July 06, 2020
Oranga Tamariki still missing fundamental restructure
The Children's Commissioner says Oranga Tamariki was oversold in terms of the amount and speed of change expected.
Calls are coming from Māori for the resignation of chief executive Grainne Moss and Children's Minister Tracey Martin because of continued cases of babies being uplifted and what is seen as a failure to properly empower Māori within the organisation.
Commissioner Andrew Becroft says he has no say in performance reviews or employment contracts, but he does monitor its policies and practices.
He says the change from Child, Youth and Family in April 2017 came with a great deal of unrealised hype.
"I mean we're talking about changing the direction of an aircraft carrier. This is a long and difficult job and change has not come as quickly as many of us would have hoped. Small steps have been taken but fundamentally the issue is when are we going to move towards a restructured by Māori for Māori approach," Commissioner Becroft says.
He describes the 14 restructures of Child, Youth and Family as white restructures that failed to address the fundamental issue of how services can be reconfigured to deal with Māori when Māori are 70 percent of those in care.
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