The Commissioner for Children says she has major concerns about another damning report on Oranga Tamaki’s performance.
The second annual monitoring report by the Independent Child Monitor found the child protection agency is failing to ensure minimum standards of care for the 6000 children on its watch.
Despite the recommendations of a report into the death of five-year-old Malachi Subecz att the hands of his carer in 2021, in many cases Oranga Tamariki is still not assessing carers before handing over children, and it’s not responding quickly to allegations of ill treatment.
Judge Frances Eivers says enough is enough.
“Oranga Tamariki does need to be rebuilt, that’s my personal view, and that’s a view I’ve gained working as a lawyer in the family, youth and criminal courts and then as a judge in the family, youth and criminal courts, seeing how bureaucratic the systems have become,” she says.
She says care needs to be shifted from a Wellington-based bureacracy into the community such as to Maori providers.
