11 Actions

There are 4 types of actions that make up the Oranga Tamariki Action Plan: 

1. Short term practical steps that are making change happen now.
2. Building an evidence-based picture of unmet needs.
3. Meeting children’s and young people’s needs and building whānau resilience.
4. Preventing harm from a community level.

Children’s agency chief executives will clarify expectations to frontline decision-makers and operational staff of the requirement to meet the needs of the children, young people and whānau who are engaged with Oranga Tamariki or are likely to come to the attention of Oranga Tamariki.  

Longer-term, there will be a corresponding responsibility for agencies to report back on how they are fulfilling these responsibilities and what’s changed. 
 

Each agency will identify practical, high impact actions they can lead, and implement with other agencies as appropriate, to meet the needs of priority populations. 
 

Action 3 is that Oranga Tamariki will lead a series of in-depth assessments focused on housing, health and education. These will identify un-met needs and set a direction to improve services for these children and young people.

An evidence and indicator dashboard will be developed for regular, evidence-based discussions at meetings of the Social Wellbeing Board and Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy Ministerial Group. The dashboards will include insights and data on the needs and experiences of the population of interest, such as the number of children and young people referred for further health assessments, or assessed as having specific education needs.

Evidence and data will be provided to regional leaders to inform community-led planning and the development of community solutions. 

Relevant agencies will work in conjunction with Oranga Tamariki to respond to the findings and recommendations discussed in the in-depth assessments of need (action three) to identify options to improve access to services to meet the needs of the priority population.  

This could include options for expanding or replicating collaborative practices that are already working well, or broader system changes.  

The Ministry of Education and Oranga Tamariki will continue to progress a joint work programme to respond to the Education Review Office (ERO) Evaluation of learning in residential care.

As a part of the Highest Needs Review, the Ministry of Education is working with other agencies, including Oranga Tamariki, to consider how to align services and supports to ensure children and young people with the highest learning support needs, and their families and whānau, have access  to the right support for learning to occur.

Agencies will build a high-level cross-agency picture of early support/prevention investment to identify gaps and opportunities.

The Social Wellbeing Board will drive further collective cross-agency effort to develop and test an integrated network of health, social services and informal supports for children and whānau in the first 1000 days. This will done through a localised learning system approach that builds on the health sector early years prototypes.

Agencies will support a co-ordinated, locally led approach with community partners who are looking to lead and work collaboratively on prevention, with an initial focus on community-based and locally-led co-ordinated responses to reports of concerns.