Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft is calling for the bulldozer solution for Oranga Tamariki’s care and protection units.

Judge Becroft says he was appalled by a whistleblower video showing staff restraining young people with headlocks and arm twists.

He says the units are looking like the orphanages and borstals they supposedly replaced.

"History is going to judge us harshly in my view unless we move quickly to close these five concrete institutions. They are so last century. They are a flawed, outdated model. We used to talk about phased closure. We have been advocating for it as clearly as we can. One has been closed but frankly I think now the time has come for the bulldozer solution," Commissioner Beecroft says.

He says the best model for looking after tamariki who need to be removed from families for their own care and protection is smaller family homes with therapeutic care – not lumping large groups of some of the country’s most fragile and challenging young people into institutions with often under-trained staff.

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