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The chair of the North Island Whanau Ora commissioning agency hopes a new report from the Productivity Commission is used to deliver a boot up the bum to mainstream agencies.
The report of the commission’s More Effective Social Services inquiry held up the Whanau Ora as a model for some of the things the rest of the sector should be doing.
Merepeka Raukawa-Tait says Te Pou Matakana’s biggest challenge has been getting collaboration from government agencies, who like to feel they are in charge.
"Unfortunately these days you’ve got to work across the sector, you’ve got to work with other people, and you certainly have to work with Te Pou Matakana, because we are responsible for delivering services to Maori throughout the North Island. So that’s a big call, and they have been conspicuous by their absence in the last 12 months in getting alongside us and saying ‘we have resources, we’ll get these out to you.’ So it’ll be a challenge. They need a boot up the bum actually," she says.
Merepeka Raukawa-Tait says the problem in social services isn’t getting to families with long term needs, it’s that those whanau struggle to get access to services.
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