Oranga Tamariki chief executive Chappie Te Kani told Parliament there would be some adjustments to his original plan to save $58.5 million which would be released to the organisation next Wednesday (file picture). Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Oranga Tamariki says it has changed its public sector cuts proposal so that fewer lawyers' jobs would be shed, so as not to put service delivery at risk.
Its chief executive Chappie Te Kani told MPs on Wednesday this was actually due to the fact that its lawyers were doing more than they should.
"We've got ourselves in a place as an organisation where our legal services have probably done more than they should and have usurped the role of social workers in some cases," he said.
"The lawyers that I proposed to be disestablished would actually put at risk the delivery of those services."
His original plan was to save $58.5 million, and after getting feedback, he had been working for the last month to minimise impacts.
"I've been very transparent in our advice to the government that the work we are doing will have an impact in some shape or form - this is where I drew the line," Te Kani told MPs.
The original proposal was to cut almost 450 jobs, including not filling vacancies.
"I have made some adjustments to the proposals that will be released to the organisation next Wednesday.
"The primary reason being ... ensuring we've got business continuity to minimise as much as possible risk to the delivery of services."
No front-line services would be cut when he released his final decision on the cuts next Wednesday, he reiterated.
"We stand here confident in the changes that we are about to make, and the plan we have to roll out those changes."
Children's Minister Karen Chhour told the committee no one could guarantee perfection, but OT would have child-centred services that worked well.
Karen Chhour Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
That would include giving social workers comprehensive information much more quickly about at-risk children via a data technology revamp, Chhour said.
The existing system was like "an old metal filing cabinet" where some data could never be found, MPs heard.
"We currently have a system that does not do that, so we come back to gaps in the system, information gaps, information falling through the cracks," Te Kani said.
The new data system would be "an absolute game changer" for staff and whānau, he said.
A social worker starting a new plan for a child would save four hours compared to how long that took now.
"We also want it to be interoperable with other agencies so we send the information across every part of the system as it pertains to that tamariki," he said.
That would include more data sharing by OT with health and education agencies.
However, Oranga Tamariki has confirmed to RNZ that it rescoped the data system project amid problems last year, downgrading it to a lesser scope of only a "minimum viable product".
Te Kani and Chhour were quizzed on why $30m was being cut from Oranga Tamariki's budget.
This was money not spent by contracted providers who failed to deliver some services, Te Kani said.
Having taken six months to identify and get back the $30m the work they were now doing was on what new contracts would be put in place, with safety as the number one priority, and care and protection number two.
Chhour said they had also clawed back $42m she said had been sitting around unspent since it was assigned in 2019 for community home upgrades.
A new plan and budget bid would be needed to use such money to upgrade rundown youth justice and care and protection homes, she said.
Chhour was also asked by committee member Labour's Willow-Jean Prime what the government's new boot camps were costing per child.
A pilot camp based at a youth justice facility, using curriculum with input from the Defence Force, is expected to open in late July, putting up to 10 teenagers already in detention into a military-style academy system that runs for three months inside, then nine months in the community.
Chhour said $29m was going on the camps and system as a whole, which RNZ revealed last week - ahead of a government announcement expected later this week - aims to match one-on-one mentoring and rehab, with "military" activities.
She defended the approach, when the spectre of the failed attempts at similar camps was raised by Prime.
"I can guarantee that we'll do better, and we'll make sure that these young people know that they deserve to have somebody that cares enough to try to make a difference in their lives."
Only teenage offenders already in youth justice facilities will be in the pilot camp, but law changes would allow courts to send teens to a military style academy in future, the minister said.
