The children's ministry will act on an Ombudsman's report into a controversial 'reverse uplift' by looking into the way it makes submissions to the Family Court. Listen to an audio report on the damning Ombudsman inquiry.
Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive Chappie Te Kani has agreed to liaise with Principal Family Court Judge Jackie Moran to review the agency’s policies and procedures relating to court documents being submitted by social workers.
This follows a stinging investigation finding from the Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier which calls out Oranga Tamariki social work practice for submitting misleading and unbalanced information to the court, flawed decision-making around transferring tamariki from their permanent placement, and contravening the Oranga Tamariki Act.
The Ombudsman’s investigation was into a case which featured on Newsroom Investigates and became known as “the reverse uplift”. Late in 2020 tamariki Māori siblings were uplifted from their Home for Life placement with their long time Pākehā foster carers and moved to live with extended whānau.
Newsroom’s latest story, Breaking Bad Practice, includes the damning Ombudsman’s report and details the deeply concerning background story.
The audio version and a brief history of our extensive coverage of child uplifts in Aotearoa New Zealand is here:
Te Kani went on to tell Newsroom he has accepted the failures the Ombudsman identified: “I apologise unreservedly for the deep distress and harm that we have caused the caregivers, whānau, and tamariki at the heart of this case.”
Asked repeatedly what has happened to the social workers and staff directly involved with misleading the courts, Te Kani and his communications staff kept behind employment contracts: “I am not able to go into detail about individual employment matters due to privacy considerations, but measures have been taken to ensure staff have the right policy, guidance, training and tools to make important and complex decisions with whānau about care arrangements for loved ones.”
Newsroom has reiterated to Oranga Tamariki’s communications team it is in the public interest to know if there are repercussions at Oranga Tamariki for what is clearly malpractice.
When asked whether Oranga Tamariki notified the Social Workers Registration Board of the concerns about the social work practice raised in the Ombudsman’s report, Te Kani said at this stage it had not.
Vivienne Martini, a retired senior social work practitioner and educator, told Newsroom Oranga Tamariki’s responses were a “snow job”.
“Any other professional group is reported to their professional body when their practice falls below standard and causes significant harm. Are OT social workers exempt? Midwives, nurses, doctors and lawyers have been sanctioned for less. At the very least there should be a competency review by the independent and relevant professional group.”
“The wheels of PR are grinding away and there is nothing in the rhetoric coming out of Oranga Tamariki head office which offers any guarantee that anything has changed. It is tired old rhetoric. The failures should have been picked up by OT’s systems and staff - the same ones it is saying it will use to fix the problems.
“The CE has always engaged with the Principal Family Court Judge. This is nothing new. The issue at the heart of this case (and many more) is there is no consistent quality of practice, across the board.
“Every OT case is complex. They are dealing with vulnerable children, not a problem with a flat tyre. Supervision is arbitrary and is often neglected when operationally driven issues arise.”
The Ombudsman’s report includes 10 recommendations directed at Oranga Tamariki which are detailed in the audio (link above) and video versions of the Breaking Bad Practice story.
They include that Oranga Tamariki undertake an assessment of the children’s current whānau placement as soon as possible, part of which involves finding out the children’s own preferences for where they want to live.
“We had expected to be able to complete the assessment of the children’s placement by April 21 and are keeping the Ombudsman’s office up to date with our progress. We have asked for a brief extension to ensure both whānau have had an appropriate amount of time to digest the findings and so are working to a completion date of May 5,” Te Kani told Newsroom.
Key to this is the individuals selected to undertake the assessment. Newsroom had earlier asked this question of Nicola Atwool, an associate professor, specialist in social work and leading authority on attachment trauma. “My preference would always be a child psychotherapist.” said Atwool.
Newsroom asked Oranga Tamariki who would be doing this specialist assessment.
Te Kani said: “The assessment is being completed by Oranga Tamariki social workers, with the support of senior social work staff from our Quality Practice & Experiences group, under the oversight of the Regional Manager and with independent guidance and advice from an external registered social worker.”
Atwool said in response that these social workers and staff would need “very good support and preferably additional training over and above their social work degree. I hope they have chosen carefully.”
In its response to Newsroom’s questions, Oranga Tamariki also pointed to its new Practice Framework to illustrate changes it had made, which it says “places the rights of tamariki, whānau and those who care for and support them at the centre of our practice. It helps social workers to appropriately balance these rights, particularly when there may be tension, and draws on the social worker’s professional obligations.”
But Martini says this is the third Practice Framework to be implemented in the past six years.
“The system is broken. There are the same old people in positions of power spending inordinate amounts of money to try and fix something that should be buried. Policy, frameworks and procedures are only useful if the system supports it. In my experience the OT leadership put band-aids on festering wounds, called it the brave new practice world of OT and watched while everything failed, yet again. There’s an old saying, ‘If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got’.”
Links to other newsroom stories on Oranga Tamariki and uplifts:
Taken by the state
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/08/07/41459/taken-by-the-state
NZ’s own ‘taken generation’
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/investigations/nzs-own-taken-generation
OT returned injured boy to Flaxmere home
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/02/19/1043966/watch-ot-returned-injured-boy-to-flaxmere-home
Whistleblower video shows assault on state care kids
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/alarm-at-physical-restraints-of-kids-in-care
A plea for help, then descent into hell
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/investigations/plea-for-help-then-descent-into-hell
* Made with the support of the Public Interest Journalism Fund *
