This privacy statement explains how we collect, use and share information for monitoring the Oranga Tamariki (National Care Standards and Related Matters) Regulations 2018.
This statement applies to information gathered by us, our contractors, or any other third parties engaged by us. It also explains how you can make a complaint about how we handle that information, and how you can request your information from us.
We do not use or share personal information except as set out in our enabling powers discussed in this policy.
As an evidence informed organisation, Aroturuki , the Independent Children’s Monitor (the Monitor), collects, uses, shares and stores a range of data and information.
We are committed to respecting the information we hold and to keeping it safe. We have systems and safeguards in place to control how we collect, manage, use and share information.
We are committed to being a kaitiaki (steward) of that data and information.
Being a kaitiaki means we make sure that what we do is ethical and legal, and that we met our obligations, including those under the Treaty of Waitangi, such as having a working partnership with Māori and on data issues that affect and matter to them.
We only collect information that is essential to our work and follow our and for how we do this. Our role as kaitiaki is explained in more detail in our Caring for Data and Information Handbook and our Code of Ethics. Our kawa and tikanga for how we work is also on our website.
To help us monitor the Oranga Tamariki (National Care Standards and Related Matters) Regulations 2018, we receive information about the Care Standards directly from agencies with custody and care responsibilities. These agencies are currently Barnardos, Open Home Foundation and Oranga Tamariki.
The information we receive is already anonymised (we cannot link it to anyone directly), and we treat it with the same care as the information we gather directly from those we speak with in the community.
Understanding the quality of care also requires us to listen to the voices of experience. To do this, we follow our Code of Ethics which includes only speaking with people if we have your informed consent.
If we with you as part of our monitoring, we may ask you for personal information such as:
The purpose of asking for any personal information is help us to understand what is working well in the care system and what needs to improve. We only ask for information we need to help us do this, and if you do not feel comfortable providing us with this information, you don’t have to. We ask you for your name and contact details so we can share back our findings from our community visit with you after our kōrero.
All information recorded and held by us will be de-identified. This means that information should not be able to identify you or link to you. An exception to this is where we are concerned for your safety, or the safety of someone else, or a serious crime has been committed. If this happens, we will discuss it with you first, as long as it is safe to do so.
We are committed to keeping your information safe and secure. We use laptops to immediately store any information we capture doing our monitoring kōrero. This means that the data is immediately encrypted and secure.
You can find more information about how we record information during monitoring kōrero here in our How we note take .
Only staff who need to see the information we collect, can access it. Your information is not accessible to any other kaimahi, or by any other government department (including our host, the Education Review Office) unless required by the Privacy Act 2020.
Where we have collected your information for monitoring purposes, we keep your personal details digitally for four weeks following the community visit, at which point we securely erase all identifiable data such as contact details and names.
We keep your personal details for this long so we can provide you with a summary of what we heard across the visit.
We will only use personal information provided to us for monitoring activities. When we publish monitoring reports, we take care to make sure you cannot be identified.
We will not share your information with anyone outside Aroturuki in a way that could identify you, other than the following ways:
You have the right to access any personal information we hold about you. You also have the right to request correction of that information.
Please note that we 'de-identify' all information gathered from our monitoring visits. De-identification means that we remove any names or places from our notes so we don't know who the information came from. Because of this, we are only able to provide or correct personal information from our monitoring interview notes before de-identification is done. Usually this will be within four weeks of the last of the monitoring visit.
If you were part of a group hui, we are unable to release these notes due to the need to also protect the privacy of other participants.
If you would like to see the personal information we hold about you, change that information, or withdraw your consent for us to use it, please get in touch with us. We will need to see proof of your identity before we provide you with any personal information.
You can write to us at:
Aroturuki
PO Box 202
Wellington 6011
Email us info@aroturuki.govt.nz
Phone us on 0800 777 232 or text us on 3701
Feedback is important and is used to evaluate and improve our practices. If you provide feedback about our practice directly to the Monitor via our website or our email info@aroturuki.govt.nz
Your feedback will be sent to nominated staff. We may also pass on relevant comments to other people within the Monitor where it is appropriate to do so. They may receive your contact details through this process so they can respond to you accordingly.
If you have any enquiries or concerns about our information gathering or believe that we have not acted in accordance with this statement, you can email us at info@aroturuki.govt.nz or tell us here.
If you are not satisfied with our response to any privacy-related concerns you may have, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner:
Office of the Privacy Commissioner
PO Box 10-094
Wellington, New Zealand
Tel: +64 4 474 7590
Enquiries Line: 0800 803 909
Email: enquiries@privacy.org.nz