Plan for a new Department of Social Welfare following National Party’s 1969 election promise to join the Department of Social Security and the Child Welfare Division of the Department of Education. In January 1970, Cabinet approved the setting up of a new department. A committee was set up under the chairmanship of a senior officer of the State Services Commission to examine the implications of the government’s decision and prepare a plan for setting up the new department. The new department would take over all existing functions of the Social Security Department as well as the welfare functions of the Child Welfare Division and the work undertaken on behalf of the Joint Committee on Young Offenders, but the responsibility for institutions with a more school-like nature would remain with the Department of Education. Target date for complete amalgamation was 1 April 1971.