Karen Chhour: Children's Minister outlines new priorities for Oranga Tamariki

The Children's Minister has set out five new reporting instructions for Oranga Tamariki going forward. 

How the ministry is performing across these new criteria will be publicly reported every quarter starting from the 2024/2025 financial year.

These include frequency of visits to children in care, timeliness around Reports of Concern, caregiver reports, complaint management and addressing youth offending.

Minister Karen Chhour says data from the Independent Children's Monitor says the ministry has failed to meet these standards.

"I'm going to make sure we get these quarterly reports, so we can see it in real time and actually make sure we're improving things."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Listen. The Miniesterfa Children has just put all on a
tamadiki on a performance plan. She's written to the Chief
Executive laying out five new measures that she expects to
be reported on every single quarter. Karen Shaw, obviously is
the Minister for Children. Hey Karen, Hi, how's it going good?
Thank you?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
The first thing that you want to know is what
percentage of children in care have been checked on by
their social worker at least once in the last two months?
Is this not happening to one hundred percent of them?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
What we'd gather from the Independent Children's Monitor reports is
this has not been happening. Unfortunately, those reports only come
out yearly, and we're actually being reactive instead of proactive.
So I'm going to make sure that we get these
quarterly reports so we can see it in real time
and actually make sure we're improving things.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
So what percentage of kids are actually getting checked on
every couple of months?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
From what I can remember, it was a very low number. Sorry,
I don't have that right in front of me, but
it was an unacceptable number. I brought it up quite
a lot while I was an opposition and it never improved.
So I want to make sure that we're actually citing
these young people and making sure they're safe.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I mean, is this not exactly the kind of thing
that should be done to make sure that kids who
are in care are not being abused and mistreated in
the way that we've just found out through the inquiry.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Absolutely, and that's why I am making sure that this
is one of my number one priorities, citing young people
and making sure that they're safe.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, So what's OT's problem? Do they just not want
to do it? Or are they under resource they don't
think it's important? What's up?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I think it's a bit of a bit of each
of what you've spoken about, and that's why I'm making
sure that we're resourcing the front line better so that
they are able to do these basic things that should
be getting done.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Okay, Now, the second thing you want to know is
around reports of concern, Right, you want to know how
many critical reports are handled within twenty four hours? What
do you reckon that number?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Is? There are thousands of reports of concern, but we
have not been meeting the expectation of the time frames.
And this also bleeds into are we actually citing the
young people with critical reports? Of concern, So those two
numbers will be very critical to make sure that we

(02:19):
are making sure that these young people are safe in
the homes that we are putting them in as well.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, now the critical are we talking when we talk
about critical reports of concern? Are we talking about the
kind of report that you did before a child is
bashed to death by its parents? Is that what we're
talking about here?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah? Critical would be a situation or we're a young
person we know would be an immediate danger. Would that
be through a domestic violence call out from police? It
could be from neighbors who have stated that they're seeing
something really really wrong in that place. That is critical
where we know a young person is an immediate danger.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
And again OT is getting this and not the deal
with the critical things, not not everything, but not with
the critical things within a day.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I don't think we actually have the true data on that.
We have bits and pieces, but not the true data.
And that's why I want to see the true, real
data to make sure that we're actually getting that right.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
I see that you've said that there are some charities
who are dealers who are treating OT as a cash cow.
Which charities are you talking about.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
If you refer to the press release from Autonotomiki, there
are a couple in there where the bundles delivered, but
there's also some where we're still negotiating around clawbacks and
making sure that we do get that money back. I'm
not going to be naming and shaming different organizations, but
what I am going to be saying is this will

(03:49):
no longer be happening. If you don't provide a service,
you don't get to keep the money. You give the
money back.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Does this press release actually name and shame.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Responds to some who have been in the media and
gives an explanation of why their funding may have been
been decreased, or just because when you go out to
the media and you talk about something and we need
to make sure that the facts are correct.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Okay, So, Karen, are you telling me that if I
go and look at that press release, it's going to
have some names in there, and those names are in
some cases treating it like a cash.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Cow, or not specifically those organizations treating it like a
cash cow. But what I mean is if you're under
delivering and you're not providing a service. In the past,
you have not had to give that madeback. We are
now making sure that that money comes back.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Say these people, I mean these people. You are getting
absolute grief at the moment from these charities and they
are heaping all kinds of criticism on OT. Why don't
you just name.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Them the some of the decisions that have made made
for modern Atomidiki. There are many, many organizations. I don't
specifically know the names of each individual organization. Those are
operational matters. But what I have been told is that
there is a group of organizations that have been growing
big surpluses of savings from army and now we're asking

(05:21):
for it back.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
All right, Hey, Karen, thank you very much. I'm gonna
dig out that press release as soon as soon as
we possibly can. See what's going on here, Karen Shaw,
the Minister for Children.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
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