28345 (2025). Ingrid Leary to the Minister for Children

28345 (2025). Ingrid Leary to the Minister for Children: What measures, if any, are being implemented to address the backlog of 1,319 children overdue to be assigned a social worker within Oranga Tamariki as at March 31 2025?

Hon Karen Chhour: I refer the Member to my answer to WPQ 3130 (2025). Oranga Tamariki has measures in place to monitor cases that are yet to be allocated, including triaging unallocated cases for urgency, monitoring unallocated queues, and reaching out to notifiers (those who make a report of concern) to seek updates when needed. I am advised by Oranga Tamariki that before a case (a child or young person) is allocated to a social worker, it is triaged and assigned a timeframe based on the urgency of the child’s needs. I am further advised that Oranga Tamariki has a variety of work underway to increase the capacity, capability and support for social workers including: • the work funded by this Government to replace Oranga Tamariki technology systems that are over 20 years old and no longer fit for purpose, • continuing to recruit to unfilled social work positions, • the further roll out of Allied Support Workers - roles that undertake activities that do not require a qualified and accredited social worker, thus freeing up social work time, • continuing to embed the new Practice Approach and tools at Oranga Tamariki to make it easier for social workers to do their core work well, • work to better understand caseloads and case complexity, and • operational responses such as deploying additional staff to support areas currently experiencing higher volumes of incoming Reports of Concern. As at the end of April 2025, the number of children overdue for allocation to a social worker had been reduced to 1166.