Moe mai rā e te taonga, Malachi. Our thoughts and condolences are with Malachi’s whānau at this incredibly challenging
time. The findings from the reviews released today show Malachi and his whānau were let down by the numerous systems
that should have protected him.
Our tamariki/children are taonga/precious treasures. We need to do better by them as a country. No single Government
department or person can be solely responsible for the safety and wellbeing of our tamariki. It truly takes a village.
We welcome the reports released today.
Every person, organisation, and Government department in Aotearoa have a responsibility to ensure the safety and
wellbeing of our tamariki. This means working together collaboratively. We are hopeful these reviews will spark a new
dialogue and sense of urgency to bring about a new way of working in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Child protection social work is incredibly complex. Social workers work incredibly hard every day with whānau, making
decisions based on limited information and need to be fully supported in their mahi. We welcome the acknowledgement of
Oranga Tamariki that they did not provide an environment where quality social work practice can occur. We are committed
to continuing to work with Oranga Tamariki to ensure social workers are fully supported in this incredibly challenging
mahi.
We welcome the recommendation to accelerate collaborative decision-making to enable iwi, communities, and agencies to
partner together to ensure the safety and wellbeing of tamariki. This must be a priority and must be approached with a
clear strategy in place.
We need to ensure there is support available to tamariki and their whānau. There is an urgent need for the Government to
increase building the capability and capacity of iwi and community organisations to provide preventative and supportive
services.
In recent months, Oranga Tamariki has reduced funding for some key preventative services, for example social workers in
schools. We call on the Government to urgently increase the funding for Oranga Tamariki to enable the building of
capacity of these necessary community-based preventative and supportive services.
The Oranga Tamariki practice review highlights key enablers to support quality practice were not present in this case.
Oranga Tamariki social workers need to have quality support, including caseloads that are manageable, access to timely
training and development, and quality social work supervision. We are committed to partnering with Oranga Tamariki to
work on these issues.
There are significant numbers of social work vacancies across the sector, including in Oranga Tamariki. There is a need
to build and ensure the retention of our social work workforce, and a need for greater Government investment in social
work training, including support for social work students.