Oranga Tamariki and Te Whānau o Waipareira last month signed off a new strategic partnership. Photo / Supplied
Oranga Tamariki and Te Whānau o Waipareira last month signed off a new strategic partnership. Photo / Supplied
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Kelvin Davis is making an impassioned plea to Oranga Tamariki critics to give the new leadership and the thousands of hard-working staff a fair go.
Davis, the Childrens Minister, said the 4000-odd OT staff were doing an incredible job to keep tamariki placed within its care safe.
The deputy Labour leader says when OT make a mistake, its headline news but little is written about the almost 50,000 tamariki each year who do not get placed in care but have OT support and oversight watching over them.
"Around 50,000 children in New Zealand each year are prevented from going into care because Oranga Tamariki social workers are doing their jobs and supporting whānau," Davis told the Herald.
Davis continues: "We may not be perfect but we have to be perfect in our practice. I want to thank the OT staff because there are thousands and thousands of children who are safe because of them.
"It's easy to pounce on mistakes, and we don't want mistakes to happen. But every day these people are making complex decisions about people's complicated lives with real variables and twists and turns and have to make good decisions in the pressure of the situation."
Childrens Minister Kelvin Davis says OT staff deserve some respect. Photo / NZME
Since taking over as Childrens Minister in 2020, Davis said, there had been significant change within Oranga Tamariki starting from the top.
"There's a totally new leadership team. The people around the OT leadership table when I started are no longer there," he said.
"The Māori Advisory Board brought in looked under the hood of OT, and now we have a future direction plan. One important issue for me is transferring resources and decisions to communities, iwi, hapu.
"It is also pleasing that, since 2017, the number of Māori baby uplifts has decreased by around 75 per cent.
"Whānau have always said we know how to look after our babies and we have to make sure they have those opportunities.
"It's unfortunate in this portfolio and my Corrections Portfolio that if something goes wrong, it goes terribly wrong and wipes out the good work and progress that's going on within OT and Corrections."
He said calls from political opponents for a standalone Mokopuna Authority were adding more bureaucrats to the already overcrowded bureaucrat city.
"Calls for a Mokopuna Authority is just adding another layer of bureaucracy," Davis said.
He also admitted some communities were not yet equipped to take on responsibility of care for tamariki in their rohe.
"There are communities I have gone to who have said they are not ready to take on that responsibility. Many don't have the capacity or capability, so that's going to take a big piece of work that will have communities working collaboratively to make decisions in the best interest of children and not in the interest of their organisations," Davis said.
"When this happens, I would like to think that no children will be injured or die when communities are responsible for that child. What happens if a child does pass away while in the community or iwi care?
"Who is going to stand up and say we got it wrong. OT always stands up and fronts mistakes that are made."
Will communities take that same responsibility if something goes wrong?.
Davis said the mistreatment of tamariki is a societal and community issue.
"If people think OT will sort this all on their own then we are missing the point," Davis said.
"There needs to be a nationwide approach to change. Everyone just looks for a scapegoat and OT has a massive target on its head.
"Social Workers need the right support to do their jobs. Their workloads are a massive issue but if a lot of their work goes to community, hapu and iwi, then that should help reduce their workloads and enable them to concentrate on certain roles."
