New Zealand Government Enhances Child Protection System to Prioritize Safety and Wellbeing

The Government is strengthening the children’s system to protect against and better respond to child harm.

Multiple agencies have been working on a response to the 14 recommendations of the Dame Karen Poutasi Review since 2022, but until now not all findings had been accepted.

Today, I’m pleased to announce the Government has accepted all the review’s recommendations and is committing to an approach focused on the safety of children, Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston says.

This decision marks a clear line that child safety comes first. Every child in New Zealand deserves to feel safe and secure.

It’s clear from the Poutasi Review, as well as previous children’s system reviews, that multiple layers of government systems and processes needed to be improved to put children first.

The level of child abuse in New Zealand is unacceptable and the system to prevent it is overly complicated. We must do better for all our children.

Child and Youth Ministers will oversee implementation of an integrated Government response, ensuring: children are safer, with a focus on supporting children whose sole parent is incarcerated the children’s system has a consistent approach to sharing information on, reporting on, and responding to suspected abuse.

ensuring information is shared where there are safety and wellbeing concerns. The Privacy Commissioner will work alongside agencies on this aspect a particular focus on children whose sole parent is remanded in custody or sentenced to a term of imprisonment, to ensure they are visible throughout the system and their needs are being met.

The Government’s response to two recommendations has already been completed, while others are underway. Today’s announcement sets out a direction of travel for implementing all recommendations effectively.

The Government also welcomes and accepts the work the Independent Children’s Monitor will do in monitoring this implementation.

Given the complexities and scale of the changes required, Cabinet has agreed to a staged approach.   This includes: ensuring information is shared where there are safety and wellbeing concerns. The Privacy Commissioner will work alongside agencies on this aspect a particular focus on children whose sole parent is remanded in custody or sentenced to a term of imprisonment, to ensure they are visible throughout the system and their needs are being met.

Work will start on the design of a mandatory reporting regime, with a staged approach to maximise child safety while mitigating risk, Louise Upston says.

This will begin with mandatory training for designated workforces to ensure people working in the system clearly know how to identify and report child abuse while also sequencing further action to build system capacity.

We know Government agencies need the right settings in place to work effectively with families and whānau, schools, iwi/Māori and wider communities to intervene when children are suffering.

Children’s workers care deeply and already have child safety as their highest priority. This is about adding levers and creating overlapping safety nets to ensure no child is invisible when help is needed.

Agencies will now undertake further work, including detailed policy analysis and service design.   Cabinet is expected to consider further decisions before the end of the year.