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The government says it’s continuing to make “significant improvements” to the children’s system as part of its commitment to keeping vulnerable children safe from harm.
Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston is leading the work and says three of the 14 recommendations of the Dame Karen Poutasi Review are now complete, with the rest under way.
“In September, 2025, Cabinet accepted all the recommendations of the Poutasi Review and committed the Government and agencies to an approach focusing entirely on the safety of children.
“Earlier this year we established an inter-agency hub so key children’s agency staff can quickly access and share information to identify and address risks to children whose sole parents or sole carers are remanded in custody or sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
“As of April 29, the Hub had responded to 73 Reports of Concern for 110 tamariki.
“Child protection training for core children’s workers is also under way.
“While wider mandatory training is planned via a phased approach, immediate gains are being made by rapidly rolling out an electronic module covering foundational child protection information.
“This training module is already being tested with over 400 Core Children’s Workers from agencies.”
Upston says the education sector and NGOs will make up the remainder of the 500-testing cohort by the end of June, 2026.
“We have now also completed work on the Poutasi Review Recommendation 10 – ensuring early childhood education centres (ECEs) have effective child protection policies and that these are actively monitored.
“The relevant ECE licensing changes are taking place this month. The Ministry of Education has developed guidance to support the implementation of these changes by the Education Review Office (ERO).
“Monitoring of ECEs’ child protection policies is firmly embedded in ERO’s and the Ministry of Education’s compliance activities.
“We want suspected abuse to be identified sooner and be more consistently reported so that the system can respond quickly and so children experiencing abuse can be provided with appropriate support.
“The government and agencies also continue to support the work being done by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which is rolling out sessions around the country to ensure workers know that the Privacy Act does not prevent the sharing of information where the safety of children is involved.”
