1/ The ombudsman today released a report on the practices of Oranga Tamariki regarding 'without notice uplifts' (also known as s78 uplifts) of newborn babies, i.e. when OT removes babies from their parent/s without notifying them in advance. Here's a summary of the report:

2/ The ombudsman found several failings with the Ministry's policies and practice guidance. The ombudsman noted that there was no practice guidance on s78 uplifts without notice, very little information in staff training materials, and a reliance on outdated evidence.

3/ He also found major failings regarding the rights of disabled parents. 20% of parents in the cases examined had an intellectual disability but this was very rarely acknolwedged. There was very little emphasis on their rights, and the guidance available was often inaccurate.

4/ He found that s78 applications were often made not out of urgency but out of prior inaction by OT staff. OT usually knew about the pregnancy for months in advance but often did nothing until the very last minute. Without notice applications were "more routine than exception".

5/ In general there was a history of poor practice regarding the rights of the parents and families. This included a lack of a trauma-informed response which would have recognised the historical trauma present and acknolwedged that that required a different response.

6/ Where kairaranga (specialists who engage with whanau/whakapapa) were present they could be transformative. But there was a lack of these roles, and in some places there was resistance to them. There was a "fundamental distrust of a different way of operating" in some OT sites.

7/ In about 20% of cases the decision to remove the baby was made without referring the case to a Care and Protection Resource Panel (which are groups of community and professional experts who provide advice) despite the fact that it is a legal requirement that they be consulted.

8/ As a result of these multiple failings, in many cases decisions to remove pēpi "were being made late and without expert advice or whānau involvement." It is completely enraging and outrageous to me that that is even possible.

9/ The ombudsman found "minimal evidence that parents and whānau had been involved by the Ministry in
planning the removal process." Where good planning did occur it was often because of individual staff members, not because there were good processes in place.

10/ This was a common theme at the Waitangi Tribunal hearings last week. No-one is saying good things never happen, and there are some amazing social workers out there. But when good things happen it is often in spite of the system, not because of it. That needs to change.

11/ The report concludes "the Ministry’s practices connected with the removal of newborn pēpi under s78... were unreasonable. The evidence... did not demonstrate that the Ministry consistently met the objects and principles of the Act and the obligations under international law."

12/ I have yet to read the full report (it's enormous at 228 pages) but at first glance it appears to make some good observations. However, it doesn't appear to consider a Māori worldview in the way that the Whānau Ora and OCC reports did. So in that regard it's disappointing.

13/ However. This is the 4th report in a row highlighting major failings. OT said today they welcome the report and are "able to provide evidence of real progress since the ombudsman’s investigation concluded." I.e., "all good, nothing to see here". Do we really believe that?

14/ One more thing. I still worked at OT when the Hawkes Bay case happened, and one of the things that was most difficult about it was the lies told to staff by the bosses. They insisted firstly that Newsroom story was misleading and that the full story would come out eventually.

15/ Many of my colleagues believed that and publicly defended OT based on what they were told. Then when their own internal investigation found otherwise, OT pivoted to 'we acknowledge the failings but this was a one-off'. Now the ombudsman's report shows that that too is a lie.

16/ Children and whānau must always be the priority and I know there are some horrific examples of bad practice. But some social workers bust their asses trying to make it better and they are consistently let down as well. When will someone finally take responsibility for that?