Future 'grim' for intervention services after Oranga Tamariki cuts

Oranga Tamariki's cuts to early intervention services in the community has advocates worried more children will end up in care.

Providers were grappling with having to do more with less, while experts have said there will be a "greater cost downstream."

In June last year, providers were given little notice their funding from the care and protection agency would be reduced or discontinued as their contracts came up for renewal in the new financial year. The process is now being investigated by the Auditor-General.

Like other government agencies, Oranga Tamariki was expected to tighten their belt. Children's Minister Karen Chhour had her sights set on providers who were treating Oranga Tamariki as what she called a "cash cow."

She declared funding the agency provided "was for the care and protection of children in state care. Nothing more nothing less."

Oranga Tamariki acknowledged the risk of future costs, but said "we can't fund everything" and while there have been "reprioritisations", there had not been a significant reduction in the overall amount of funding the agency provided.

The total number of services cut or reduced was not clear, with Oranga Tamariki finalising some contracts.

Wellington-based Matt Reid, the chief executive at social support provider Barnardos is visiting the Māngere location where Barnardos started in 1972.

"We see the impacts of family violence. We see the impacts of income poverty, so families that are really struggling to feed their children, we see the impacts of challenges trying to find money for clothing."

He said the next few years were looking "grim".

Reid explained Barnardos had "four superpowers". Alongside early childhood education, it provided social and community work and a helpline for young people.

The organisation also provided care services - which he said was a "bottom of the cliff" response.

But it is in the areas of early intervention and prevention work Reid has seen some threat in terms of funding.

From the first of July this year, they will lose all government funding for their helpline, 0800 WHATS UP - which answers more than 12,000 calls and chats a year from 5 to 19 year olds.

Reid said the problem was a lot bigger than just Oranga Tamariki, and he understood why the agency had told those in the sector their focus and priority was firstly the children in their care.

But he said there would be significant impacts from the changes and reductions that were happening, particularly due to cuts in the early intervention and prevention area, ultimately "more people down the track, young people and families will need professionals."

"Services, social work, therapy will come at a future cost," he said.

"Worst case for me is that more young people end up in care, and that is a horrible outcome."

Reid said he did not know what would happen to families who would not get the services they currently did.

"Honestly, I worry for them. I don't know the answer to that."

The Salvation Army was also dealing with potential cuts.

The Salvation Army's regional director for community ministries Rhondda Middleton said they had a reduction in their Oranga Tamariki contracts, which meant 12 out of 18 staff members were made redundant.

"It means less staff at a frontline caring for whānau who need our support."

While the Salvation Army's doors were always open, Middleton said, "we just aren't able to take as many cases on, and so it's left a gap."

She said the impact of the cuts was less support for families who "everday is a challenge for them," to not become a whānau that is "on Oranga Tamariki books."

David Hanna, the director of Wesley Community Action in Wellington has contracted with Oranga Tamariki for more than 30 years.

Last year, Oranga Tamariki cut 60 percent of one of their services supporting mothers and fathers of young children and babies who were experiencing stress.

He explained there were now a whole group of families they could no longer support.

They had to increase the caseload of their workers, from about 12 whānau - who may have multiple children within each - to about 16 or 17 whānau per worker.

"That puts chronic stress on our workers and really undermines the quality of support that can happen for those families."

"If you extrapolate out increased stress on babies and families, then across all our systems and institutions, we're going to have greater demand, greater illness, greater costs and greater chaos as it just manifolds down the track."

He acknowledged Oranga Tamariki was in a tricky situation, but was concerned about the long term impacts of the changes.

"If we as a community or as a country, undermine the quality of supports we provide for families and children, then it's going to actually come back and cause a lot of problems down the track and undermine our wealth as a country."

What experts say

The Children's Commission and the Independent Children's Monitor have asked for clarity about the strategy behind these decisions, and transparency around how Oranga Tamariki was investing in services.

The Children's Commissioner Claire Achmad said, over the course of the last year, some services that were in partnership with Oranga Tamariki in the prevention and early intervention space had been cut or reduced.

"This includes in spaces like youth one stop shops, youth mentoring, school based support services for children and young people, counselling for families and whānau who have experienced family violence."

"Alongside adequate and high impact investment to support children and young people in the care system, we need to, at the same time, be investing adequately and in a high impact way to prevent children and young people from needing to come into care in the first place."

Achmad acknowledged these were "straightened fiscal times" but said rather than pulling back from prevention we should lean in harder.

The chief executive of the Independent Children's Monitor - Arran Jones - said Oranga Tamariki had a range of functions according to their strategic intention document.

"It ranges from the pointy end of the child protection system, which is the kids that are in state care, young people that are caught up in offending in the youth justice process.

"You've got those kids that are known to Oranga Tamariki, who report a concern, who may or may not have support and services being put to them."

Going back further, there were children that were not known to the agency, he said, and this was where prevention and early support services were funded.

He said they were talking about around 237,000 children a year.

The most recent data showed there were 4,026 children in Care and Protection custody and 164 in Youth Justice custody, as of 30 November 2024.

As of 30 November 2023, there were 4,196 children in Care and Protection custody and 168 in Youth Justice custody.

Jones said if you are not doing work in the prevention and early intervention end, there is a greater cost downstream.

Jones provided an example in Tauranga, where there was no longer any supported bail or mentor programmes available, and some providers were not able to accept any further referrals because the contract had been cut.

"So these are direct impacts that are likely to lead to increased offending and in terms of an investment approach, economically, a greater cost."

Jones said irrespective of changes in funding levels, "we should all be concerned about" the number of children living in New Zealand at risk of harm.

"Something more needs to be done because the status quo and where we currently are at isn't acceptable."

OT's response

Oranga Tamariki's Darrin Haimona said he was unable to indicate the total number of services cut or reduced, but acknowledged there had been a "reprioritisation" of the more than $500 million dollars worth of funding allocated.

The focus was on the "needs of children," Haimona said.

He explained the agency received 77,000 reports of concern last year. He then described 17,000 young people on the "edge of care" and 4000 children "in care."

Oranga Tamariki was also responsible for those in Youth Justice facilities.

When asked about the 237,000 children not known to Oranga Tamariki that might be affected by cuts, Haimona said 40 percent of the more than $500m of funding is "dedicated to prevention and early intervention."

"So where we might have shifted some of those services and reprioritised them overall, the investment remains the same."

Haimona confirmed the dedicated 40 percent would remain "roughly" the same from the previous financial year, to the next.

"There's some variations to that, but roughly, absolutely - our intent is around 40 percent of our funding is at a prevention end."

He said Oranga Tamariki "can't fund everything," so it must use the evidence and analysis it to inform decisions.

Haimona acknowledged earlier support was better, "but we still have some legislative responsibilities to deliver on."

"The minister has asked us to focus clearly on those core parts of the business - not exclusively - but she wants assurances, and I agree with her, that those core roles, those children that we know about with known needs is being met and we can account for it."

When asked about the possibility of more children in care next year, Haimona said they would respond to that demand in need, adding they were already seeing an increase in the number of reports of concern that were coming through "in the last two years."

"So we anticipate that that is going to be a matter that we need to address. So I don't think that that's a question of if it will. I think what I'm saying is that that is our constant experience."

He said it was unfair to say Oranga Tamariki was responsible for those numbers.

There was a range of reasons that bring children into care, he said such as mental health, disabilities, unstable housing or lack of income and safety concerns.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.