Oranga Tamariki report finds stark outcomes for Māori in state care system

RNZ News

11-06-2025

Independent Children's Monitor chief executive Arran Jones said the report was a "story of consequence" and of needs not addressed
Photo:
RNZ
The Independent Children's Monitor has found Māori children in the Oranga Tamariki system are overrepresented and being let down; and the outcomes for Māori adults involved in the system when they were younger "paint a stark picture", with higher mortality rates over time than those not involved.
Those same adults who had experience in custody or in care were nine times more likely to have used emergency housing as an adult and half as likely to be in employment, Children's Monitor chief executive Arran Jones said.
He said the report was a "story of consequence" and of needs not addressed by a system that could not always get the right support in place at the right time.
"The needs of tamariki and rangatahi then multiply as they escalate through the system."
The inaugural report in a new annual series, focused on whether the system was delivering outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi Māori, looked at the period between 1 July 2023, to 30 June 2024.
What this report did, compared to the usual monitoring of Oranga Tamariki operational activities, was "lifting up and looking at outcomes in terms of the life course for young people and their experiences", Jones said.
The report emphasised that most young Māori had no involvement in the Oranga Tamariki system. Jones said this context was important because narratives can "get away on us."
A third of those aged between zero and 18 in New Zealand were Māori - around 330,000 young people.
In the 2023/24 reporting year:
But when young Māori are involved in the system, "there are increasing levels of over-representations" Jones said.
The report stated the over-representation of Māori at every level within the care and protection system was a "clear indicator the system is not performing".
Around half of the reports of concern made to Oranga Tamariki were about tamariki and rangatahi Māori, the report showed. They also made up two-thirds of young people in state care, and more than three-quarters of those in youth justice custody.
In 2022, young Māori in care or custody achieved education qualifications at almost half the rate of Māori with no involvement in the system; those in the Oranga Tamariki system were significantly more likely to be hospitalised for self-harm than those not; those in care used mental health and addiction services at nearly five times the rate of those not involved, and rangatahi Māori in youth justice custody used those services at 15 times the rate.
"Considering 92 percent of these rangatahi had reports of concern made about their safety and wellbeing when they were younger, this is no surprise," said Jones.
When it came to involvement with the police, data showed a difference in the severity of proceedings against tamariki and rangatahi Māori in 2023/24:
Jones said the further these young people went into care, the worse their short- and long-term outcomes.
For older Māori between 27 and 30 who had been through the care and protection system, the report said their outcomes were "sobering".
"The data paints a stark picture of the consequence of the Oranga Tamariki system not doing more to help."
"Māori adults who had been in the system as children are less likely to be employed, less likely to have a driver licence, more likely to be on a benefit, more likely to be in emergency housing, and more likely to be hospitalised for self-harm than Māori who had no involvement.
"Mortality rates are double or triple those of Māori with no involvement in the Oranga Tamariki system for vehicle accidents and for self-harm (including suicide)."
Jones said 10 in 1000 of those young Māori will have taken their own lives by the age of 27 to 30.
And for Māori parents between 27 and 30 who had previously been in care themselves, 68 percent had children involved with Oranga Tamariki in some way and one in eight have had one or more children in care at some point.
It acknowledged some progress was being made, but "barriers" remained. Improving outcomes would require tough decisions on where to prioritise services and sharing power and funding, it said.
ACT MP and Children's Minister Karen Chhour.
Photo:
NZME / Mark Mitchell
Other key findings:
The focus to date for the Independent Children's Monitor had been the experiences of young people in state care, but it was mandated to look at the whole Oranga Tamariki system, including youth justice and intervention services.
"Our legislation requires that we also do an annual report on outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi Māori and their whanau for the very reason that they are over represented in the system," Jones said.
He acknowledged some of this data had been reported about young people generally, but this was the first time a lot of it had been focused on young people with experience in the system. He said what was important was the extent of the disparity and outcomes.
The report looked at the aspirations of those in the system, and found those were not "that much different from all children in New Zealand", Jones said.
"They all want to aspire, to be healthy and happy, to have jobs, to be well-educated and to have children that they can keep safe and secure and go on [and live] happy lives."
The report showed that was not happening, he said, and made a strong case for investing early before the impact of what brought them to Oranga Tamariki's attention multiplied as they went through the system.
He acknowledged Oranga Tamariki had made progress in terms of frameworks and approaches to work better with tamariki Māori and their whānau, but there were operational barriers that remained preventing staff from working in the way they wanted.
The report also pointed to changes in funding and contracts impacting on relationships or the ability to maintain a trusted relationship. Jones said he had heard from families, providers and Oranga Tamariki's own staff about the cuts to funding and services making it harder for them to get the help that young people need.
"That's a message that's come through clearly."
Jones acknowledged Oranga Tamariki could not control the reports of concern that come to the agency, but once it became aware, "it's about what level of investment is made right across the system to support these families so things don't escalate, and hopefully that young people can go on and lead good lives".
He stressed the finding that 92 percent of young Māori involved in the youth justice system had concerns raised about their safety and wellbeing when they were younger, and said there was opportunity for the system to prevent some of the later behaviours that led to offending if the right support was put in place at an early stage.
"It creates this decision to be made about whether you build more ambulances at the bottom of the cliff and you deal with the harm that results, both to young people but also to communities, or whether there's an opportunity to invest much earlier."
The report highlighted various partnerships with iwi as positive examples of intervention, particularly in the space of youth justice.
Photo:
RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The report highlighted various partnerships with iwi as positive examples of intervention, particularly in the space of youth justice.
It described Oranga Tamariki delegating powers and functions to Best Care (Whakapai Hauora) Charitable Trust - a subsidiary of the iwi authority for Rangitāne o Manawatū - since 2020, allowing for a youth justice social worker in this particular role.
The report said Whakapai Hauora worked to prevent rangatahi from reoffending. The Trust could facilitate FGCs, as well as engage rangatahi involved in youth justice in a range of initiatives. These included Mana Wahine (life skills for female rangatahi who have offended), Mana Taiohi (restorative FGC plans) and Whakapai te Waka (where rangatahi work to pay for their reparations).
Other wraparound services included gym visits or community-based clinical support for mental health issues and alcohol and drug use. Many of the programmes were run in groups, with whānau included, which the Children's Monitor heard were more successful than conventional approaches and led to better outcomes.
The report said it was hard to measure the impact of different approaches, but Oranga Tamariki said one marker of success for the youth justice delegation in Rangitāne was that for many years only one rangatahi referred to Whakapai Hauora had been proceeded to a court order.
Another example it gave was that some rangatahi who had completed youth justice programmes with Whakapai Hauora had returned as mentors. It also described the case of a young man who had committed retail crime, but was now employed by the company he had stolen from.
"This transformation is the result of the Whakapai Hauora whakaoranga process, where all parties met to hold the tāne accountable for his offending.
"We heard that this was made possible by "the aunties" who build and maintain strong community relationships and work in a te ao Māori way that meets the requirements of the Oranga Tamariki Act and Oranga Tamariki practice standards."
Wayne Blissett, executive director at Whakapai Hauora, told RNZ the devolution of those powers meant they carried on with the statutory obligations but were able to do so in a way that allowed "culture and meaning to be delivered in a conducive environment to healing and change".
"The opportunity for whanāu to take the chance for change is a lot more conducive in an environment which is supportive, acknowledging, and I think fair."
He said when those processes were delivered in a "mana-enhancing" way, it empowered whānau to make positive choices about some of the changes they wanted to make.
He referenced the example of the young man gaining employment where he had offended, saying when the victim saw the opportunity to be a part of the solution and work with the person that offended against them "that's pretty amazing".
Blissett believed the best way of improving outcomes for young Māori overall was to prevent them coming into care in the first place, which required earlier intervention and assessment, building communities, "as well as getting in sooner, better, faster, to create a wraparound support for whānau".
"Some of the challenges at the moment is that we're focusing on the individual, I don't like the word, but perpetrator, as opposed to looking at the whole whānau system, and what's created this environment."
He said the cycle had to be broken, and to do that required real opportunities with real solutions in a realistic setting for whānau.
"If we just keep working with the young people in isolation, we're not actually creating the chance for the whole whānau to break out of the cycle."
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