Statement from Iain Chapman
Acting Deputy Chief Executive of Youth Justice Services and Residential Care
“Following the halfway point of the community phase of the Military-Style Academy (MSA) pilot (four and a half months into the nine-month community stage), Oranga Tamariki is providing a further update on progress to this time.
"The purpose of the MSA pilot is to trial a new approach to how we work with the small population of young people in New Zealand who have a pattern of serious and persistent offending behaviour, due to their complex and challenging backgrounds.
"This 12-month programme aims to give the young people taking part opportunities and equip them with the skills and motivation to make positive choices. We want to see them to thrive within their whānau and communities. Ultimately, any reduction in offending reduces the wider cost to society and improves safety for us all.
"Our most recent public update followed the release of a preliminary evaluation into the residential stage (first three months) of the pilot, which was largely positive.
"The evaluation noted the young people were settled and engaged during their time in the youth justice residence, responding positively to the structure and routine provided by a multi-disciplinary team of social workers, health, culture and education specialists and a senior psychologist.
"While in the community stage, each young person continues to be supported by a team including a social worker and mentor, as well as ongoing programme activity. Individual plans address health and wellbeing needs, encourage further education and teach employment and life skills such as shopping and cooking. Oranga Tamariki also continues to work with their whānau, for example a parenting programme is offered.
"The transition back to community has been challenging for some of the young people participating. In particular, I want to acknowledge the tragic death of one of the rangatahi in November, which has been felt heavily by the nine other young people on the pilot.
"We have always had realistic expectations that some degree of reoffending was likely with this group of young people. We can confirm that there have been cases of alleged reoffending during this community stage. For reasons we have previously stated, including the privacy and wellbeing of the young participants and the impact of the intense level of public scrutiny on them and their whānau, we will not be going into any details of this alleged offending at this point.”
Practice opinion on absconding event
Last December, Oranga Tamariki commissioned a Practice Opinion to be undertaken by the Office of the Chief Social Worker, following an incident in which one of the MSA participants breached his bail conditions, while granted compassionate bail by the Court to attend a tangi.
For privacy reasons and because this review includes sensitive operational information, we will not be releasing the Practice Opinion in full, but a summary is below.
Practice opinion summary
The Practice Opinion concluded that the decision-making, planning, actions, and responses in relation to supporting this young person to attend the tangi were both reasonable and in line with practice expectations and the legal framework.
Whilst the review did not find fundamental failures in the way that the young person’s attendance was managed, there are lessons to be learned which will be applied to our practice when enabling young people to have leave from a residence to attend tangi in the future.
The key insight was the need for kaimahi to have full understanding of the legal framework in which they were operating prior to, during, and after the tangi.
The young person was in the custody of the Chief Executive for care and protection reasons, was detained in the custody of the Chief Executive for youth justice purposes and had been granted bail for the day.
Next update
Our next update on the Military-Style Academy Pilot will be an interim evaluation, which will focus on the transition to community period.