5259 (2026). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Minister for Children

5259 (2026). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Minister for Children: What, if any, lessons learned from the pilot Military-Style Academy will be incorporated into the design of the next Military-Style Academy?

Hon Karen Chhour: I am advised by Oranga Tamariki the lessons learnt from the Military-Style Academy Pilot have been applied to the programme design of the new Military Style Academy programme. A summary of these includes: • Involving social workers early in the selection process for participants. • Providing greater support for social workers with the increased workload intensity. • Initiating the planning and preparation for transition to the community phase earlier in the residential phase. • Continuing consistent therapeutic support in the community. • Providing greater role clarity. • Ensuring the young people have a key ‘anchor activity’ on return to the community (such as education or employment). • Working with families/whānau earlier in the residential phase. • Flexible pathways to ensure support is tailored to meet the assessed need of young people and their family/whānau. • Increased coordination and collaboration across residence, social work and Multi-Disciplinary teams. • Increased identification and management of risk in the community phase. I am further advised elements of the Military-Style Academy Pilot that saw strong engagement from the young people and good results are being carried forward, including learning opportunities for key life skills such as budgeting, cooking and meal preparation, home maintenance and building career readiness.