More children abused in care, report finds

Between July 2023 and June last year, 507 of 5722 children were abused or neglected while in the custody of Oranga Tamariki.

The number of those in state care had decreased but those experiencing abuse had increased from 497 in the previous year and 459 the year before that.

Most of the abuse continued to happen in secure residences, mostly by other young people and when children were returned to their parents’ care while in the custody or Oranga Tamariki.

For those returned home, supports were not always in place for the parents, and social workers were not visiting when they should, the report found.

The fourth report by Aroturuki Tamariki – Independent Children’s Monitor on Experiences of Care in Aotearoa found underlying issues were continuing to go unaddressed.

The findings come as a formal apology was delivered to survivors of abuse in state care by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in November, following the final report from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry made public in July.

The report heard from more than 1800 people – tamariki, rangatahi, whānau, caregivers, social workers, and people who work in government agencies, non-government organisations and iwi and Māori organisations.

A third of children in state care were not being visited by their social worker as often as required, 60% of caregivers were not visited as planned and almost a third of rangatahi experienced no planning for their transition into adulthood.

The report looked at agency compliance with the National Care Standards Regulations which have been in place since 2019.

Most of the findings were about Oranga Tamariki, which had custody of almost 99% of children in care, Independent Children’s Monitor chief executive Arran Jones said.

Oranga Tamariki had assessed itself as meeting all of its own performance measures for 37% of children in its care.

The care standards were fundamentally about social work practice but the report found social workers were not always able to work effectively.

Reasons included a lack of care options resulting in social workers spending time struggling to find caregivers and recruitment freezes and vacancies, compounded by a workforce shortage, leading to high case loads.

“It’s risk. It’s high risk, it’s so unsafe with such high case loads. The recommended numbers are 20 children for each social worker. It balances out with wiggle room, but 50+ is beyond wiggle room,” one social worker said.

One rangatahi said their social worker never checked in with them. “I would have to ask her to catch up, my social worker would reply ’maybe in a few weeks’ two months later.”

Another tamariki said they had “20 odd different social workers, leaving, not doing anything” and had not been able to stick to their plan to help get them home.

Oranga Tamariki was also not meeting requirements to prepare young people leaving care and were not prioritised for Government services.

Only 14% of rangatahi were referred to transition services when they became eligible at 15 years old and just over half did by the time they turned 16.

But Oranga Tamariki were not alone in being responsible to care and protect children who were in state care, Jones said.

“All government agencies need to see themselves as guardians of these children and make sure they are safe, well cared for, and have their needs met.”

The report heard of constant stand-offs between Government agencies over who was responsible for paying with social workers, caregivers and whānau having to seek out services and supports child-by-child.

It relied on established relationships and goodwill rather than being a system that automatically responded to need.

“The issues identified in our latest Experiences of Care in Aotearoa report are not new,” Jones said.

“We are already eight months into the next reporting period and, based on what we have heard so far from our most recent monitoring visits, we are unlikely to see improvement in our next report.”

Contract funding decisions across 2024 and 2025 had damaged relationships, and restricted services that social workers could call on, he said.

Oranga Tamariki acting chief executive Andrew Bridgman said he was “deeply concerned” that insufficient progress had been made and acknowledged the work that needed to be done to improve outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi.

The findings would be addressed with a focus on improving the safety and wellbeing of tamariki in care, Bridgman said.

It had already established the Child Protection Investigation Unit to investigate harm to tamariki, identify systemic failures, provide a voice for survivors, and promote accountability. The Government was also investing $68.5 million to update frontline technology systems.

“There is a clear challenge to all children’s agencies to do everything possible to better meet the needs of tamariki in care. This includes closer collaboration, prioritising services, and ensuring funding and support follows the child.”

Minister for Children Karen Chhour said no amount of abuse or neglect was acceptable.

Since becoming minister, she had been clear with Oranga Tamariki that they needed to improve their engagement with children in their care and a need for greater reporting of harm in care, she said.

“Significantly more social workers have been recruited in the last financial year, and this should ease the burden on our passionate and dedicated frontline.”