Group 4

Develop and maintain sector pandemic plans that:

• a. Complement other sector plans and the all-of-government pandemic response plan (see also Recommendation 7).
• b. Incorporate input from sector stakeholders on gaps or vulnerabilities that need to be addressed ahead of a future response.
• c. Identify sector-specific key considerations that need to be taken into account when making decisions on the initial response.
• d. Set out the strategies and options that can be used over the short and longer term, including how they might be deployed.
• e. Identify roles and responsibilities within each sector for responding to a pandemic.
• f. Provide mechanisms for surging capacity when needed.
• g. Identify the workforce needed to support a pandemic response, within a specific sector.
• h. Include mechanisms to allow sector stakeholders’ connections, intelligence and ideas to feed into any response.
• i. Enable communication with different communities during a pandemic response (including Māori, Pacific and other ethnic communities, disabled people, and other groups with specific communication needs), as well as with business groups and not-for-profit bodies.
• j. Indicate how they will support the Crown to meet its te Tiriti obligations in a pandemic response.

All public sector agencies

• a. What activities might in limited circumstances need to be designated ‘essential’ during a pandemic response, and what would need to be in place to enable these activities to continue.
• b. How the right balance might be struck between prescriptive rules and flexibility for devolved decision-making for the agencies, businesses and other bodies within their sector, and what guidance and safeguards would be needed to support this

All sectors

• a. Guidance on how to prioritise non-pandemic health services in a pandemic and mechanisms to regularly review prioritisation decisions during a pandemic.
• b. Mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on health system performance and capacity to inform decisions during a pandemic.
• c. Planning for, and investment in, workforce capability and resilience for a pandemic.
• d. Building health system resilience into operational policy, commissioning frameworks, service contracting, monitoring and reporting.
• e. Planning for how providers can be supported to adapt their service delivery models in a pandemic to minimise disruption to the ongoing provision of healthcare.
• f. Identifying possible supply chain issues for key pandemic-related products (such as reagents, ventilators, medical products, personal protective equipment) and medicines or medical products, that might arise during a pandemic and prepare a plan that addresses sources of supply, procurement mechanisms, management protocols and contingency measures.
• g. Planning for how to secure adequate physical capacity to meet healthcare needs in a pandemic (such as through the allocation of public hospital capacity, the use of ad hoc and private facilities, management protocols, and other contingency measures).

• Ministry of Health, together with Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, Ministry of Social Development as required
• Ministry of Health, Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, Pharmac and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on Recommendation 22f

Ministry of Health, Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

• a. The relative priority and costs and benefits for improving ventilation in different building types (or parts of buildings) – for example, schools, prisons, aged care facilities.
• b. The costs and benefits of improving ventilation across existing buildings, compared to new buildings.
• c. The incremental costs and benefits of improving ventilation over and above alternative interventions that may be cheaper and easier (such as masking).
• d. The use of standards, guidance and voluntary codes.
• e. The benefits that accrue outside pandemics (such as reduced respiratory disease transmission, and improved workforce productivity and student performance) because of improved air quality.
• f. Reviewing and improving building standards and codes, given the above considerations.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Determine appropriate governance arrangements and responsibilities for a coordinated economic response to a pandemic, in both short- and long-term scenarios, by:

• a. Clarifying relevant principles and the respective roles and responsibilities of economic agencies to ensure the coordinated delivery of an economic and fiscal response.
• b. Ensuring a forward-looking view during a pandemic on likely evolving scenarios and exit strategies.
• c. Developing a shared Treasury and Reserve Bank of New Zealand playbook aimed at obtaining a common understanding on how the appropriate level, sequencing and composition of monetary and fiscal support might play out in a pandemic, and the arrangements needed to ensure appropriate monetary and fiscal policy collaboration in an emergency.
• d. Ensuring that principles of sustained good fiscal, and sound monetary and financial system management are not compromised when implementing Recommendation 25c.
• e. Ensuring the ongoing supply of essential financial services.
• f. Providing, and publishing, advice on prudently rebuilding fiscal buffers to ensure that there is fiscal headroom for responding to future emergencies.
• g. Establishing mechanisms that can fast-track effectiveness, ‘reach’, and value-for-money assessments to ensure high quality and targeted public expenditure.

• All economic sector agencies on Recommendations 25a and 25b and 25g
• The Treasury and Reserve Bank on Recommendations 25c and 25d
• Reserve Bank, Financial Markets Authority and the Treasury on Recommendation 25e
• The Treasury on Recommendation 25f and oversight of 25g

Develop a labour market plan for responding to a pandemic that:

• a. Identifies possible labour market gaps and vulnerabilities that might arise during a pandemic, and which skill and labour shortages are likely to need prioritising to maintain necessary goods and services.
• b. Explores how these gaps and vulnerabilities might be addressed, including through training settings; identifies the key skills that might need to be sourced from overseas; and proposes how these skills can be obtained.
• c. Identifies how quarantine and isolation management and allocation systems can assist in meeting urgent labour market needs.

• Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
• Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Ministry of Health on Recommendation 26c

To ensure ongoing operation of supply chains:

• a. Continue to work with international partners to develop ways of minimising future supply chain disruptions during a pandemic, including through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework work on supply chains.
• b. Build on existing work programmes to improve the government’s knowledge of domestic and international supply chains (including through improved government data collection and use of international and domestic supply chain information) and the inputs Aotearoa New Zealand manufacturers and producers rely on and how these could be affected in a pandemic.
• c. Improve and maintain relationships and information-sharing between government agencies, shippers and supply chain operatives, with the aim of increasing resilience and enabling better preparation against supply chain threats.
• d. Establish a programme to improve private sector knowledge of supply chain trends and practices, and how to mitigate performance problems to improve commercial resilience to a pandemic.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment with Ministry of Transport and other relevant agencies

Assess what steps are needed prior to and during a pandemic to maintain port performance, and assess trends in international trade, aviation and shipping leading to a plan to mitigate the risk of transport shortages or bottlenecks.

Ministry of Transport

Ensure the ongoing functioning of lifeline utilities, and continued provision of necessary goods and services during a pandemic, by:

• a. Working with providers to assess and understand the risks that both short-lived and protracted pandemics pose for the lifeline utilities they are responsible for.
• b. Considering what measures the government should take to ensure the continued provision of necessary goods and services.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Develop a comprehensive plan for financial assistance schemes during a pandemic to support people and businesses and maintain employment. It should include:

• a. Options that are proportionate, suitably targeted, and take account of the needs of different people (with particular regard to those groups that are already most vulnerable).
• b. Clear agency responsibilities.
• c. Where pre-existing economic and social supports may be inadequate in a pandemic, and options to address gaps.
• d. How measures would be monitored, reviewed and assessed for quality and effectiveness of spend, and could be adapted over different phases of a pandemic.
• e. Indicative exit strategies.
• f. Compliance systems to ensure the effectiveness of support measures.

The Treasury, Inland Revenue, Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and other agencies if required

Determine appropriate governance arrangements and allocation of responsibilities for a coordinated welfare response in both short- and long-term pandemic scenarios, including:

• a. Identifying agencies that need to be involved and the leadership and governance mechanisms to enable a collective response that is ready to be activated urgently at the start of a pandemic.
• b. Strengthening regional structures to ensure improved coordination among agencies and between agencies and local delivery organisations.
• c. Building internal capability to partner effectively with community agencies and iwi.

Ministry of Social Development with other relevant agencies

• a. Address the housing, income, food security and safety needs of people and households to enable them to manage through a pandemic.
• b. Target the needs of people who are hardest hit during emergencies.
• c. Address additional mental health issues that arise during and after a pandemic.

Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the Ministry of Health with other relevant agencies after engagement with emergency services and other providers

• a. Mechanisms are in place to allocate and distribute funding quickly and efficiently in a future pandemic or emergency to ensure providers have the resources to respond to immediate community needs.
• b. Any gaps in coverage are identified and addressed (including by developing new capability and relationships in underserved communities).
• c. Flexibility in delivery approaches is supported, balanced with appropriate accountability arrangements.
• d. There are clear processes and communications for winding down resources so this is signalled to service providers and community organisations receiving funding.

Ministry of Social Development with relevant social sector agencies

• a. Identifying and anticipating the range of options, tools, and settings that could be applied in a pandemic, and ensuring that operational implementation is consistent with human rights and te Tiriti compliance across all sites.
• b. Having plans to maintain staffing during a pandemic, to mitigate as much as possible restrictions such as reduced outdoor and physical activity time.
• c. Providing mitigations to lessen the impact of necessary restrictions, support technology and transportation options, ensure transparency and enable the role of oversight bodies.

Department of Corrections|Ara Poutama Aotearoa working with other relevant justice sector agencies

To ensure access to education can be maintained during a pandemic:

• a. Continue to coordinate planning work within the schooling sector (including peak bodies) which will allow schools and places of education to remain open as much as possible in a pandemic – by, for example, pivoting to remote learning, flexibility of the curriculum, teacher capability for teaching in online and hybrid learning environments, and planning for student access to digital devices and connectivity.
• b. Plan support for the early childhood sector which can be urgently activated, so that early childhood education can continue as much as possible in a pandemic of extended duration.
• c. Plan support that can be urgently activated for the international education sector, including consideration of financial implications and pastoral care for international students.

Education agencies