The chair of the Whānau Ora Governance Group says the programme’s openness makes it vulnerable to criticism.

An evaluation report commissioned by the governance group pointed to gaps in monitoring and reporting.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters seized on the report to label the scheme seriously flawed.

But Sir Mason Durie says the governance group wants to measure how its integrated model for service delivery affects Māori and Pacific families.

He say the outcomes of most social programmes aren’t known - including the Ka Awatea programme that was the flagship of Mr Peters’ time as Māori affairs minister.

"There’s a whole range of programmes, Ka Awatea for example, never evaluated, no one knew if there was a good outcome or not. I think the It's Not OK programme, huge amount of money invested in that, is it making a difference? I've never seen any evaluation of it. People think it's a good idea and I agree, it's a really good idea, we don't know whether it's making a difference to child abuse in New Zealand or not," he says.

Sir Mason says the evaluation indicates the Whānau Ora approach is an improvement of the mainstream model of service delivery.




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