait times.
The latest report showed the average wait time for young people across January and February this year was 9.04 days, with 186 young people waiting more than five days.
That was up from 5.78 days in November and December.
"This increase was in part due to the holiday period in January 2025, however, the longer wait times persisted into February. I Am Hope has highlighted to practitioners the importance of responding promptly to service requests."
The briefing also suggested the government could consider funding emergency and crisis referrals, and providing more cash to support evaluation and "verification activities".
