This paper examines the issue of improving social outcomes for at risk children, young people and their families. In particular it posits that a systems approach is required and explores how this can be achieved through collaboration and partnership between government agencies, non-profit organisations and communities. Chapter 1 discusses why collaboration is important for the goal of improving social outcomes. It briefly covers the public management reforms of the late 1980's in New Zealand and the associated social outcomes; the government challenge of linking outputs to outcomes for better results; and the challenges faced by government in the social policy arena. The author posits that the multiple and interwoven problems (including child abuse and neglect and interparental violence) of at-risk communities belong to both government and society. Chapter 2 reviews literature on community and community building, collaboration, innovation, planning for outcomes, measuring results, community empowerment, learning and systems change. The author develops two frameworks, one conceptual and one operational, to achieve social systems change. These frameworks are based on David Osborne and Peter Plastrik's 'reinventing government' work, and Peter Senge's systems thinking approaches. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss two case studies that the author conducted in the USA. These address the issue of the relationship between state agencies and communities. An analysis of the case studies is presented in chapter 5 and chapter 6 provides discussion on the public management challenges in New Zealand. The research illustrates that in a systemic approach to improving social outcomes, both bottom-up and top-down approaches to collaboration, along with outcomes planning and performance measurement, are important aspects in the process.

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