75736 (2024). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Minister for Children

75736 (2024). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Minister for Children: What actions, if any, is Oranga Tamariki taking to address the record-keeping recommendations the Ombudsman has made?

Hon Karen Chhour: I am advised by Oranga Tamariki that they have taken a number of actions to address the recordkeeping recommendations the Ombudsman made. These include the Frontline Technology System Upgrade programme and practice notes being sent to staff from the Chief Social Worker focusing on setting clear expectations regarding case work recording. I am further advised that Oranga Tamariki are in the latter stages of rolling out its new practice framework, models and tools. This includes three new practice tools that are designed to support social workers to make sense of and record information in a way that enables quality decision making. These tools have been tested in six sites and evaluation of their use has shown that when used as intended, the quality of assessment practice (including case recording) improves.