Gráinne's update - May 2018
Published: May 22, 2018
Chief Executive Gráinne Moss talks about new funding, a new safety of Children in care unit and a new partnership.
Funding for children and young people
Budget 2018 was delivered last week and it includes new funding for 2018/19 to support tamariki and rangatahi, in addition to the Families Package that was announced pre-Christmas and means more money for families from 1 July 2018.
With this new investment we’ll be able to make more movement on key activities such as opening up more hearts and homes, supporting the change to include 17 year olds in the system, strengthening key IT platforms, and trialing and evaluating improvements to our family group conference process for tamariki Māori and their whānau.
The Budget also provides for clothing allowances for the approximately 15,400 children on Orphans Benefits or Unsupported Child’s Benefits from 1 July this year. Extra funding in health, education, and housing will also benefit the children and whānau we work with.
New Safety of Children in Care unit
One initiative already up and running is our new Safety of Children in Care unit. We’re committed to keep improving the safety of children and young people in our care, and this unit will be focused on providing advice on how to keep children in care safe based on international best practice.
A big part of keeping our children safe is ensuring that we are all sharing information, so the Unit is developing a Code of Practice for information sharing required under the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989.
We’ll work with partners on this, and then Minister Martin will consult further before the new provisions and the guidance provided in the Code of Practice come into effect on 1 July 2019.
Building a trusted partnership
Our first regional NGO hui were held last week and it was all about how we work with you, our partners. Minister Martin and I had the pleasure of attending the first hui in Whakatū/Nelson and I’m looking forward to getting along to more of these, along with other members of the Leadership Team. These meetings will be a great opportunity to talk with the sector about our shared purpose, challenges and priorities.
We have some strong relationships on the ground in our communities and we’re in a good place now to develop them so that collectively we provide the best possible support and services for our tamariki.
Ngā mihi
Gráinne