Arran Jones: Independent Children's Monitor Chief Executive on new reports claiming Oranga Tamariki isn't meeting National Care Standards

There's warnings significant change is needed, as Oranga Tamariki continues to fall short.

The Independent Children's Monitor's fourth annual report to July - shows the Ministry still isn't meeting National Care Standards, formed in 2019.

It's not facilitating enough social worker visits and more children are being abused or neglected under its watch.

Monitor head Arran Jones says state care still needs an overhaul to reduce incidents.

"Kids that are coming into youth justice residences are more likely to be care experienced - and what we're saying is, unless you're actually doing right by these kids who are coming from broken homes, who've suffered abuse and neglect themselves - unless you're doing the right thing to care for them, what you'll see is negative outcomes." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kids in state here are getting the bash from staff
at ordering a tamadiki and abuses on the rise and
you report by the Independent Children's Monitor found that some
shocking results, nine percent of kids and young people are
being abused for five hundred and seven young people in
twenty twenty four. That's up from four hundred and ninety
seven and twenty twenty three, which was up from four

(00:23):
hundred and fifty nine in twenty twenty two, which means
the numbers going up. Aaron Jones is the chief executive
of the Independent Children's Monitors, with me hi erin thank you,
Good to have you on the show Why Kids Been
Abused in Care?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, where the abuse is occurring disproportionately is young people
that are in those secure youth justice residences and that's
predominantly young people hurting other young people. And the other
area where you're seeing disproportionate harm as young people that
are still in state care but they're returning home.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Right, So what proportion of the five hundred incidents you're
talking about, what proportion were at the hands of another
inmate for one of a better term, and what proportion
from a family member, and what proportion from the auditing
a Tamadiki staff.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah. Look, the majority of harm and those, like I said,
in the Youth Justice residences is from other young people.
And I think you know, we had a couple of
years ago a review that was done by Mike Bush
into the residences, and what he's called for is the
need to have more experienced staff, better support supervision for
them so that they're able to address these behaviors of

(01:39):
young people they're in the residences in the right way
to actually prevent the harm occurring in the first place.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Right now, and listen, the ones and the residence is
they're there because they've done something wrong, right, and they're
getting hurt. They're hurting each other, It's correct. I mean,
how do you stop that? If you've got bad kids
and they're all in one place, It's going to happen,
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well. I think there's a couple of answers to that question.
The first is one I just explained, is actually having staff,
qualified staff that are able to cope with complex behaviors
and actually prevent the harmer caring. Now. The second part is,
which is what our report speaks to, is the need
to improve the quality of state care so that kids
needs are addressed. Now, what you see as kids that

(02:25):
are coming into youth justice residences are more likely to
be care experienced. And what we're saying is unless you
actually do the right thing by these kids who are
coming from broken homes, who have suffered abuse and neglect themselves,
unless you're doing the right thing to care for them,
what you'll see is negative outcomes, which includes committing crime
and actually turning up in residence in the first place.

(02:47):
Use a couple of things that we can do better.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
You said that there are children who are going back
to their families, obviously going back too early, who have
been abused at home again being retraumatized at home. Why
were they being sent home in the first place? Are
you seeing it is sorry not you, but it's ordering
a tamareki sending kids back home too soon.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
What they tell us is these are often older kids
that are in care and either their home or their
placement breaks down and there's a need to find an
emergency home for them, and that could be taking them
back home to their parents, or it's young people that
are voting with their feet, so they now long want
to stay with their care provider, and so they are
going back home. And what we're saying in this report,

(03:26):
and we called this out a couple of years ago,
is that the supports aren't there in place for those
families and for those kids in the circumstances. So a
lot of these returns are happening in an unexpected or
unplanned way, and the frequency with which social workers are
visiting the families is low, and the families themselves are
telling us that they're not always ready for their young
people to come home. They haven't done the things that

(03:48):
they need to do to be able to care for
these young people in the right way. And so there's
a real opportunity here for ordering a tamariki to focus
in on these young people that are returning home, making
sure that they are supported and kept safe so that
the harm does not continue to occur.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
All right, Aaron, thanks very much for your time. Aaron
Jones sees the chief executive at the Independent Children's Monitor.
They've got their report out today. For more from Hither
Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be
from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.