Oranga Tamariki senior lawyers lawyer-up ahead of restructure decision

Wednesday, 29 May 2024

A lawyer at Oranga Tamariki says alarm bells are ringing over the Children’s Ministry’s proposal to slash its legal department, while it is understood almost 20 senior lawyers have engaged a King’s Counsel over the proposal.

Last week, a leaked proposal document obtained by The Post listed numerous jobs in scope within Oranga Tamariki’s proposal to downsize by hundreds of roles, which included the legal division losing a quarter of its team, about 30 roles.

Another section proposed reducing reliance on the legal team, in some parts through its investment in “social worker professional capability”. As of last Wednesday, Oranga Tamariki were short more than 100 social workers.

“It is going to affect vulnerable tamariki we work with, that's the biggest concern,” the lawyer, who did not want to be named, said.

“To have a social worker go to court unrepresented is risky and also it’s not fair to them to expect them to understand what they might be agreeing to or discussing with the judge.

“We do everything from reviewing court documents for them, and we're in courts around the country every single day … appearing for children who are in care or who have support orders in place.

“Matters can escalate really quickly, social workers having the ability to contact legal right then and there is really crucial.”

The lawyer claimed Oranga Tamariki boss Chappie Te Kani described preventative work as a bonus, and they also had concerns over whether the leadership team fully understood the legal team’s job.

“We had to do time recordings for two weeks to show them what we do and to collate that data on … how much time we spend in court and so on.”

Children’s Minister Karen Chhour previously said “while Oranga Tamariki solicitors provide valuable support to social workers in carrying out their statutory functions, they do not provide direct services to children or families”.

The lawyer said the insinuation they do not deal directly with families was wrong.

“We go to mediations with families, if they’re unrepresented we are liaising with them directly, we liaise with family and we are meeting families in court.”

The lawyer said Oranga Tamariki’s legal team were considered essential workers over the Covid period. “It was a matter of months before the proposal came, they said we’re not frontline,” they said.

It’s understood senior lawyers have engaged Simon Mitchell KC to act through the restructuring process, and injunctions have been flagged as a possibility once Oranga Tamariki’s decision is finalised.

Mitchell confirmed he had assisted with the senior lawyers’ response to the proposal.

Oranga Tamariki was asked what changed between now and 2020 for the legal team to no longer be deemed frontline, if this could affect redundancy clauses, and if the legal team meets with families.

Deputy chief executive (people, culture & enabling services) Caz Anderson said legal services “provide a critical and important enabling service to frontline kaimahi and across the ministry; however, they are not a frontline service”.

“Our frontline care and protection work is led by our social and youth workers. The important work they do in our communities every day is supported by all enabling services across Oranga Tamariki.

“We have concluded the formal consultation phase of our proposed organisational restructure, and the focus is now on considering feedback before final decisions are made.”

Anderson said they “absolutely acknowledge how unsettling this time of uncertainty is, especially for the 440 kaimahi whose roles are proposed to be significantly impacted”.