Leading from the front issuu

managed to do this in a limited way with Ngati Kahungnunu.
Discussions were held with Ngati Porou and the
iwi of Turanganui A Kiwa, but these didn’t result in anything
concrete. If nothing else the seeds were sown for
advancing formal relationships with iwi that have progressed
to fruition today.
From around the year 2000 to 2006 I managed all
the coordinators across the country with the aim to get
consistent high quality practice that could revitalize the
principle of family decision making and empowerment. I
was also heavily involved in following up on the recommendations
of the ministerial task force into youth offending
which included delivering joint training with the
Police across the whole country. The result was that CYF
vastly improved its delivery of youth justice services to
the point where today it is fair to say that the aspirations
of that section of the CYP&FA are largely being met.
Why was this successful? Firstly, there was widespread
agreement that improvement was needed, secondly
there was strong hands-on leadership by the Principal
Youth Court Judges and senior managers in all the
agencies involved. Thirdly the training was based on the
legislation and supported by oversight and monitoring
of performance standards. The sad thing is that it has
never been able to be translated to care and protection.
The last 14 years of my career have been spent in
Napier working mainly as a senior advisor to either the
operations or regional manager, sitting through yet more
restructures, the most recent being the winding up of
CYPs and the creation of Oranga Tamariki.
THE BIG QUESTION — ARE
THINGS GETTING BETTER?
Oranga Tamariki has all the whistles and bells, is well
resourced and has a vision well aligned to the Oranga
Tamariki Act and in particular s. 7AA. I believe it has made
considerable progress in working alongside Iwi and other
partners. It has also moved to provide better targeted
services and facilities for the most vulnerable and difficult
to manage Tamariki. Despite what you see in the
media there has been strong leadership and a consistent
message to all staff as to the vision and aspirations of the
organisation. Yet despite all that, it seems to me it still
struggles against the tide. At the macro level I don’t think
the organisation will ever be able to match the political
aspirations of Māori and at the micro level there are still
significant challenges with the recruitment, training and
competency building of front line staff. The latter also applies
to the non-governmental sector. Everybody struggles
with the ongoing and seemingly increasing effects of
poverty, gang culture, family violence and drug and alcohol
abuse. As long as we live in a society where a young
man has the choice of aspiring to riding around coloured
up on a $5000 Harley Davidson or picking apples on the
minimum wage, we will always swim against the tide.
Unfortunately, Oranga Tamariki and its predecessors
always seem to be the centre of media attention when
things go wrong. They have an absolute statutory responsibility
to protect vulnerable children yet when they
consider the only safe option is to uplift children they
get criticised. Then, when a child who is left in a dangerous
situation suffers harm, it is always Oranga Tamariki’s
fault that they didn’t do more to protect the child. As they
say it a tough gig.
NEIL’S LAST LOOK AT OT
• What I loved about the work — there was never a
dull day. In the early days I liked the variety especially
working alongside others in the community like
Public Health Nurses, school guidance counsellors,
etc. I also really liked leading through the move to
put Family Group Conferences at the Centre of our
work and doing the hands on stuff, training the FGC
Coordinators, etc. I also really enjoyed working in
Youth Justice. It is a really sound model and one we
are starting to do really well.
• Reflecting on progress at OT — one of our early
General Managers who came from a civil engineering
background observed that the organisation reflected
the dysfunctional families it worked with. I’m sorry to
say he was probably right. What is often overlooked is
the fact that the “organisation” has never been stable
nor has it been adequately resourced. There was a
hope that OT could start from scratch with sufficient
funds to build a stable knowledge- based organisation
working to kaupapa Māori principles. But as events
transpired, it hasn’t got off to a good start.
• There were a number of initiatives such as Maatua
Whangai in 1983 and Puao-te-Ata-tu in 1988 that
acknowledged that the system was failing Māori and
the new kaupapa was intended to give more power to
Māori to look after Māori. But somehow that seemed
to get undermined by the bureaucratic orthodoxy. (I
guess that’s institutional racism at play.)
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Napier Pilot City Trust – for a kinder, fairer city