Part 1: Needs assessments and plans for tamariki and rangatahi in care

Compliance with NCS requirements to visit tamarikiClosetamariki
Children (plural) aged 0-13 yearsView the full glossary and rangatahiCloserangatahi
Young person aged 14 – 21 years of ageView the full glossary has not improved

The NCS RegulationsCloseNCS Regulations
(National Care Standards and Related Matters) Regulations 2018 View the full glossary require an assessment of how often tamariki and rangatahi need to be visited and to have this recorded in their plans. Visits are the primary way for social workers and tamariki to interact, for tamariki to share what is happening for them and for social workers to ensure plans take account of their emerging needs. Strong connections between social workers and tamariki, developed through regular high-quality visits, are the base for accurate needs assessments that reflect the individual tamariki and rangatahi and their specific context.

As with previous years, Oranga Tamariki data on social worker visits to tamariki and rangatahi shows that the standard – to visit tamariki and rangatahi at the frequency set out in their plans – is not being met for all tamariki and rangatahi in its care.

Oranga Tamariki lead indicator 10 shows that around two-thirds of tamariki and rangatahi in Oranga Tamariki custody are, on average, visited at the frequency set out in their plan or at least every eight weeks. Compliance with the NCS Regulations for regular visits has not improved since we began reporting five years ago.

Analysis of the 2024/25 data further shows that Māori were less likely to be visited than non-Māori, with 63 percent of tamariki and rangatahi Māori in care visited regularly compared to 73 percent of tamariki and rangatahi in care who do not identify as Māori. 

Compliance with social worker visits has not improved

Lead indicator 10 measures whether tamariki and rangatahi have received regular visits over the preceding 12 months. It includes:

• tamariki and rangatahi who were visited at the frequency specified in their assessment or plan
• where there is no frequency set in their assessment or plan or where tamariki and rangatahi were not visited at the required frequency, whether those tamariki were visited by their social worker at least once every eight weeks over the 12-month period.

The lead indicator draws from sample-based case file analysis and looks for evidence of regular visits over the 12-month review period. It is a stringent measure that is not met if a single visit over the 12 months is missed or late.

Further Oranga Tamariki data on these visits suggests that most of the tamariki and rangatahi who are visited at the frequency in their plan (or at least every eight weeks) are also receiving quality visits.

More than one-third of tamariki and rangatahi are not receiving regular and quality visits

The Oranga Tamariki 2024/25 Compliance with National Care Standards report³⁴ gives some further insight into how often tamariki and rangatahi in care are visited as well as the reasons visits did not take place. It notes that, of the 34 percent of tamariki and rangatahi who were not visited at the frequency they should have been (or at least once every eight weeks) over the 12-month period:

• 59 percent were visited at least six times 
• 88 percent were visited at least four times.

Accepting that there will sometimes be circumstances that prevent a visit that are outside the control of the social worker, this was not the case for most – 84 percent of the time, there were no factors outside the control of Oranga Tamariki that impacted its ability to visit. That such a high proportion of the reasons for visits not occurring is within Oranga Tamariki control underlines what we found in our 2023/24 Experiences of Care in AotearoaCloseAotearoa
New ZealandView the full glossary report that social workers are not always able to work effectively.

Although compliance with the NCS Regulations has not improved, Oranga Tamariki has prioritised visiting tamariki and rangatahi

In 2024, the Minister for Children identified social worker visits as a priority area for Oranga Tamariki. She instructed Oranga Tamariki to report quarterly, from September 2024, on the percentage of tamariki and rangatahi in its care who have been visited by their social worker at least once in the eight weeks prior.

The quarter three reporting on ministerial priorities³⁵ notes that Oranga Tamariki has had a significant focus on visits, including planning and preparing for visits as well as reviewing and updating plans with tamariki and their caregivers/whānauClosewhānau
Whānau refers to people who are biologically linked or share whakapapa. For the Monitor’s monitoring purposes, whānau includes parents, whānau members living with tamariki at the point they have come into care View the full glossary during visits. It notes it has used a variety of approaches and tools to support social workers to visit tamariki, including Whiti,³⁶ the agency’s practice approach ‘organising my practice’ tool, as well as close operational oversight and monitoring. In addition, it said it has provided additional resources to support sites with high workloads and provided guidance to support social workers to record what they are doing and how they evidence the actions they are taking to implement plans.³⁷

Most tamariki and rangatahi are visited in the eight weeks prior to quarterly reporting

The data shows the rate of visits to tamariki and rangatahi in care has been sustained since Oranga Tamariki reporting began in September 2024. However, we understand that this measure overcounts social worker visits. This is because the measure looks for evidence of a visit case note in the child’s record and automatically counts it as a visit that took place. It does this even when, on occasion, the visit case note is there to record in the system that the visit did not occur.

Oranga Tamariki advised that it has done case file analysis looking at whether and how often the measure overcounts visits and is looking to understand the impacts of what the case file analysis found. Once completed, this analysis will enable us to report more accurately on which of the visits measures reflect sustained social work practice over time.

We also note that the quarterly performance data is at a set point in time and does not consider key aspects of the NCS Regulations such as whether the visit occurred at the frequency in the child’s plan. While being visited once every eight weeks will meet the needs of some tamariki and rangatahi, others will need more frequent visits. Almost 30 percent of the tamariki and rangatahi in care who spoke with us about visits in our 2024/25 regional engagements told us they are visited more often than once every eight weeks.

Oranga Tamariki told us that the reporting for ministerial priorities is not intended to measure compliance with the NCS Regulations but to provide assurance that it is focusing on the Minister’s priority. The lead indicator measure of whether tamariki and rangatahi are visited at the frequency in their plan is a more useful indicator of whether visits are happening as often as they need to than the quarterly performance measure.

The Oranga Tamariki 2024/25 Compliance with National Care Standards report notes that, in March 2025, in response to our 2023/24 Experiences of Care in Aotearoa report, Oranga Tamariki developed a plan to improve the experiences of tamariki and rangatahi in care – the National Care Standards Action Plan.³⁹ One of the priority areas within this plan includes visits to tamariki and rangatahi in care. Unlike the quarterly performance reporting on social worker visits, the National Care Standards Action Plan is aligned to the requirements in the regulations.

The Oranga Tamariki 2024/25 Compliance with National Care Standards report states that work to advance the priority areas in the National Care Standards Action Plan has involved practice leaders championing, supporting and monitoring practice to meet the NCS Regulations at sites, weekly planning and support sessions with practice leaders and key national office functions, and the collation and sharing of data and information to support this work. It states that, while it is too soon to fully assess the impact of the National Care Standards Action Plan, early signs from case file analysis are promising. Case file analysis completed in May and June 2025 shows that 75 percent of tamariki and rangatahi were visited at the frequency in their plan, up from 62 percent in its earlier first and second rounds of case file analysis. We are therefore hopeful that, in our future reports, we may start to see improvement in compliance with the regulation to visit tamariki and rangatahi at the frequency in their plan.

Overall, when social workers visit tamariki and rangatahi, data indicates that engagements are good quality

In 2023/24, Oranga Tamariki introduced a new lead indicator that looks at whether there is evidence of quality engagement when tamariki and rangatahi are visited. As with last year, the 2024/25 data shows that, when they are visited, most tamariki and rangatahi receive quality engagement.

Most tamariki and rangatahi receive quality engagement when they are visited

The regulations set out what must happen when tamariki and rangatahi are visited. This includes:

• enquiring about the things that are going well for the child or young person
• asking about any concerns the child or young person may have
• discussing and seeking to understand matters that are important to them
• identifying whether their circumstances or needs have changed.

Oranga Tamariki assesses whether visits are quality engagements through case file analysis that looks for evidence in notes that these requirements are being discussed in visits.

Oranga Tamariki told us that it measures quality and frequency separately because this allows it to see where to focus its efforts based on where improvement is required. It told us that it collects data on both frequency and quality of visits but that this is not one of its lead indicators.

Some tamariki and rangatahi told us that having contact with their social worker helps improve their relationship. It makes them feel open to discuss things with their social worker and feel like their social worker cares about them.

Only a small number of tamariki and rangatahi specifically told us about poor-quality social worker visits. The reasons social worker visits were considered poor were that the tamariki and rangatahi thought the social worker had a poor attitude, did not listen to them or only saw them for a short time. Oranga Tamariki told us that its measure of good quality engagement is not based on a child’s perspective. However, it is difficult to see how Oranga Tamariki could evidence goodquality engagements without listening to tamariki and rangatahi and seeing them for sufficient time.

“[My last social worker would] pick me up, go out for hours. [She would ask] how things are going, how I am doing physically and mentally, what I needed, [she would] give me a full rundown, [cover off my] necessities and wants. With [current social worker], ‘You alive, want anything? Bye.’” RANGATAHI

Tamariki and rangatahi told us how important contact with their social worker is, but they can struggle to contact social workers between planned visits

Most of the tamariki and rangatahi in care who we met with during the reporting period talked about social worker visits, and most of these tamariki and rangatahi told us they are visited regularly or as often as they want. Tamariki and rangatahi tell us they value having time and contact with their social worker and that it makes a difference to their relationships with them.

“The latest [social worker] has been the best ‘cos she actually calls and lets me know she is coming. Before that I had only seen a social worker once or twice a year.” RANGATAHI

A small number of tamariki and rangatahi told us they did not see their social worker regularly.

“[Social worker is] a dickhead, and she’s always sick. She hasn’t visited me in two months. She doesn’t really care.” RANGATAHI

Some tamariki and rangatahi also mentioned contacting their social worker outside of planned visits. Of these, more than half told us that their social worker was difficult to contact. Some told us it takes a long time to get a reply from their social worker, and some told us their social worker doesn’t respond at all. A couple of rangatahi mentioned that they did not like that their social worker doesn’t proactively contact them, leaving them to initiate communication when they need something.

“I don’t even know if there is a relationship there at this point … I never heard from [social worker]. I rung her and she never rings you back or answers. I never had contact with her for three months straight. I don’t know why she was never there when I needed her.” RANGATAHI

“My social worker is useless … She does her job I guess, contact my family and courts and that, but I have to call her! Sometimes like my own lawyer, I reach out to [social worker]!” RANGATAHI

Some kaimahi from group homes and residences reinforced this view. They told us that not hearing from their social worker is frustrating and upsetting for tamariki and rangatahi.

“When kids want to talk with their social workers, they end up frustrated. It’s because either they don’t hear what they want to hear, or the social worker is not picking up the call. Or they will tell the kids, ‘I will get back to you’, but the kids end up hearing nothing.” RESIDENCE KAIMAHI

A small number of tamariki and rangatahi mentioned that they can contact their social worker when they want, and they are responsive.

“[I have a good relationship with my social worker] because she understood me when I didn’t think anyone else would have. When I really needed help, she would always be there. She just knows my situation well enough to do something about it.” RANGATAHI

Some kaimahi think visits don’t happen as often as they need to, particularly for tamariki and rangatahi in group homes and residences

About half of the frontline care and protection and youth justice social workers who discussed whether tamariki and rangatahi were visited regularly said that tamariki and rangatahi were not visited often enough. Other Oranga Tamariki kaimahi – including supervisors, practice leads and caregiver recruitment and support (CGRS) social workers – also mentioned social worker visits with tamariki and rangatahi. Most of these Oranga Tamariki kaimahi also told us that tamariki and rangatahi were not visited often enough.

Some group home and residence kaimahi told us social workers don’t communicate with or visit tamariki and rangatahi in the group homes and residences regularly.

“Young people like to have a visit, to see the social worker, especially if they’re not seeing family. [Name of site] is shocking. For example, this morning – rangatahi self-harmed three times. Video call to social worker, we said, ‘he [rangatahi] wants to see you and wants to reduce some anxiety as he doesn’t know what’s happening’. Social worker says, ‘I might come next week’. [Rangatahi] needs him now.” ORANGA TAMARIKI RESIDENCE LEADERSHIP

“We have a duty of care for kids. It’s not our job to remind social workers to come visit a child. It should be part of their job, the plan …” ORANGA TAMARIKI GROUP HOME LEADERSHIP

“Our kids are asking ‘when are they [Oranga Tamariki social workers] coming?’ … Sometimes I email, call, no reply. Then I try to get my family engagement worker on that. See if you have any luck with engaging. I’ve tried, she’s tried to get things moving. It’s made our job a little bit difficult to get the things we need to know.” ORANGA TAMARIKI GROUP HOME LEADERSHIP

Kaimahi from group homes and residences told us that not seeing their social worker impacts tamariki and rangatahi. It leaves tamariki and rangatahi vulnerable to poor outcomes and can affect the success of transitions.

“Nothing’s getting done for the kids, that’s why they’re in and out, in and out [of residence]. Sometimes they’re discharged and back in again. The majority don’t see their [Oranga Tamariki] social worker.” RESIDENCE KAIMAHI

“It’s rare we have [an Oranga Tamariki] social worker come in. On average, we might have a social worker come in once across a 12-week stay. It’s not good enough, it’s not showing kids they are working alongside them … When transition support isn’t as great, the evidence shows it. Where the social worker isn’t coming in, the transitions aren’t as successful.” ORANGA TAMARIKI GROUP HOME LEADERSHIP

A couple of group home and residence kaimahi mentioned that it is more evident that social workers are not visiting tamariki and rangatahi when the Oranga Tamariki social worker is based at a site outside the region of the group home or residence.

In our regional engagements, we also heard that online visits were being used more frequently, particularly to replace face-to-face visits with rangatahi in residences and group homes.

“[Oranga Tamariki social workers have] found a loophole that they can do a Teams call and that counts.” ORANGA TAMARIKI GROUP HOME KAIMAHI

In its written response to us, Oranga Tamariki advised that its visiting and engaging with tamariki and rangatahi in care policy notes state that “if the tamaiti [child] or rangatahi is in a residence or another region and their social worker cannot physically visit, a video call can be used to complete the visit, or a co-worker can be requested to visit”.

One Oranga Tamariki regional leader we met with told us they allocate funding within their budget to ensure social workers can travel to visit youth justice rangatahi face-to-face so that rangatahi can feel valued.

“If kids are out of the area in residence, I fly my team to have at least one face-to-face visit. Then [the social workers] have Teams huiClosehui
Meeting, gatheringView the full glossary with their rangatahi, but at least one of those [visits/catchups] per month has to be face to face. Staff don’t grizzle – they know it’s important.” ORANGA TAMARIKI LEADERSHIP

Needs assessments and plans have not yet improved, but they may do in future as a priority for Oranga Tamariki

Social worker visits are vital for making sure tamariki and rangatahi in care have their needs assessed and identified in their plans and that actions in their plans are then carried out. Ensuring tamariki and rangatahi in care have up-to-date All About Me plans is a priority under the National Care Standards Action Plan.

Oranga Tamariki data shows no improvement in needs assessments and plans either during the 2024/25 reporting period or across the last three years, also noting that Oranga Tamariki assesses itself at a standard lower than what the NCS Regulations require.

 Oranga Tamariki lead indicators on assessments and plans include a quality measure – it focuses not only on whether assessments and plans are completed but also on whether assessments look at immediate and long-term needs and whether plans contain actions. However, as reported previously,⁴⁰ these lead indicators do not provide an accurate measure of compliance with the NCS Regulations because the regulations require that plans are reviewed at least every six months. The lead indicators only look at whether assessments and plans are updated within a 12-month period.⁴¹ 

The proportion of tamariki and rangatahi in care with current, quality needs assessment has decreased

There has been no change in the proportion of tamariki and rangatahi in care with current, actionable plans

Because the lead indicators look at the quality of assessments and plans, as well as their completion, this data differs from other data provided by Oranga Tamariki that informs its performance reporting.

A higher proportion of tamariki and rangatahi in care had needs assessments completed, but this measure does not look at the quality of assessments. It does not consider whether needs assessments include both immediate and long-term needs.

Most tamariki and rangatahi in care have a current needs assessment, but this does not reflect the quality of those assessments

There has been a decrease in the proportion of tamariki and rangatahi with a current needs assessment. This may be explained by the natural decline in the use of the Tuituia assessment tool in the months before it was retired.

Oranga Tamariki introduced a new assessment tool during the reporting period

For a long time, Oranga Tamariki required the use of the Tuituia needs assessment tool for tamariki and rangatahi in care.⁴² Tuituia was replaced in March 2025 with a new needs assessment framework, Te Puna Oranga. Social workers are now required to use the Tiaki Oranga safety and risk assessment tool and produce an assessment report under Te Puna Oranga.

The 2024/25 Oranga Tamariki report on compliance with the NCS Regulations notes that Oranga Tamariki has designed guidance for social workers to help ensure assessments meet the requirements of the NCS Regulations. The report also states that, as social workers become more confident in the practice approach and in using the new assessment tool, compliance will increase.⁴³

Because many of our 2024/25 regional engagements took place before the introduction of Te Puna Oranga, it was only in Te Tai Tokerau (the last region we visited in 2024/25) that we heard about it from Oranga Tamariki kaimahi.

Oranga Tamariki leaders told us the new tool enables comprehensive assessments of tamariki and rangatahi needs and has been designed in a way that should prevent decisions being made based on ‘tick-box’ activities.

“Our Tiaki Oranga – Te Puna Oranga [decisionmaking] framework is about how we are slowing down our decision making and deepening our decision making. [It’s] no longer a tick-box exercise. That comes into our assessment writing … If someone hasn’t had a great care experience, then that is on us. We are keen to deepen our level of understanding.” ORANGA TAMARIKI LEADER 

However, some Oranga Tamariki social workers also told us there is a lack of support, in terms of both supervision and cultural competency, to put the training they have received on the framework into practice. They told us they worry that this creates a risk that personal, biased perspectives will be brought into kaimahi decisions.

“We could have more training. Tiaki Oranga new assessment framework [safety, risk screen] to replace Tuituia assessment tool has just been launched. We have no training on that and it feels like [assessment framework training] has been left behind.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SOCIAL WORKER

In our future reports, we will seek to understand how well the new assessment tool is being implemented by Oranga Tamariki. We understand that Tuituia was also a comprehensive assessment tool but that it was sometimes poorly used, with social workers able to fill it in with minimal information. This is why it was seen by some as a tick-box exercise.

Addressing the decline in completed assessments, Oranga Tamariki has now made it “mandatory that an Assessment Report is created or updated in order to progress some phases or interventions”.⁴⁴ We look forward to seeing greater use of Te Puna Oranga, as well as improved practice in needs assessments and assessment reports, in our forthcoming regional engagements.

Gateway assessments continue to be valued, but there are barriers to getting them

Gateway assessments are a cross-agency assessment process intended to identify the health and education needs of tamariki and rangatahi in care or custody and those who are the subject of family group conferences (FGCs).

In our regional engagements, we continue to hear from kaimahi in several agencies that Gateway assessments help prioritise access to services.⁴⁵ We heard from some kaimahi that good working relationships facilitate access.

“I think that is a real key asset of Gateway is getting kids seen. We can ring and say we are from Gateway, and [other departments of the hospital] respond and they react and the hospitals are committed to prioritising Gateway. We have waitlists, sure, but they are responsive to our referrals, and it’s great to be able to contact these services and advocate for the tamariki.” HEALTH KAIMAHI

However, we also heard there are barriers to accessing these assessments. Barriers include a shortage of services and issues around agency funding that cause long waitlists to get Gateway assessments completed.

This year, we also heard that funding cuts have created a barrier to accessing the services and supports identified as a result of the Gateway assessment process. This means that needs may be identified that cannot then be met.

“In the past, Gateway used to be good, and there was lots of money [attached to it] before. Now there is nothing, no funding attached to it. It has got to a point of becoming a bottleneck. Even if we do an assessment, we don’t get the money, so we don’t do any assessment here.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SITE MANAGER

The Gateway assessment is currently being redesigned under the Oranga Tamariki System Action Plan.⁴⁶ Progress reported in March 2025⁴⁷ included that Oranga Tamariki and the Ministries of Health and Education had completed detailed service design and options for implementation. A prototype for a new Gateway service had been designed, and agencies were working together to test the model in different regional settings.

We understand the full Gateway redesign is scheduled for completion at the end of 2027. This is a significant delay and follows decisions made in March 2025 by the Minister for Children, Minister of Education and Minister of Health to progress national improvements that can be implemented within baselines.⁴⁸

In addition to the Gateway redesign, in October 2025, the Government announced that Gateway will be reviewed by Oranga Tamariki and the Social Investment Agency to quantify the assessment’s reach, impact and return on investment. This review is expected to be completed by March 2026.

In the meantime, it remains essential that agencies address barriers to effective assessments and access to services.

Assessments can sometimes be easier to access in residences

We heard from kaimahi in some residences that needs assessments are easier to access and complete for tamariki and rangatahi in their care compared to tamariki and rangatahi in other care settings. Kaimahi told us that residences can be good places to undertake clinical assessments quickly because everyone involved is in one place.

“We see the stabilisation. We have the assessments done as they don’t run away. Besides assessments, we help with health needs. When they’re in the community, they can’t get their health needs met.” RESIDENCE KAIMAHI

However, we also heard from kaimahi that services and supports recommended as a result of needs assessments don’t necessarily follow rangatahi once they leave the residence and return to the community. When this happens, caregivers will not have relevant and important information to help them care for and support tamariki and rangatahi.

There has been no change in the completion of individual plans for tamariki and rangatahi in care

The National Care Standards Action Plan includes a focus on ensuring that all tamariki and rangatahi in care have an up-to-date All About Me plan and that these plans include actions to support connections to whānau/family, hapūClosehapū
Sub-tribeView the full glossary, iwiCloseiwi
TribeView the full glossary and family groups. All About Me plans incorporate key information in one place, setting out information about tamariki and rangatahi and who is responsible for which actions in the plan. Unlike court plans, All About Me plans have been designed in a way that is helpful for sharing with tamariki and rangatahi and their whānau and caregivers. 

While most tamariki and rangatahi in care had a current plan, most of these were not All About Me plans

Oranga Tamariki data shows that 95 percent of tamariki and rangatahi in care had a current plan in 2024/25 but not all of these were All About Me plans. Quarterly reporting to the Minister for Children on her priorities shows that, in the last quarter of 2024/25, only 38 percent of tamariki and rangatahi in care had a current All About Me plan⁴⁹ (no other types of plan are included in this measure).

Several Oranga Tamariki lead indicators focus on whether certain needs are assessed and identified in plans. 

Consideration of tamariki and rangatahi views in plans has remained consistent

Consideration of family/whānau views in plans has remained consistent

Further analysis shows that, among those tamariki and rangatahi with current plans, those who identify as Māori had fewer instances of having their identity and cultural needs taken into account than those who do not identify as Māori.⁵⁰

There has been a decrease in the proportion of plans that take into account the views of other professionals

We again heard about plans not being completed, updated or shared

As previously reported, we often hear from caregivers and kaimahi that their ability to provide a good standard of care is hindered by the quality of the plans they receive or by not receiving a copy of the plan at all. Most kaimahi who spoke about All About Me plans in 2024/25 said they do receive the plans but that they are often missing information, too out of date to be useful and/or contain inaccurate information.

“Having a hui with [regional placement coordinator] … to get current information from the site and whānau is the biggest [thing]. We don’t wanna tell the team to read the All About Me [plan] and it’s five years old.” ORANGA TAMARIKI GROUP HOME LEADER

Some kaimahi told us they receive plans with very little time to prepare before tamariki and rangatahi arrive. This creates risks in providing care for tamariki and rangatahi and prevents kaimahi from properly supporting them.

When kaimahi do receive good-quality plans, it enables them to understand the goals and aspirations of tamariki and rangatahi and to support them to achieve those.

Of the caregivers who spoke with us about how Oranga Tamariki shares plans and information with them, just over half told us they either don’t receive plans or the plans are out of date and missing information. This impacts on the level of care they feel able to provide.

“Most of it is from Oranga Tamariki. The communication comes too late, outdated and not informing us about relevant changes. We’re left in limbo for the things that were supposed to happen a month ago. It’s around how they communicate with us. We feel we are not part of the team.” ORANGA TAMARIKI CAREGIVER

We heard from a couple of caregivers about how they have received plans and found it helpful to get information about the needs and behaviour of tamariki and rangatahi before they enter care.

“It had info about tamariki health and stuff – information that their previous caregiver had also passed on about their sleep routine as well. I felt like they gave me a lot of info about the tamariki. [Caregiver social worker] made sure I was aware of their health needs, especially because of the amount of appointments they had at the hospital. I feel I was well informed.” ORANGA TAMARIKI CAREGIVER

Tamariki and rangatahi views are not consistently incorporated into plans, but when they are, they have a positive effect on tamariki, rangatahi and whānau

The NCS Regulations require that plans take into account the views of tamariki, rangatahi and whānau. Over three years, there has been a decline in both measures.

The proportion of tamariki and rangatahi whose views were taken into account in their plans has decreased slightly⁵¹

The views of family/whānau were taken into account in plans for most tamariki and rangatahi

Whānau we met with in 2024/25 were more likely than tamariki and rangatahi to tell us about not having a voice in plans or planning. Tamariki and rangatahi were evenly split on whether they felt they had a voice in their plans.

Overall, we heard from tamariki, rangatahi and whānau that they like being kept informed and having a voice in decisions. When they aren’t informed or are prevented from having a voice in plans, they can feel frustrated, upset and confused.

Some tamariki, rangatahi and whānau told us about having a voice in big decisions and plans. Examples include being listened to at FGCs and having their views reflected in FGC plans, health decisions, planning about transitioning to adulthood and planning for other transitions.

“My voice was heard pretty clearly – there was no point in having that meeting if everyone else had to speak for me. I told them what I wanted – and I did.” RANGATAHI

“The thing I love about them and [social worker] is they listen to her, and they meet her most of the way. They don’t go and put things in place that she doesn’t want to do.” WHĀNAUCloseWHĀNAU
Whānau refers to people who are biologically linked or share whakapapa. For the Monitor’s monitoring purposes, whānau includes parents, whānau members living with tamariki at the point they have come into care View the full glossary

Some tamariki and rangatahi specifically said kaimahi such as social workers ask them what they want to do about decisions like those involving living arrangements.

“Every time I tried, I’d cry. Someone else would word it for me. [I] started writing my opinions down and then someone would share it on my behalf.” RANGATAHI

We also heard that some tamariki and rangatahi feel they have a choice in their day-to-day activities, including about food, clothing and after-school or weekend activities.

However, some tamariki, rangatahi and whānau feel their voice is not always heard or valued. Some know plans are being made without them or have had their requests around plans ignored. They feel Oranga Tamariki does not support them.

“At the last [FGC] we had, I was told to shut up, [told to] be quiet. They made a plan without us being present. Emailed it to us. We had explained we had to be gone by 4:50pm, and when we said we had to go, they carried on meeting without us. Our support workers were sitting there, and they talked to them like they were us after we left. The plan. We had no idea it was even talked about.” WHĀNAU

“Listen actually to what we’re saying … Don’t just sit there and say, ‘yep, I understand’ and then don’t do what we say.” RANGATAHI

A couple of rangatahi told us that, because their voices are not heard, they have stopped bothering to try to speak up about what they want.

“I don’t usually talk at those meetings, because, even if I say what I want to, I was never listened to, so what’s the use?” RANGATAHI

Oranga Tamariki social workers continue to tell us they are under pressure and not always able to work effectively

In our 2023/24 Experiences of Care in Aotearoa report, we found that social workers were not always able to work effectively. This year, we again heard that social workers care about tamariki and rangatahi and enjoy working with them, but things are getting in the way of this happening.

A few social workers told us that requirements of administrative tasks take time away from working directly with tamariki and rangatahi.

“You go meet [tamariki and whānau] and take notes, then you have to load those notes into the system. Then type up the request and then the follow-up time. This cuts into the time able to be spent with the children on your caseload.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SOCIAL WORKER

Oranga Tamariki kaimahi spoke about how important it is to take time to build relationships and rapport with tamariki, rangatahi and whānau. This enables them to engage in the planning process and have their voice included. However, this can be a long, time-consuming process, and some kaimahi said that social workers are too busy to be able to work in this way.

“It takes so much for a care plan to become a care plan. Every year, we fail. Kids don’t even look at us in [the] seven days [they have to feed into a plan]. Come on, Oranga Tamariki. It’s legally required to fill that out, but they don’t care if it has three words in it [as long as it’s filled in]. It takes more than seven days to build a relationship. It’s about having rapport.” ORANGA TAMARIKI RESIDENCE KAIMAHI

We heard that social workers have to do more paperwork than previously to provide evidence for funding requests, and that takes up more time. We also heard that other agencies have lost capacity. Kaimahi who spoke about this either directly or indirectly said this is as a result of decreased funding.

“We no longer have a list of providers in Tauranga who have had their contract renewed. We’re making referrals and hoping for the best. Functional Family Therapy, PPP and Kia Puāwai now have a 12-week wait list and it’s likely to increase. In the email, it said its because [Oranga Tamariki] cut their contracts. We lean on [providers], and they have done a fabulous job for whānau and working with kids with high and complex needs.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SOCIAL WORKER

Other examples were given in youth justice funding cuts in the Bay of Plenty, resulting in social workers needing to undertake mentoring and community work themselves to meet commitments made in FGC plans. This stopped them having time to work with “lower-level” cases.

“We go with what we’ve got. We’re expected to put FGC plans in place and the courts expect x amount to be seen in FGC plans. But we’re struggling to do that. We do it ourselves, the mentoring and the community work.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SOCIAL WORKER

Every year in our regional engagements with Oranga Tamariki social workers, we hear they are struggling with high caseloads. Our 2023/24 Experiences of Care in Aotearoa report referenced data from Oranga Tamariki showing that average social worker caseloads were within range of the high caseload threshold specified in the protocol agreed with the Public Service Association and National Union of Public Employees. We could not reconcile this with what we heard from social workers.

For this report, Oranga Tamariki told us that the average caseload of care and protection social workers was 16.9 tamariki and rangatahi (as at June 2025). This is below the high caseload threshold of 20 tamariki and rangatahi. Oranga Tamariki also told us that 257 of its care and protection social workers held caseloads above the high caseload threshold. It told us that this was 28 percent of its care and protection social workers.

In addition, although outside the reporting period, Oranga Tamariki told us that, as at October 2025, 93 supervisors were holding a caseload where they were the key social worker for at least one child. This is around one-third of Oranga Tamariki social work supervisors. In total, 410 tamariki had a supervisor as their key social worker. This suggests that some supervisors have several tamariki and rangatahi as a caseload. When supervisors hold a caseload, it can impact their ability to provide effective supervision.

Around half of the Oranga Tamariki frontline care and protection and youth justice social workers we met with during the reporting period told us they have high caseloads, they are understaffed due to a lack of funding and this affects their work with tamariki and rangatahi.

“I’d like to see our kids more often, but our caseloads prevent that. It’s also about staff numbers. We had eight but now we only have four. We’ve had someone leave recently and were told they couldn’t be replaced. We changed teams around. Someone went to youth justice. For a number of reasons, our staffing capacity is halved. The impact is that we’ve had to take on other people’s caseloads. We’ve been spread more thinly, don’t have resources, respite or travel.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SOCIAL WORKER

Because we heard a lot about the impact on social workers of sites carrying vacancies, we also asked Oranga Tamariki for data on this. As at June 2025, Oranga Tamariki employed 1,737 frontline social workers.⁵² This is just one more than in June 2024, when 1,736 frontline social workers were employed.

When tamariki and rangatahi are not allocated a social worker, it masks the high workload of sites and demands on social workers.

As well as having high caseloads, we heard that cases remain unallocated in a number of sites because of a lack of social worker capacity to pick them up. Oranga Tamariki told us that it consistently monitors workload through real-time reporting on data such as for caseloads and overdue unallocated cases. Despite this, what we heard in our regional engagements with social workers was that high caseloads and unallocated cases impact their ability to work effectively.

“There’s a belief that [caseload] should be 20 young people. I sit at 24 at the minute. I was on [a] lower number, but that number has naturally increased because mothers have had babies or are pregnant. To credit the leadership at our site, they do the best they can to protect us from high caseloads, as there are currently over 50 unallocated cases.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SOCIAL WORKER

One social worker told us that keeping tamariki on an unallocated list hides the issue of high workload for Oranga Tamariki social workers.

Oranga Tamariki told us that, in June 2025, there were 1,307 tamariki and rangatahi who were overdue to be allocated a social worker. It said that, when tamariki and rangatahi are overdue for allocation, it is generally because it is awaiting a suitable social worker to have capacity to receive the allocation. It noted that simply allocating tamariki and rangatahi a social worker will not reduce risk or support tamariki and rangatahi. Social workers need to have the capacity to work with the tamariki and rangatahi they are allocated, otherwise allocating them does not make tamariki and rangatahi safer and can even create more risk by contributing to social worker burnout. It told us that the Workload Management Framework that was jointly agreed between Oranga Tamariki and unions requires active monitoring of social work caseloads and places caps on social work caseloads to ensure workload remains manageable. As we outlined above, more than a quarter of Oranga Tamariki care and protection social workers held caseloads above the cap in June 2025.

Oranga Tamariki further told us that it monitors safety for tamariki and rangatahi that are yet to be allocated a social worker by:

• practice leaders monitoring unallocated queues
• reaching out to notifiers to seek updates when needed
• asking those making reports of concern to contact Oranga Tamariki if circumstances change and they believe tamariki may be at more risk of harm than they originally thought
• sites accounting for need and urgency, prioritising 24-hour and 48-hour urgent cases, and first allocating cases where children are potentially more vulnerable such as babies and infants.

Two social workers told us that duty social workers are sometimes required to complete visits for tamariki and rangatahi without an allocated social worker.

“When you are rostered on to be the duty social worker, which I have been every eight days or so now, you normally have to be in the office, at your desk, to be available for phone calls for unallocated cases. Now it’s extending to visits, social work tasks etc. It’s an increase in workload. Caseloads are still reasonable and the leadership are doing their best, but it is still a challenge to meet some of the [key performance indicators] like visits.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SOCIAL WORKER

We heard that the impact on tamariki and rangatahi is that they have a different social worker visit them every time. Because duty social workers don’t have time to do anything more than transactional tasks, nothing usually happens. This is inhibiting social workers from working the way they need to in order to improve outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi in care. It is also contrary to the Oranga Tamariki practice approach and relational way of working.

“Unless you really want to take responsibility, it’s normally just ticking the boxes of the visit and making notes that you know will go nowhere. You don’t feel good about yourself, as you don’t feel like you’re delivering a good service. It must be so disheartening for whānau.” ORANGA TAMARIKI SOCIAL WORKER

We hope to see improvements in social worker visits, assessments and plans in our next report

Although we weren’t able to see much improvement in compliance with Part 1 of the NCS Regulations during our 2024/25 regional engagements, we will look for impacts of the National Care Standards Action Plan in our 2025/26 monitoring.

Oranga Tamariki states that it is progressing work to develop a new digital All About Me plan, which will support social workers to ensure these plans are used on an ongoing basis to meet the needs of tamariki and rangatahi.⁵³ It is anticipated that the digitisation of the All About Me plan will help social workers to complete plans in a timely manner and to a good standard.

With the Oranga Tamariki priority areas including social worker visits and All About Me plans, we will monitor and report on any change in the coming years.

34 The Oranga Tamariki Compliance with National Care Standards report is appended to the organisation’s 2024/25 annual report published in October 2025. orangatamariki.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/About-us/Corporate-reports/Annual-Report/Annual- Report-2024-2025.pdf
35 Oranga Tamariki. (2025). Performance measures for ministerial priorities: Quarter three 2024/25. ot.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/About-us/ Performance-and-monitoring/Ministerial-priorities/Ministerial-Priorities-Report-Q3-2024-25.pdf
36 This online performance reporting tool enables every Oranga Tamariki social worker and supervisor to easily see when visits are due, which is intended to support planning for visits.
37 See (p. 6) of reference at footnote 34.
38 Data from Oranga Tamariki quarterly performance reporting to the Minister.
39 The Oranga Tamariki annual report states that the National Care Standards Action Plan identifies priority areas to support compliance with the NCS RegulationsCloseNCS Regulations
(National Care Standards and Related Matters) Regulations 2018 View the full glossary, focused on aspects of practice highlighted by Aroturuki TamarikiCloseTamariki
Children (plural) aged 0-13 yearsView the full glossary as requiring improvement. The priority areas include: visits to tamariki in care and, specifically, in return home placements; ensuring tamariki in care have an up-to-date assessment report and All About Me plan and that their All About Me plan includes actions to support connections to their family/ whānauClosewhānau
Whānau refers to people who are biologically linked or share whakapapa. For the Monitor’s monitoring purposes, whānau includes parents, whānau members living with tamariki at the point they have come into care View the full glossary, hapūClosehapū
Sub-tribeView the full glossary, iwiCloseiwi
TribeView the full glossary and family group; transition to adulthood planning for eligible rangatahiCloserangatahi
Young person aged 14 – 21 years of ageView the full glossary visits to caregivers by their caregiver social worker and caregiver approvals; accurate recording of key records in CYRAS (such as GP/primary health organisation); and reducing peer-to-peer harm in residences.
40 Aroturuki Tamariki | Independent Children’s Monitor. (2025). Experiences of Care in AotearoaCloseAotearoa
New ZealandView the full glossary 2023/24 (p. 26). aroturuki.govt.nz/ assets/Reports/EOCR2324/Experiences-of-Care-2023-24.pdf
41 See (p. 39) of reference at footnote 34. Oranga Tamariki states, “Kaimahi have been reminded that the Care Standards require a regular needs assessment to completed at a minimum of every six months or whenever circumstances change, and guidance has been created to support kaimahi to meet the requirements of a Care Standards needs assessment for tamariki in care.”
42 The NCS Regulations do not state which type of needs assessment is needed, but two types of needs assessment were commonly used by Oranga Tamariki. A Tuituia informed needs assessment documented the needs, strengths and risks for tamariki and rangatahi. It set out the circumstances that led to them coming into care, including the concerns Oranga Tamariki wanted to address, particularly needs around safety and connection to whānau. The other commonly used assessment, which remains current, is a Gateway assessment. This is a specialist assessment that looks to comprehensively identify the health, disability and education needs of tamariki and rangatahi engaged with Oranga Tamariki. It is undertaken in conjunction with health and education agencies who collectively put in place a plan to meet the needs identified by the Gateway assessment. All tamariki and rangatahi entering care should have a Gateway assessment unless they are already accessing services and there would be no additional benefit.
43 See (p. 39) of reference at footnote 34.
44 Oranga Tamariki National Care Standards Action Plan progress update 1 April – 25 July 2025, key measure 8.
45 The kaimahi we spoke with who are involved with Gateway assessments made positive mentions of working with partners and colleagues from other departments within a hospital (mental health units, paediatrics, dental, audiology, and Māori and Pacific health units) as well as other providers. Vibe, RTLB managers and Plunket were mentioned.
46 The Oranga Tamariki Action Plan has been renamed to the Oranga Tamariki System Action Plan to more accurately reflect the responsibilities of children’s agencies. However, Ministers directed agencies to focus on fewer activities under the action plan during the reporting period.
47 See footnote 34.
48 We understand agencies have prioritised improvements to national governance, enhanced education profiles and improved consent processes. Oranga Tamariki response to Aroturuki Tamariki ǀ Independent Children’s Monitor’s annual data and information request, August 2025.
49 Data from Oranga Tamariki quarterly performance reporting to the Minister.
50 Case file analysis found that identity and cultural needs had been taken into account in 64 percent of all updated tamariki and rangatahi plans but only in 57 percent of plans for tamariki and rangatahi Māori compared to 79 percent for non-Māori. Unsurprisingly, this is similar for needs assessments, where tamariki and rangatahi Māori are less likely that non-Māori to have their identity and cultural needs as well as their connection with whānau identified in their needs assessments.
51 Oranga Tamariki lead indicators 19 and 8 look at whether the views of tamariki/rangatahi or whānau, respectively, have been identified and considered in either the current needs assessment (Tuituia, assessment report or other holistic needs assessment) or the current plan (All About Me plan or other plan).
52Oranga Tamariki told us this includes social workers, supervisors, senior practitioners, specialist child interviewers, family violence response specialists, hospital liaisons and differential response coordinators.
53 See (p. 39) of reference at footnote 34. “The first phase of the platform procurement process is underway with delivery timeframes for releases of functionality to occur throughout 2026 and 2027.”