As some of you may be aware, I spent part of last year locked in a private battle with the Bureaucratic Gods of Wellington for repeatedly posting blogs that pointed out the dark tactics the State were prepared to go to undermine State abuse victims.
My point was that we have ample evidence of these behemoth Ministry’s with enormous power hiding and minimising their culpability for abuse and in the year we held a Royal Inquiry into historic State abuse, that removing the Children’s Commissioner oversight on Oranga Tamariki was obscene self interest.
The State doesn’t want a truly independent voice investigating abuse in State care and rather than extend the Children’s Commissioner oversight, they bundled it away into the bloody Education Review Office, because you know, nothing says laser like investigations and resourcing like the Education Review Office right?
They didn’t manage to notice students were being abused at Dilworth for 3 decades, but hey who is counting?
Now, I recently reminded everyone of this madness when I criticised the appointment of Carmel as Deputy because this is all on her.
I asked why no one was being genuinely critical of her time as Minister. She implemented none of the Expert Panels welfare recommendations, she sanctioned 4000 disabled beneficiaries on welfare and she didn’t extend the Children’s Commissioner oversight over OT.
Those posts were read far and wide, and knowing State Services monitors this blog, lo and behold look what just magically pops up on TVNZ news today…
Watchdog finds Oranga Tamariki failing to meet care regulations
…no way!
You have to read this in full…
Over three years after new legislation set the minimum care standards for a child in state custody, Oranga Tamariki is still failing to meet requirements.
That’s the finding of the second annual report from Aroturuki Tamariki, the Independent Children’s Monitor, which was set up to measure compliance with the regulations.
The Experiences of Care in Aotearoa report is based on monitoring data and surveys with people involved in the care system.
“It remains difficult to measure and understand if Oranga Tamariki is making meaningful change in meeting its regulatory obligations to tamariki and rangatahi in its care,” Aroturuki Tamariki Executive Director Arran Jones said in a press release.
“To learn from past mistakes, it is crucial that Oranga Tamariki close these gaps in knowledge as quickly as possible.
“Oranga Tamariki need to self-monitor and collect data in a way that fulfils its regulatory obligations and commitments to tamariki and rangatahi, and their whānau, whose lives are impacted by being in care,” Jones said.
Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children is a focus for the report as 99% of the 6,398 children in care are in its custody, but Open Home Foundation and Barnardos were also monitored.
Some of the findings about Oranga Tamariki include caregivers and home environments are not always fully assessed before children move in, the requirement to self-monitor compliance with the National Care Standards is not being met, lack of access to mental health services is still a barrier for children’s health and the agency couldn’t provide data for the watchdog to establish if the health and education needs of tamariki in care are being met.
In the 2021/2022 reporting year, 53% of children in care were registered with a general practitioner, down from 60% in the previous year.
The report also reveals 65% of tamariki were visited by their social worker in line with their plan for visits.
In a published response to the Independent Children’s Monitor, Oranga Tamariki states how it has made progress on the issues detailed in the report and what it will now do.
“We are pleased the Monitor notes some progress has been made with our self-monitoring and agree that further work is needed to continue to strengthen our self-monitoring approach so that we are fully compliant with the NCS Regulations,” the agency stated about achieving the national care standards.
The agency said the finding that caregiver assessments are not always occurring is “concerning” and is being investigated with urgency to fix the problem.
Oranga Tamariki has been through a period of reform after multiple damning reviews into the agency were released.
Former chief executive Grainne Moss resigned in 2021 after facing criticism for the agency’s treatment of Māori.
…ok.
While reading that, did you note at any state during that news story that this is the new replacement to the Children’s Commissioner?
Does it note that they are actually inside the Education Review Office?
And look at the stats they are claiming, it’s all box tickling stuff, that’s not whether or not children are being abused in state care!
This is a very deceptive take on the issue.
It’s not explained anywhere who they are and you can barely find any mention of their true nature when you go on their purposely obtuse website.
So The Daily Blog has a history of being monitored by State Services; we are highly critical of a replacement of the Children’s Commissioner and associate that with a Wellington Bureaucracy Elite desire to limit independent oversight of abuse in state care; we remind people of Carmel’s role in that and lo and fucking behold an article via press release comes out on the State Broadcaster from the very group inside the ERO that we have been critical of proclaiming some watchdog feature???
This reeks of political damage control and it is deeply deceptive to the NZ public.
This isn’t Deep State, it’s Dumb State!
The basic bureaucratic mechanics of Oranga Tamariki are not the bloody problem! Young people being abused within the system is the fucking problem and without the Children’s Commissioners Independence, this is just a fucking paint job that looks like accountability!
It’s like there is a clear agenda to undermine any really critical oversight that might embarrass the State.
None of this is being done for the welfare of the child, it’s all being done for the welfare of the State!
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99% of the wards are in Ministry facilities, huh?
Perhaps this is what they consider to be the “real problem”. Lobbyists might wander by, waving around huge political donations, and offer the “solution” of privatising everything. Such “contractors” are turning into a common racket in the social services.
You have to wonder why cleaning up NZ’s abuse to children is so hard for OT and why they keep getting derailed onto bizarre court cases like the little girl removed from Pakeha foster parents after years with bogus reports that were proved to be false (aka close to grandmother/ who was later found to be dead thus clearly made up.)
OT needs more transparency not less!
Surely OT must be excellent and a leading provider to the children under its care otherwise why would you reward the minister in charge with the role as deputy PM ???
Trevor. Every now and then, the monarchs of misrule step through some murky looking glass, and continue right up to the Bowen State Building – or whatever Lego-cube houses the uncivil civil servants – and so we see a dirtied duck appointed a diplomat, and a person responsible for vamoosing
the only independent overseer of our vulnerable children, rising to the top just like the scum on some old Granny’s stew. It’s called politics, neo-lib style, and it needs to change.
I wonder what she has on Hipkins that he promoted her?
The KrautWW The ability to rake in the Pacifica vote without even trying.
Another Labour Government howler.
Wrong again. The current iteration of Oranga Tamariki (previously Child, Youth & Family, Social Welfare) was developed fully by National as a long-term means of saving a few dollars longer term by actively targeting some people in the community. The only connection with Labour is that after nearly 2 terms in government – they have not done anything to change the trajectory of this National developed bellyflop.
State Services? Peter Hughes, who maybe doesn’t know when his spoofs are employing spoofs ? And now they’re gobbledygooking ?
Maybe I’ll return to this after a strong coffee, but up and down the country, came rumblings and retchings at Sepuloni being uplifted after downlifting the Commissioner for Vulnerable Children, and the back room boys in the Education Review Office need to ponder the fact that smarter persons than they, much smarter, and much more achieved persons, are deeply concerned about this crude double whammy protecting those employed to do the protecting, and who pays the price ? Not them, but the most vulnerable of all, and no platitudes or cliches or euphemisms can put a gloss on that.
Nor are the punters dumb enough to think that referencing Grainne Moss’s going implies a culpability on her part which in fact may not exist at all. Seems to me that Ms Moss withdrew to help defuse a shonky situation, and that these clodhoppers need to tread a little more carefully, if they know how.
“State Services? Peter Hughes, who maybe doesn’t know when his spoofs are employing spoofs ? And now they’re gobbledygooking ?”
Oh come on @ Snow White. You’re being FAR too charitable.
Every time I come across the old queen, he adds more to my conviction that He’s been riding the wave for years. He’d be better off retiring and popping up somewhere as a consultant. Or maybe just buying himself a Mr Green franchise if the zimmer frame doesn’t get him first
100%
Oh come on @OncewasTim, Peter Hughes is the Michael J Fox of the Public Service, started off as a mail room clerk at Social Welfare, and worked his way up to the too and became CE. And he once fired a guy for racism, on the spot, without following due process. Few civil servants would have the gumption to do that. After Christine Tinkerbell Rankine, where 4 or 5 different radios could be playing on different stations in the one workspace simultaneously, he could only have been an improvement.
If I were him now, I would ask the lads at the Education Review Office, to explain exactly what they are up to by throwing Grainne Moss under the bus, albeit an invisible Wellington bus. She’s probably signed an NDA as part of her exit, and by citing her as if she was the problem at Oranga Tamariki, they’re pitching a slimey ball. This is the quintessential woke game at play here.
Yep, WAY BACK when. That’s one of the problems as ladders are climbed and people get more comfy.
Couldn’t agree more with your second paragraph re asking officials to explain themselves.
I’m possibly a little biased as I’ve said to you before. (I lost count of the number of FGCs I attended and having to watch 4 relatives go through the process under both CYFS and OT). It’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
I can’t wait for the excesses of the gender woowoo kindness meted out to gender non conform kids is bubbling up, one detransitioner after the other.
You are correct it is only to protect the state. The state under L and N has no fucks to give for the people. He Tangata can get fucked in the eyes of these autocrats.
Thank you Martyn for keeping on OT…those poor kids, and their families
of course OT are failing kids, they are a political dept not a child care dept.
CYFS have never been a paragon of a successful ministry/dept but they certainly haven’t had the absolute shambles of results/outcomes since their move to a new maori moniker and maori based management and ‘maori outcomes’!
Should be held up as the poster child of what happens when the NZ govt gives up and allows one class of NZrs to run a ministry/dept with seemingly no accountability.
Rename it back to CYFS and clean out the top management with people who have the qualifications and history of results and not based on the colour of their skin or tribal affiliations.
I think you’ve got it by george you’ve got it I’m Right. How can it be – a double rainbow – that I am agreeing with you. Keep up the practical ideas will you, we need them. Do people agree with this, seems a useful step change towards great improvement and accountability?
Should be held up as the poster child of what happens when the NZ govt gives up and allows one class of NZrs to run a ministry/dept with seemingly no accountability.
Rename it back to CYFS and clean out the top management with people who have the qualifications and history of results and not based on the colour of their skin or tribal affiliations.
But I would add, not have those with rigid religious affiliations that are unabating in vilifying those who don’t conform with their prejudices and practices, and those who lack good socialisation from parental leadership and role modelling. With a period of social training suitable to the age and mentality of the person, CYF could do so much more as outlined by Celia Lashlie and people like Kim Workman and other good and knowledgable citizens.
It’s disgraceful.
If ever there was a need for a policy “reset”, this disgraceful fuckup is it.
You can understand why oversight “pivoted” to Edge-a-fication given both Chippy and Septicemia’s background.
So far, Chippy isn’t really giving himself a fresh start is he! He can recover things but sure as shittings in this space, going forward, he’s running out of time.
I’m not into gambling, but I’d put money on JA in a few years having a few regerts as Neve grows up and begins to see the world. It’ll be the complete and utter failure of abused children in state care and the failure to make EVEN minimal change. She was failed by several of Her Munsters, and even more of Her “officials”
So be it. (next time maybe)
I keep saying, how are the ERO going to monitor the welfare of OT children when such children might not even be in the education system yet (i.e. under 5)?
Thomas Legal or procedural irregularities can be addressed by legislation pushed through under urgency at the week’s end when Parliament is half empty, just like it’s inhabitants’ heads.
Be really interseting to know what the comparative ratings for Barnados etc were against OT? Dont suppose it mentions that in the article?
I’ll say it again, Eff the ideology, wokeness, bureaucracy and PUT THE CHILD FIRST.
That must be the start point and the end point for their work. If at any step of the process, they cant answer yes to that, they shouldnt be doing it. Point 1 is the Child physically and psychologically safe? All the rest, culture, politics, bureacracy etc comes 2nd, 3rd etc.
I hate to say this as everything has well and truly been kept under wraps since Moana” but I predict that in the fulness of time, what we find out about this period since Moss left, will not be pretty.
And this is another area Hipkins will not tackle. Same old same old, Chippie is just a new gender, rebranded version of JA. And people are falling for it.
Fantail Yep, the reasons Sepuloni dumped responsible OT oversight and substituted consultants with dodgy CV’s, and faceless minions from elsewhere, are flawed; an Ombudsman ruling could be best at this stage.
Yo u could be correct @GA. I’m not so sure she’s ekshully that bright.
Very pleased she’s broken through that “glass ceiling”. VERY VERY pleased. That’s a wee bit of progress after all.
However, not so sure she has the ability to deliver to Her ‘demographic’ what She professes to stand for. Cargo Cultists are alive and well it seems. So be it. Give it a run and see how it goes. Just don’t frikken moan afterwards in disappointment. And please don’t worry about Her welfare afterwards – she’ll get everything she desires. Hero worship and all the rest of it.
May She be remembered for what She is. Whatever that is – you choose. (In my mind, she’s not too far from being a bit of an evil bitch, AND with a real mean streak)
If the children don’t come first then what’s the point?