October 01, 2021
Oranga Tamariki gets bulldozer treatment
The Children’s Minister says the Kahu Aroha report gives him the mandate to bulldoze long overdue change in Oranga Tamariki.
The report by a ministerial advisory group said the agency was not serving the needs of tamariki Māori and whānau, it lacks strategic direction and is not visionary.
Kelvin Davis says Māori have been calling for a change in the child protection system since the Pūao te Ata Tū report in the 1980s exposed the failings in the borstals and children’s homes run by the then Department of Social Welfare.
He says the reforms will put children rather than the agency at the centre of the kaupapa.
“Oranga Tamariki are going to have to engage with communities on the solutions that communities, hapū, iwi have for the children and work as part of the team and be the enablers. We have to move the decision making and the resources towards our communities,” Mr Davis says.
Around the country, he is seeing examples of the number of children taken into state care plummeting once iwi and communities get involved in finding suitable placements and solutions.