Stand Tū Māia charitable trust has today confirmed it’s taking Oranga Tamariki to court for breaching a three-year integrated contract, worth $21 million a year (excluding pay equity).
Chief executive of Stand Tū Māia, Dr Fiona Inkpen, says the trust had been forced to urgently bring court action to hold the Ministry for Children to its contractual obligations and prevent the ministry from acting as though the contract has been cancelled.
“We strongly believe Oranga Tamariki has committed an egregious breach of good faith in attempting to terminate our integrated contract at short notice, threatening our ability to provide specialist services to thousands of vulnerable children and their families,” says Dr Inkpen.
“The integrated contract enables Stand Tū Māia to provide specialised trauma treatment, intensive family wraparound support and family therapy for approximately 4000 vulnerable children from 1000 families.
“Oranga Tamariki has told us the alleged cancellation is based on budget constraints, and it doesn’t have any questions about our performance or the outcomes we consistently deliver.
“Oranga Tamariki’s actions have been a shock to us. In July, officials told us they wanted to review our contract and create a new one.
“It was not until four months later that they confirmed which contract they wanted to review and only in late November that they wanted to cancel the contract on December 31, 2024, only six months into a three-year contract due to expire on June 30, 2026.
“A new contract would be negotiated to begin from July 1, 2025.”
Dr Inkpen says the ministry has yet to respond to questions regarding what a new contract would look like.
Oranga Tamariki’s plans to end funding under its Stand Tū Māia contract on December 31 would see more than 300 workers, the majority of which are registered social workers, lose their jobs from January 4, says Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi assistant secretary Melissa Woolley.
“It’s totally unacceptable that the support for 4000 vulnerable children and their families, and the jobs of more than 300 workers should be axed so suddenly, with no thought to the consequences,” Woolley says.
“Children’s Minister Karen Chhour needs to step up and put a stop to this appalling and cold-hearted decision which comes just weeks after the Prime Minister delivered an apology in Parliament to the survivors of abuse in care.
“Minister Chhour needs to act quickly to ensure that the Government does not trigger another round of unnecessary suffering and trauma for a new generation of vulnerable children and by so doing write another dark chapter in the history of this country.
“It’s unacceptable for the minister to hide behind the convenient excuse that this is merely an ‘operational matter’.
“She needs to urgently intervene and ensure Oranga Tamariki has the funding it needs to honour the contract it signed with Stand Tū Māia,” Woolley says.
Dr Inkpen says the Stand Tū Māia board did not take its decision to sue the ministry lightly and spent considerable time exploring all its options.
“Oranga Tamariki’s suggested decision is contrary to repeated assurances that frontline services would be maintained.
“We’re an essential frontline service for children who have already been failed by every other part of the system,” Dr Inkpen says.
“We’re effectively the ‘last resort’ for the most vulnerable children in our society and we’re deeply concerned about how Oranga Tamariki plans to care for these children and their families. We have heard nothing to date.
“We work and live to our values, constantly delivering on our mission.
“The Government recently made a statement about the importance of investing in strong ‘fences’ at the top of the cliff which we applaud, having spent 20-plus years building that capability on behalf of successive governments.
“As a ‘strong fence on the top of the cliff’, Stand Tū Māia is an alternative to statutory care.
“Instead of police and Oranga Tamariki removing their children, hard-to-reach families trust us and engage deeply with us.
“The impact of removing the fence will be that these children and families are failed once again, trust will die, and I do not say this lightly, but potentially so will some of them,” says Dr Inkpen.
“Despite working with the most complex and high-risk families, we have continually been able to demonstrate our value through our outcomes, the data we gather and through the reviews of our service.”
An independent advisory firm, ImpactLab, says: “The additional social value metrics across all the programmes in this portfolio are comparatively very high and deserve to be highlighted.
“Your [Stand Tū Māia] team should be encouraged that these metrics reflect truly significant impact for the whānau you support.
“This is exactly the focus and social return that this Government has stated it wants to invest in.
“Nearly all our team are frontline workers, including our regional managers, who are deeply involved in casework and managing risk every day.
“Losing Stand Tū Māia capability and capacity at a time when Oranga Tamariki services are in crisis will have dire consequences in our communities.
“Our regional managers frequently hear from Oranga Tamariki social workers, ‘now Stand is involved, we can close the case’ – as a service of last resort that is not duplicated by other providers,” says ImpactLab.
Dr Inkpen says: “Services delivered by Stand Tū Māia are unique and are not provided by any other provider.
“As an end-of-the-road service, there is simply nowhere for these vulnerable children and their families to go to access the specialist support they desperately need.”
Woolley says: “Not only is the Government not honouring a contract it signed but it’s once again breaking its promise to New Zealanders that spending cuts would not affect frontline services.”
Dr Inkpen says Stand Tū Māia continues to explore all options to try to keep the service operating but is expected to cease operations on January 4.
“As one of our kaumatua reminded us, we must look to the future – Titiro mai kia koutou katoa tūāuriuri whāioio kī tonu te rangi me te whenua.
“This means we’re determined to explore all possible options and fight to preserve the fence at the top of the cliff, noting our contract with Oranga Tamariki ends in four weeks’ time.”
