January 11, 2026

#SummerSeries | Tamariki in Care: Voices, Reports and the Call for Change

Matthew Tukaki Posted On January 11, 2026

As part of our #SummerSeries on Radio Waatea, we’re revisiting a key concern that stayed with many of our listeners and readers throughout 2025 – the state of New Zealand’s child protection and care system, and what rangatahi and advocates are saying about it.

Late last year, VOYCE – Whakarongo Mai released the inaugural State of Care report, a powerful scorecard from care-experienced young people that underscores deep concerns about how our care system is performing in reality. The interview with Tracie Shipton, CEO of VOYCE, and care-experienced advocate Abbi Bramwell lays out what the report reveals – and what still needs urgent

attention. You can listen to the full Waatea audio here:
🔗 Listen to the Waatea interview with Tracie Shipton & Abbi Bramwell

According to VOYCE, the report shows the government is failing to uphold its “Six Promises” to tamariki in care – commitments made to ensure children’s safety, wellbeing, identity, education, support and cultural connection while in the care system. These are not just abstract policy aims – they represent real expectations from young people who have lived through the system and are willing to share their experiences.

Across 2025, Waatea readers expressed deep concern that promises made on behalf of tamariki and rangatahi have too often gone unfulfilled, with critics warning that rising harm, uneven support, and systemic gaps continue to place vulnerable children at risk. A related Waatea report found more than 500 children were harmed while in state custody last year, Māori youth were over-represented, and more than a thousand rangatahi lacked an assigned social worker – pointing not just to isolated issues but to structural weaknesses that demand more than incremental change.

These concerns echo wider discussions across 2025 about the need for meaningful reform in Oranga Tamariki and the wider child welfare system. Advocates have repeatedly stressed that apologies, legislation and oversight adjustments – while important – must be matched by practical, well-resourced steps that improve outcomes for rangatahi now, not just for future generations. Some organisations have pointed to earlier recommendations, such as those from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into historical abuse in state care, as crucial foundations for change.

For many Māori and whānau, the discussion has also highlighted how the system intersects with issues of identity, culture and connection – and why tino rangatiratanga, or self-determination in care, remains central to any effective reform.

As we move forward into 2026 and beyond, the voices from within the care system continue to call for not only listening – whakarongo – but action that gives tamariki and rangatahi the safety, support and respect they deserve.