“Whakatū Marae is good, they keep me busy not offending, we shelled kinas, they take me out, get me haircuts and stuff like that, bowling, golf, keeps me out of trouble.”
We met with 257 people in the Upper South community in August 2023. This included 33 and , 14 , 30 caregivers (whānau and non whānau), 18 representatives from kaupapa Māori / organisations / strategic partners, 78 Oranga Tamariki kaimahi, 8 Open Home Foundation kaimahi, 23 Police kaimahi, 23 representatives from other government agencies, and 30 representatives from non-government organisations.
Read the summary of our findings by downloading the PDF or reading the content below.
2,109 have had a report of concern about their safety or wellbeing
1,238 are receiving some form of intervention from Oranga Tamariki or a community provider (such as family group conference plans or support services)
2,186 are receiving youth justice services
178 are in custody and care
161 are in care and protection
17 are in youth justice
330 have left care and are eligible for post-care* services
* Post-care includes ages 0-20 and comes from 2021 IDI data. All other data has been provided by
Oranga Tamariki for May 2022 – April 2023.
There was region-wide concern about the lack of communication and response to reports of concerns by Oranga Tamariki.
Local community , interagency round tables and panels could be more effective if Oranga Tamariki regularly attended.
Service gaps and long waitlists for both community and government providers means that are not having their basic needs met, resulting in poor outcomes and requiring greater intervention from Oranga Tamariki and other government agencies.
Challenges recruiting and retaining staff are an issue across the region for some organisations, impacting the support provided to , rangatahi and .
“Whakatū Marae is good, they keep me busy not offending, we shelled kinas, they take me out, get me haircuts and stuff like that, bowling, golf, keeps me out of trouble.”
“Schools will go to police instead of Oranga Tamariki once they have submitted a ROC as the schools are frustrated as no one [at Oranga Tamariki] listens.”
“The waiting lists are just so long. So many complex needs …. There are not enough services … people wait so long for assessments – like 18 months. Like ICAMHS almost a year, STAND had a 2 year wait list for family therapy; just so long.”
24% of and in custody and care have a disability. The national average for tamariki in care is 15% (Oranga Tamariki acknowledge this significantly undercounts the prevalence of disabliity).
153 days is the average time it took to complete a Gateway Assessment. This is almost 50% longer than the national average of 105 days.
5% of rangatahi in the OTAP population were charged with low level offences in the last year.1 The national average is 3% of the OTAP population.
50% of reports of concern resulted in a no further action decision from Oranga Tamariki (57% in Blenheim, 55% in Nelson, 33% on the West Coast).1
The national average is 44%.
These statistics1 compare outcomes for and in Oranga Tamariki Action Plan priority populations (OTAP) to all other tamariki and rangatahi in the region (other).
| OTAP Regional | OTAP National | Other Regional | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ED admission in the last year | 22% | 19% | 15% |
| Potentially avoidable hospitalization in the last year | 3% | 3% | 2% |
| Truancy days in the last year (5–17 years old) | 6% | 9% | 1% |
| Two or more school changes over the last year | 0.7% | 1% | 0.2% |
| NCEA Level 2 or higher (14–20 years old) | 13% | 14% | 41% |
| 18-20 year olds NEET* for more than half of previous year | 77% | 75% | 42% |
* Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET)
1 These results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) which is carefully managed by Stats NZ. For more information about the IDI please visit https://www.stats.govt.nz/integrated-data/. Statistics are taken from the most recent (June 2021) dataset.