Budget 2026 Invests $90M in Mandatory Training to Protect Children at Risk

Budget 2026 will fund mandatory training for 20,000 core children’s workers and improve system capacity to protect children at risk of harm, Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston says.

In September 2025 our Government accepted all the recommendations from the report by the late Dame Karen Poutasi and committed to an approach focused on the safety of children.

This year’s Budget includes a $90 million investment to deliver on those recommendations and provide the improved safety net for our children Dame Karen envisioned.

This work, which will strengthen the system’s ability to identify risk earlier and respond before harm escalates, directly supports the Child and Youth Strategy priority on preventing harm against children.

The $90 million investment includes: $15.9 million over two years to support a sequenced rollout of mandatory training for designated workforces, boosting the capability of core children’s workers to better identify and respond to children at risk of harm.

$64.7 million over four years to increase Oranga Tamariki’s capacity to respond to an expected increase in reports of concern arising from improved identification of risk.

$9.7 million over four years to increase Health NZ’s capacity to participate in the Child Protection Protocol, working alongside NZ Police and Oranga Tamariki to assess and respond to the most serious cases of abuse.

This training boost will build on the testing phase which began in January 2026 and involved 500 children’s workers. Training will now shift to a phased rollout of foundational and in‑depth training, delivered in cohorts of approximately 6,500 children’s workers over the next two years to ensure manageable implementation.

This training will ensure participants have consistent, quality training to equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to identify and respond to children at risk of harm, Louise Upston says.

Investment in Oranga Tamariki will ensure the child protection system has the capacity to respond safely and effectively to expected higher volumes of reports of concern arising from both training and the recently established multi-agency hub.

Funding will support an uplift in employed social workers and increase access to services for children and whānau.

Funding for Health NZ will enable dedicated specialist staff to be employed to work with NZ Police and Oranga Tamariki when investigating the most serious cases of abuse, building on and strengthening current practice. This will improve multi-agency risk assessment, addressing gaps identified by Dame Karen.

Due to the scale of complex change and the need to manage impacts on different parts of the system and workforces, the Government is continuing to take a phased approach to implementation.

The initial two years of funding will also allow the Government to build a clearer picture of system impacts, informing future resourcing decisions as implementation progresses, Louise Upston says.

Editors Notes Funding to support training will partly draw on funding allocated through Budget 2025 to implement the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care’s workforce recommendations.

This reflects the overlaps between Dame Karen Poutasi’s recommendations and Whanaketia, the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.