\u2018It is an operational matter\u2019 \u2013 minister<\/p>\n
Documents show that in April this year, the chief adviser complained again. She told RNZ it had got better but then got worse again.<\/p>\n
Money told RNZ OT\u2019s response to her had been \u201cunderwhelming\u201d and she would escalate it to the minister.<\/p>\n
The Minister for Children and Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Karen Chhour, referred RNZ to OT saying, \u201cIt is an operational matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy chief executive tamariki and wh\u0101nau services Thomas Ronan said being at the meetings was one of the agency\u2019s priorities and it was actively working to improve attendance.<\/p>\n
Staffing constraints were one of many factors that could be affecting attendance, he said.<\/p>\n
It did not count if social workers actually went to meetings \u2013 only whether they intended to go, as sometimes they were called away urgently to ensure the immediate safety of tamariki and wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n
Ronan said in most cases when a social worker was unable to attend, the agency could find someone else to take their place. However, this was not always possible, especially at much smaller sites.<\/p>\n
If they did not go they still sent in OT\u2019s information on a case \u2013 but Money said it was the roundtable discussion that produced the \u201cgold\u201d.<\/p>\n
The only comparable figures provided came from Waikato, where out of seven meetings a week, social workers were going to just one or two. Rotorua was trialling weekly, not daily, attendance. South Auckland had four social workers fulltime at the meetings.<\/p>\n
Ronan said the Waikato figures were not representative of all regions and it was actively putting in place extra roles to improve attendance.<\/p>\n
Others worried too<\/p>\n
But Money said no-shows were widespread.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp and down the country I\u2019m getting feedback that often Oranga Tamariki are not attending these hui.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Centre for Family Violence and Sexual Violence Prevention \u2013 part of the Justice Ministry \u2013 said community stakeholders had raised similar concerns, and the centre had raised them with OT.<\/p>\n
In some places they\u2019d been resolved, it said, adding discussions were going on across its executive board to improve multi-agency responses.<\/p>\n
In April 2026, Money wrote to senior Oranga Tamariki leaders, saying that intended attendance clearly did not address this significant issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttendance is required and is critical to the safety of those children and wh\u0101nau who come before the [meetings] \u2013 that, after all, is the entire point these multi-disciplinary teams exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cOT are the only agency that hold vital information specific to … the tamariki, and so non-attendance [unless there is an absolute emergency] can be a risk to life \u2013 literally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hobbling investigators<\/p>\n
RNZ revealed in April that the new Child Protection Investigation Unit at OT has been unable to pursue some investigations of serious harm due to agencies not sharing information.<\/p>\n
Agencies failed to share vital information when Malachi Subecz was murdered by his caregiver in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cMalachi\u2019s interests were not given priority\u201d by agencies, said a coroner in February this year. A 2022 investigation ordered that the gaps be fixed. But the coroner this year said OT had been too slow in fixing systems faulted in Subecz\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n
Independent child watchdog Aroturuki Tamariki found shortcomings in December, saying the multi-agency setup and meetings were helping but \u201cnot yet closing the gap\u201d identified in the 2022 Subecz investigation.<\/p>\n
Meetings varied in regularity. \u201cMostly\u201d the joint agencies decided how to act \u201cbut we were told there is significant variation … and in some cases, the risk and action is decided by a single person in one organisation\u201d, said the watchdog.<\/p>\n
Money told RNZ, \u201cThe Government moved years ago to ensure that these agencies could share relevant information in these meetings, but Oranga Tamariki is not going up to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agencies failed to share vital information when Malachi Subecz was murdered by his caregiver in 2021. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n
\u2018Engage in conversations\u2019 \u2013 police<\/p>\n
The police did not respond on whether they had concerns about social workers not turning up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese issues are raised and handled at a local level,\u201d police said in a brief statement. \u201cPolice and Oranga Tamariki frequently engage in conversations on how best to handle these issues when they arise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oranga Tamariki said, \u201cWhen kaimahi can\u2019t attend meetings, they are still expected to communicate with multi-agency response table representatives and provide relevant information where possible to support interagency connection and decision-making.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny regions where attendance is not aligning with what is expected, we always ask our partner agencies to reach out so we can follow up with those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Money said it was not just about handing in data. \u201cIt\u2019s about talking it through.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was ridiculous not to track attendance: \u201cThey\u2019re paying these people to do a job. They must know what they are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Attendance across the board is good\u2019 \u2013 OT in 2025<\/p>\n
When Money first raised the issue with then chief executive Andrew Bridgman in April 2025, she emailed him, \u201cI am concerned that risk assessments are being jeopardised when the team does not have the full information regarding each situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMain agencies such as OT are the major contributors, or should be, around the multi-disciplinary team\u2019s table, but it seems attendance has become compromised in recent times and I have serious concerns this is putting many of the community at risk of further serious harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
She asked him for data on attendance and offered to help.<\/p>\n
Emails suggest the agency took a look countrywide, then said Waikato and Bay of Plenty had a problem but, \u201cOverall our participation\/attendance across the board is good, with regular attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her meeting notes from March 2026 released under the OIA said, \u201cRuth & Police. OT ISR [integrated safety response] non-attendance raised eg spoke briefly that this is still an issue and Ruth said she would email OT again.\u201d<\/p>\n
ISR denotes a wider response.<\/p>\n
In April 2026, the notes said, \u201cRuth and the Centre for the Prevention of Sexual Violence and Family Violence. Ruth mentioned she had chased OT again because of non-attendance. Cam [Sherley] said something like \u201cyes that is a known problem\u201d.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherley, acting head of the Centre for Family Violence and Sexual Violence Prevention responsible for integrating a whole-of-government approach, said he had been aware participation had been \u201cinconsistent in some parts of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
This was a problem in 2024 and not just with OT, maybe because of the volume of family violence episodes per week.<\/p>\n
Canterbury\u2019s integrated safety response had meetings seven days a week, and social workers went to five of those \u2013 they had not gone at weekends \u201cfor at least two years\u201d, said the OIA documents. The ISR dealt with 1300 incidents in March 2025.<\/p>\n
Taup\u014d and Tokoroa had meetings twice a week.<\/p>\n
Former acting chief executive Andrew Bridgman. Photo \/ RNZ, Reece Baker<\/p>\n
\u2018I will escalate it\u2019 \u2013 chief victims advisor<\/p>\n
\u201cThis issue has also more recently been raised with the centre (and resolved in some areas) by community stakeholders who are part of multi-agency responses,\u201d said Sherley in a statement<\/p>\n
\u201cAny agency not engaging in multi-agency responses to family violence when needed is of concern … Work to confirm agency roles and responsibilities has been prioritised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Money said she would escalate the problem to Oranga Tamariki\u2019s new chief executive, Amanda Malu, and Chhour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like the minister and the CE at Oranga Tamariki to step in and do some quality assurance around this and ensure that people are attending so that we are mitigating risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Malu told Nine-to-Noon that Oranga Tamariki was 180 social workers short and staff shortages were hampering efforts to hit targets responding to urgent concerns over children.<\/p>\n
Malu also acknowledged significant turnover in the agency\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou cannot do that well, you can\u2019t do it at all, if you\u2019re not looking at all the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13790,1559,2082,29137,1899,424,111,139,242363,69,90,3111,31341,21037,7192,19098,1072,213,61,4478],"class_list":["post-482508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-a","tag-called","tag-for","tag-keeping","tag-kids","tag-life","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-noshows","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-out","tag-pennington","tag-phil","tag-risk","tag-safe","tag-social","tag-sports","tag-to","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}