April 03, 2019
Kids in care data a sign of failure
The New Zealand Māori Council wants to know why the number of Māori children and young people in state care continues to rise, despite attempted reform of the sector.
Executive director Matthew Tukaki says Oranga Tamariki figures show in June 2017 61 percent of children in state care were Māori.
A year later that figure had risen to 68 percent, or 4346 tamariki, and 80 percent of those who were inside youth justice residences or detention centres were Māori.
Even more telling was that 71 percent of the 220 children found to be abused in state care in that time were Māori.
"And so we’ve got an appalling series of statistics and it doesn't seem to me we are making any headway in either trying to address the problem or try to find creative solutions in how we bring those numbers down," Mr Tukaki says.
He says the continued poor performance comes at a time when Oranga Tamariki is about to be given even greater powers to remove and place children.
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