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Speaker 1: The Orders of General is having a look into the

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Speaker 1: way that Oranga Tamariki's doing its job. Services they fund

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Speaker 1: and been cut or scale back. As I'm sure you're

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Speaker 1: well whare as a result of the government review and

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Speaker 1: their budgets and services. This has upset a lot of

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Speaker 1: people in the sector. Of course, social service providers. CEO

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Speaker 1: Blinda Hemiower is with us very good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning mate.

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Speaker 1: Have we got a couple of things here. One the

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Speaker 1: cutbacks and funding and value for the money argument versus

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Speaker 1: the way that handle it. They're two separate issues. Is

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Speaker 1: that fair or not?

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Speaker 2: They are interconnected. I think the reason that the Office

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Speaker 2: of the Orders General has decided to look into this

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Speaker 2: and then interact concerns which were quite serious, is both

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Speaker 2: of those issues. So the rapid rate of removal of services,

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Speaker 2: the lack of transparency, the lack of clear process about

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Speaker 2: why decisions were being made. In many cases there were

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Speaker 2: children and families receiving services that were being removed or reduced,

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Speaker 2: and I think all of this just shows quite a

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Speaker 2: damaging picture for those out there own communities and the

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Speaker 2: sector is just very distressed. They can see services are

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Speaker 2: still needed.

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Speaker 1: Yes indeed, but that's a government decision. Though if the

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Speaker 1: government of the day, rightly or wrongly says we don't

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Speaker 1: want to do it this way, that's their right, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, there's a very good conversation to be

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Speaker 2: had about what is needed in these communities, and part

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Speaker 2: of that is our sector. We are a government funded,

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Speaker 2: not for profit sector. We work alongside government every day

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Speaker 2: to help them implement their strategy. So the idea that

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Speaker 2: government can't change its mind is just, frankly not how

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Speaker 2: we operate. It's a very resilient sector. I think the

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Speaker 2: reason that we are just so concerned is the rapid

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Speaker 2: nature of these decisions seems to be no plan that

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Speaker 2: we've seen in communities. Children are being left without the

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Speaker 2: services that they need, and these are really vital services

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Speaker 2: for sometimes very young children and vulnerable family. See.

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Speaker 1: I follow this very closely because I'm interested. I can't

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Speaker 1: and we had some people there's a lot of emotion

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Speaker 1: in the sector, and I understand it to a degree,

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Speaker 1: But there was some woman and Nelson the other day

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Speaker 1: who go who went, children are going to die? And

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Speaker 1: I went, right, no, they're not mean, come on. And

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Speaker 1: so current saw, on the other hand, is in Parliament

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Speaker 1: almost on a weekly basis these days, saying things like

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Speaker 1: there's money in bank accounts that was never used, so

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Speaker 1: we don't want to do it that way anymore. Anything

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Speaker 1: well fair enough, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think the common issue We've got a lot of

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Speaker 2: common ground with governments. I think the most important thing

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Speaker 2: for us is to constructively work through these issues without

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Speaker 2: undue emotion on any side, because I think the focus

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Speaker 2: here has to be about giving New Zealand as children

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Speaker 2: and families the services that they deserve. I think that

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Speaker 2: when you remove supports, training, access to services, you delay

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Speaker 2: with ferrals, all of these paint a dangerous picture for

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Speaker 2: those needing chronic services and communities, and it's important conversation

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Speaker 2: to have about how unimpacted children are who need the

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Speaker 2: services that may no longer be provided. I also think

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Speaker 2: that ministers come in with a vision. It was voted

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Speaker 2: for by New Zealand. That part of it. And this

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Speaker 2: is why the Office of the Autogenal, which is an

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Speaker 2: dependent organization, independent body of Parliament, the reason it is

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Speaker 2: looking is that things don't look right with what's been

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Speaker 2: happening with or don't.

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Speaker 1: But that's partlind Rustill can't get to the bottom of

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Speaker 1: is the AG looking at this to go look at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, they shouldn't have given you

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Speaker 1: three days. Notice that that wasn't professional. It's not what

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Speaker 1: we would have liked. We would have liked a couple

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Speaker 1: of months. But at the end of the day, they

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Speaker 1: can do what they want. I mean that, in essence

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Speaker 1: is what they're likely to come up with, isn't it well.

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Speaker 2: I think one of the reasons that the RAG has

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Speaker 2: chosen this situation, in this set of circumstances to look

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Speaker 2: at and you'll see this if you look at the

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Speaker 2: terms of reference or the information on the website, is

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Speaker 2: because the nature of the services means the impact of

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Speaker 2: that funding is very distressing and not okay. So when

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Speaker 2: you've got a child, a parent, someone who may have

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Speaker 2: experienced and violence, sexual violence, child who's been in an

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Speaker 2: abusive home, when they are receiving services or when they

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Speaker 2: need to be placed in care, when they do not

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Speaker 2: have access to those services, they can be an impact

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Speaker 2: on their safety and well being. And this is why

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Speaker 2: we should be looking very closely at this matter.

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Speaker 1: Blinda, you have a good day, Please to appreciate it

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Speaker 1: very much. Belinda Jimihana, who is with the social services providers.

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Speaker 1: For more from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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