IN-CONFIDENCE

Peter Whitcombe's last day with Oranga Tamariki
11 September 2024
Tēnā koutou katoa,
On behalf of Chappie, I want to take time to express appreciation for the incredible mahi
of our former Chief Social Worker, Peter Whitcombe, whose last day with Oranga Tamariki
is this Friday.
Joining Child, Youth and Family in 2001, Peter began his career in residential services. He
moved to supervise a Care and Protection team and then took up an Executive Manager role.
Since this time Peter has worked as a site manager, Director of the Canterbury Children’s
Teams, a Youth Justice Regional Manager, and a General Manager responsible for the ﬁve
youth justice residences. In 2022 he became our Chief Social Worker.
As Chief Social Worker, Peter brought a strong social work voice to Te Riu and demonstrated
a relentless commitment to doing what’s right, for tamariki, whānau, communities and
kaimahi. His leadership is grounded in the values of this organisation, his decades of
services and genuine care for those he works with.
Time and time again, Peter has shown his ability to bring people together and inspire them to
be their best. These qualities have seen him lead and support some signiﬁcant pieces of
mahi that wil continue to inﬂuence our practice for years to come.
I know you wil join me in wishing him and his whānau wel .

Ngā mihi

Andrew Bridgman

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Message from the acting CE - thanks to kaimahi, new structure, Social Workers Day and te
wiki o te reo Māori
12 September 2024
Good afternoon everyone,
I wanted to take some time to touch base with you today before the end of the week.
I want to acknowledge that for many people across Oranga Tamariki, Friday wil  be their ﬁnal
day with us.
To those of you leaving the organisation, I want to thank you for your work and commitment
to Oranga Tamariki and wish you wel  for al  that the future holds.
Over the weekend National Oﬃce wil  begin its restack – with teams real ocating to their new
ﬂoors and spaces at 56 the Terrace.
The placement of teams has been wel  thought through and wil  put National Oﬃce in the
best position to start working in the new structure.
Take time on Monday to unpack, get to know your new neighbours and team members –
because it’s important we take time to settle into our new way of working.
Next week is also Māori language week – Te wiki o te reo Māori. And throughout the week
there are videos and activities scheduled to celebrate te reo Māori.
Information wil  go up on Te Pae on Friday as wel  as links to resources and posters you can
print off and decorate your new workspace with.
Next Wednesday it is also National Social Workers Day and our Chief Social Worker,
Nicolette is leading activities to acknowledge the importance of this day which include a
rather entertaining video of your favourite DCE’s who are putting their poi making skil s on
display in honour of our social workers.
Chappie wil  also return next week, which is his ﬁnal week with Oranga Tamariki before he
takes medical leave.
There is a lot going on at the moment in amongst the stand up of our new structure, so next
week Chappie wil  send a message to you al  about our new structure, how we intend to put
in place the changes you cal ed for through the consultation process and what to expect
leading up to 1 October when al  the pieces wil  be in place, the new structure wil  be ful y
operational and we wil  farewel  our old ways of working.

Wil  touch base again next week.

Andrew Bridgman

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Message from Acting CE: I love you mum
23 September 2024
As I begin my time acting for Chappie while he is on medical leave, I wanted to write to each
and every one of you to introduce myself and to talk about the road ahead.
Firstly, I want to say it is great to be here at Oranga Tamariki. I have thoroughly enjoyed
meeting many of you over the past 7 weeks, getting to know the business and gathering an
understanding of what sits at the core of the work you do.
When asked by the Public Service Commission to take on the role of Acting CE, I did not
hesitate to say “yes” . I immediately knew it would be an opportunity I would never regret
taking,
It is true that I have been in the public service for thousands of years – across Health,
Justice and Defence and I can honestly say that this is a profoundly special and unique
place.
You do the most important work – caring for and protecting New Zealand’s vulnerable
children.  I want to take this, my ﬁrst opportunity to speak to you al  as the CE, to thank you
for the work you undertake every day.
A brief introduction – I grew up in the Hutt Val ey, which as you al  know is the centre of the
universe and the cultural epicentre of Aotearoa.
9(2)(a)




Over the coming weeks, I would like to talk about what is important for us, and what as an
organisation we need to focus on.
I know over the most recent years, the workload of Oranga Tamariki has been heavy, the
biggest chal enge was being asked to do too many things al  at once.  I know, as do the
leaders in Te Riu, that we need to give you al  permission to distil the important and discard
the things that hinder our ability to become a high performing Ministry.  We al  (myself
included) need to real y focus, and be disciplined in that focus, and we need to keep things
simple.  We need to do the basics right – relentlessly, everyday.
The basics to me can be easily explained in 2 parts. The ‘our core purpose’ – which is the
actual caring and protecting of children and rangatahi and secondly, ‘becoming a high
performing Ministry’ – how we manage the business in a way that enables us to care for the
children – our ﬁnances, our kaimahi, our ministerial and public reporting obligations.  Over
the coming weeks I wil  explain this in more detail.

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Final y, I want to tel  you a story, this wil  probably help explain the subject line of this email
better.
It’s a true story about one of our rangatahi in a youth justice residence.  Like many of the
young ones we work with, he and his whānau face some pretty signiﬁcant chal enges.
Progress is measured in the smal  things, the little changes. Recently he has taken it upon
himself to cal  his Mother every night.  His Mum let us know that for the ﬁrst time since he
was a child, he told her that he loved her.  In fact, he now ends each nightly cal  with “I love
you Mum”.
The smal  things matter. The little changes count. Because in the end they mean a son can
tel  his Mum he loves her, and a Mum can end each day knowing her son is going to be ok.

Have a great week, and thanks again for al  your great work.

Nga mihi nui

Andrew

IN-CONFIDENCE

Message from the Acting CE: Rol  out of our priorities and focus areas, PSC awards and
looking after ourselves
30 September 2024
Each Monday morning Te Riu – the Oranga Tamariki leadership team – meet to discuss
agenda items ranging from health and safety to investment and budgets, to new initiatives
and current operations (like Military Style Academy).
Last Monday we met and discussed how we would priortise our work effort across Oranga
Tamariki to help us al  focus on the important and re-prioritise or discard the non
important. It goes to that old principle, that if you try to do everything you don’t do anything
that wel .
Over the coming weeks we wil  rol  out the priorities, which wil  not be of any surprise, and
that is a good thing. I thought I would set the scene by talking brieﬂy about our three focus
areas – Delivery on our core purpose, changing our culture, and getting the basics rights.
Delivery on our Core Purpose – is about our core statutory functions and our Minister’s
priorities – it is about how we go about delivery of them and addressing and working with
the chal enges of doing that.
Changing our Culture – is about lifting our management and leadership capability, improving
accountability, and leading the culture change require to help us deliver our core purpose.
Getting the Basics Right – it’s about the essentials/sound communication, sound budget
management, sound people management, sound reporting and management of ministerials,
OIAs, Written PQs – Privacy Act Requests.
Over the coming weeks, I wil  talk about this in more detail, but I am hopeful this wil  give you
a sense and the distil ed approach that Te Riu is taking to help us al  focus.
Last week was an exciting week of recognition for Renee Conway and Oranga Tamariki.
Renee was a ﬁnalist in the Te Hapai Hapori Public Service Commission Spirit of Service
Awards Young Leader of the Year Award. Renee was nominated for the award for her work
not only as a social worker, but also as a leader of her team to provide effective and
innovative services for her community.
The award ceremony was held at Tākina in Wellington on Thursday night, which Renee and
Caz Anderson attended.
Congratulations Renee!!  Well done, a terriﬁc recognition for you, and through you, for Oranga
Tamariki.
Final y – look after yourself!  Last week (I general y operate a week behind schedule) was
Mental Health Awareness Week.
Phil posted on Te Pae videos on this.  Suﬃce to say, you al  work in a very chal enging
environment. I know the rewards are enormous, but they don’t happen every day. You are a
resilient kaimahi that do the hard yards, and to be frank, it won’t get any easier. But, that is
why it is real y important to think about what you enjoy, what gives you fulﬁlment and peace
outside of work and be disciplined (easier said than done I know!) about setting aside time
for that.

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Look after yourself – you are important – not only here, but more importantly, to your family
and friends.

I hope you have a good week.

Nga mihi nui

Andrew

IN-CONFIDENCE

Message from the Acting CE: More on our 3 focus areas and Jane Addams, the ﬁrst social
worker
21 October 2024
Over the past two weeks, Te Riu has been giving life to the set of priorities we agreed upon
on 25 September, and I referred to in my email of the same day.  We wil  publish them online
shortly, but ﬁrstly I wanted to give you a brief outline of what they look like.
There are three focus areas:
1.  Delivery on our core purpose
2.  Culture change
3.  Getting the basics right
This focus helps us to distil and prioritise what is important and what is not.

Our focus areas in detail
Focus area 1 is delivery on our core purpose.
It prioritises activities like al ocation of cases, residences operating safely, locating missing
children, our Minister’s expectations around social worker visits, and improving the way we
manage complaints, to name a few.
Focus area 2 is about changing our culture – which is about lifting our management and
leadership capability, improving our accountability, and leading cultural change.
This includes embedding and delivering a cultural framework, designing and rol ing out a
performance management system, and ensuring that we have a ﬁnancial y sustainable
operating model.
Focus area 3 is getting the basics right.
This is about running a healthy organisation.  It is simple but important stuff like managing
our ﬁnances and delegations, ensuring that we operate within budget and taking annual
leave because that keeps us refreshed.
It also includes complying with our special obligations as a government department, like
crafting Ministerials, responding to Oﬃcial Information Act and Privacy Act requests.
These obligations are real y important, because they fulﬁl that critical function of being
transparent and accountable to the public for the work we and Ministers do.  And this
transparency is one of the hal marks we need for people to have trust in us.

Discovering Jane Addams
While I was lying on the couch in the weekend, exhausted from doing nothing, I thought to
myself “I wonder who was the ﬁrst social worker? When did it al  begin?”
So, I picked up my phone and half an hour later after I revived the battery from being very
dead (but an unintentional method of ensuring you remain uninterrupted). I found the answer

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– Jane Addams.  To those of you that know this already, my apologies, but I thought for
everyone else you may ﬁnd this interesting.
By al  accounts Jane Addams was a formidable woman, regarded as the founder of social
worker profession.  She was born in the United States in 1860 and died in 1935.
Her interests and activities spread across a number of areas, but the common link was the
relationship between the actions of the government and its impact on the individual, and in
particular mothers and children.
She was a proponent of “settlement houses” to bring together cross sections of society in a
single location to help those less fortunate. Those houses were to provide support like
daycare, health care, education and other initiatives that al eviate and improve the lives of
those people.
Jane Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in 1931.  The central thrust of this
work though was to take a more reform-based approach to social work that looked at the
underlying causes of disadvantage and how society can practice and address those using
social theories and practices involving government and the community.

I hope al  of you have a good week ahead – and thank you for al  your work.

Yours sincerely,
Andrew

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Message from the Acting CE: Three boys
4 November 2024
Ten days ago, we had 13 boys break out of their residence building to climb onto the roof at
Korowai Manaaki.
Once the deed is done, the issue is, what next?
This is my ﬁrst experience with a major event at Oranga Tamariki. What took me by surprise,
but maybe shouldn’t have, was the immediate intense interest of the media and in fact the
public. Suddenly we were more of the centre of attention than can often be the case.
What didn’t take me by surprise was the professionalism of our people.
In my ﬁrst engagement with Iain Chapman, Acting Deputy Chief Executive, Youth Justice
Care and Protection Residences and Homes, he made it very clear – the single objective was
to get the kids down safely.
This of course is easier said than done. 13 teenagers, high on adrenaline and keen to make a
noise on the roof, some parts steep, ready for a good time as the evening was setting.
Aimee Hunter, our new Manager Residential Services Youth Justice,  who had only been with
us for ﬁve weeks, had arrived that day for her ﬁrst visit, so that was quite an
induction!  Aimee became the Incident Control er.
Over the fol owing 11 hours, the whole Korowai Manaaki team swung into action, many
members staying when their shifts ended and many other members of the team coming in
from home to help out – to talk with the boys on the roof, to try and persuade them that the
best thing they could do was to come down.  And they did, the ﬁrst coming down shortly
after the event started at 10.45 pm and the last at 9.45 am in the morning.
They al  came down safely. The objective was achieved.
I would like to pay tribute to Aimee, to Iti Aufai, the site manager, and to Soane Mokoi, the
Manager Residence Operations, for their great leadership over this time – for their clarity,
patience, and resolve.  I would like to thank al  the Korowai Manaaki team for the effort huge
they collectively put in to bring this to a good outcome.
In particular, I would like to acknowledge their ability to leverage their personal relationships
with the boys built over time and their perseverance in talking to the boys al  night to create
the conditions that meant they came down.
There were many in the background that also played a role – our media team, the Police, and
the Fire Service – all contributed to this effort.
And to Iain Chapman for his calm leadership, and the great job he did fronting the media at
the conclusion of the incident.
The heroes of the time were 3 boys.  Residents in Korowai Manaaki. They were the boys who
said “no”. They were the boys who did not go on the roof.  They were the boys who said to
the others “don’t do it”.
We forget in our distance from the teenage years, how overwhelming, and engulﬁng the
beast of peer pressure is to the thoughts and actions of young ones in that age group. Which
is why, in the heat of the moment, in the milieu of the chaos, the presence of mind of these

IN-CONFIDENCE

three boys to mental y step back and decide “we are not going to be part of this” is truly
admirable. If they can make good choices under such extreme circumstances, they have a
great future.

Nga mihi nui

Andrew

IN-CONFIDENCE

Message from the Acting CE: Update on Chappie's return
6 November 2024
Kia ora everyone,
Today I was advised that although Chappie’s surgery went wel , he needs more time to
recover.
I have been asked to remain as Acting CE.
We wish Chappie al the best for his recovery, and I wil update al staff on his return once
dates are conﬁrmed.

Andrew

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Message from Acting CE & Chief Social Worker: Our national apology
12 November 2024
Kia ora everyone
Today I have asked Nicolette, our Chief Social Worker, to write to al  staff ahead of the
National Apology.
Andrew Bridgman
A message from Nicolette Dickson
Nga mihi nui ngā kaimahi o Oranga Tamariki,
He moemoeā ō ngā purapura ora mote heke mai
– Survivors dreams for the future –

a next generation where every child, young person and adult is loved, safe and cared for in a
manner that supports their growth and development into thriving contributors to society.

Tomorrow wil  be a day of signiﬁcance for al  of us who cal  Aotearoa home as the Prime
Minister delivers a national apology to survivors of abuse in care.

It wil  be a day of mixed emotions, of sadness, of acknowledgement, of reﬂection on the past
and of hope for the future.

It wil  be a day that many survivors of abuse and their whānau have waited a long time for,
and some have not survived to see.

As kaimahi, whatever role we play, we are united by a vision that al  children are safe, loved
and nurtured. And so there is no doubt today wil  be an emotional day for us al .

In particular, I want to acknowledge those of you who continue to walk your own personal
journey as survivors of abuse in care or have held the hand of someone in your whānau or
community who is doing so. May you particularly ﬁnd some comfort in the meaning and
importance of today.
I want to let you know a little bit about what to expect.

In an event at Parliament, our Acting CE, Andrew Bridgman wil  join the leaders of Health,
Education, Police, Crown Law, Public Service Commission, and the Ministry of Social
Development who wil  apologise in person for the failings of the public service and the harm
that survivors have experienced.

The Prime Minister wil  then deliver the National Apology in the house where many survivors
wil  be present.  At the same time, survivors wil  gather in events in Wellington, Otautahi and
Tamaki Makaurau to hear the apology together.

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The apology wil  be broadcast live, and a video of our apology wil  be shared across al  of our
external and internal platforms. I would encourage you to take the time to watch the apology
and to talk to your teammates about what it means.
I want to acknowledge Andrew for representing us as he gives this apology. It wil  be a
reﬂection of the evidence we gave during the commission.

We acknowledged that through the decades, the state child protection agency had made
multiple failings in preventing and reporting the abuse of children in care.

We acknowledged that often children were not believed when they told us they had been
harmed and that those who had harmed them were often not held to account.

We acknowledged that Māori, Paciﬁc and disabled children in particular experienced harm
that was often more severe than their peers.

We acknowledged that poor record keeping practices means that many of those who were in
care wil  never have the opportunity to know and fully understand their past.

And we acknowledged that our failings have created ongoing mistrust between Māori and
non-Māori involved in state care.
Tomorrow, as Government, we say we are sorry. And although no words shared wil  make up
for the harm caused, it is an important step in moving forward not just as Oranga Tamariki,
but as a country.
Survivors have been clear, for an apology to be meaningful it must also be seen as a
renewed cal  to action.

Survivors want every whānau supported so they can provide loving care themselves and that
when, from time to time out of whānau care is needed, it is provided in plain sight, with
children safeguarded and the whole community working together to return that child home. I
know this is something each and every one of you work hard every day to realise for the
children who come to our attention.
… And yet, if we are honest, there is much more ahead of us to make sure every child is safe,
every child is loved and every child is nurtured. As we reﬂect on the magnitude of today’s
events, let it be with a renewed commitment to the journey ahead, to the work stil  to be done
and to the safe future for children that survivors want for their next generation.
In the following days, I wil  share some thoughts through a video on Te Pae, a reﬂections
session to look back on the journey we have been on, the importance of today’s National
Apology and the work we must do moving forward.
To al  staff, tomorrow wil  likely be a tough day for many. Take care of yourselves, take care
of each other – and we wil  talk soon.
Nicolette Dickson
Chief Social Worker

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A national apology to survivors of abuse in state care
18 November 2024
On 12 November 2024 the Government delivered a national apology to survivors of abuse in
state care.
Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive, Andrew Bridgman, joined leaders of Health, Education,
Police, Crown Law, Public Service Commission and the Ministry of Social Development to
apologise for the failings of the public service.
To every survivor, and every person who did not survive.
To the children who we failed.
To the adults those children have now become.
We are sorry.
Our national apology

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Message from Acting CE: The Promise
22 November 2024
Last Tuesday the Prime Minister apologised in parliament to the survivors and those that did
not survive, of the abuse in state care. The apology was in response to the Royal
Commission Report “Whanaketia - through pain and trauma from darkness to light” delivered
in June 2024.
Prior to the Prime Minister’s apology, seven public sector chief executives whose
departments had been speciﬁcal y mentioned in the report, also each gave an apology in the
Banquet Hal  of the Beehive. I delivered our apology as the current Chief Executive and on
behalf of Chief Executives past of Oranga Tamariki and former manifestations of this
ministry.
After such a historical day I walked away with a number of reﬂections and a promise, that I
want to share with you.
Firstly, it was a day that needed to happen, and it was a day for the survivors. The state
needed to acknowledge the horrendous harm and breach of trust that it had inﬂicted on
innocent and vulnerable people over decades.
Secondly, in the case of the state’s role in childcare and protection, not only was harm
committed, but even when it was not, it is evident from the report that the lack of fulsome
care and protection, which we should have provided, meant that many of the children would
have been better off to remain in the homes that they came from.
Thirdly, many of those that survived did much more than just survive. They have gone on to
have full and productive lives demonstrating tenacity and resilience of herculean proportions
– they are the heroes of the story. And in the children we care for today, despite the
chal enging family environments that they come from, you can also see in many of them a
resilience and tenacity, that if given the right encouragement and opportunities, wil  hold
them in great stead for the rest of their lives.
Final y, the promise.
In my speech I talked about the fact that the care system had changed, it had improved –
there is no question that it is very different to what it was then – and this is due to you, your
col eagues and the people before you that work tirelessly every day to improve the lives of
our young tamariki.
But I also acknowledged an uncomfortable and unacceptable truth, that harm is stil
occurring to children in our care – whether that is because children are harming children, and
we are failing to prevent it or whether it is we are harming our children.
What I have seen in my limited time here is that in amongst the enormous array of pressures
we are under and work we have to do; we have a remarkable ability to make traction when
we focus.
We need to focus.
There must be no harm – it is never OK, it is never tolerable, it is never explainable.
I know that the vast majority of you come to work each day to do good.

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But for those that cause harm there is no place for you in this organisation.
When harm occurs, we wil ﬁnd it and if our people have been found to have caused the harm
or to let harm happen, then they wil be removed from Oranga Tamariki.
The tolerance for harm is zero – that, for our tamariki, for the parents of the children in our
care, for the survivors who fought to remove this behaviour from the system, for the public of
New Zealand - that is the promise.

Ngā mihi nui

Andrew

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Message from Acting CE: Keeping our Promise
22 November 2024
Kia ora,
Today the Minister has announced the establishment of a new unit inside Oranga Tamariki –
the Child Protection Investigation Unit.
I spoke earlier this week about the impact of the National Apology, our commitment to
ensuring tamariki and rangatahi are not harmed while in our care and the need to draw a line
in the sand – like I said in my earlier email,  “when harm occurs, we wil  ﬁnd it and if our
people have been found to have caused the harm or to have let harm happen they wil  be
removed from Oranga Tamariki”.
This unit is how we put action to that promise.
There are thousands of us that work for Oranga Tamariki, that walk the values we are all very
proud of. The large majority come to work each day to help and not harm – this isn’t about
you. You do a wonderful job, and I am grateful to you as are the thousands of children, young
people and whānau that you work hard to help every day.
But the Royal Commission’s report into abuse in state care showed us the cost of not doing
more to prevent and stop harm happening to children in care. The price is paid not just by the
survivors of the abuse, but the generations of whānau that come after them.
So, we are going to do something about it.
The Child Protection Investigation Unit is us putting action to our words.
The unit wil  be established by independent experts led by Janis Adair who is the current
Chief Inspector at the Oﬃce of the Inspectorate.
Janis Adair was a nurse in the Army Medical services and then became a Police Detective in
the United Kingdom. She has worked for the Independent Policy Conduct Authority and in
2014 she returned to the United Kingdom and worked at the Independent Inquiry into Child
Sexual abuse. She is now the highly regarded Chief Inspector at the Oﬃce of the
Inspectorate independently monitoring New Zealand’s prisons.
The objectives of the Child Protection Investigation Unit are to:
•  Conduct rigorous and transparent investigations into cases where the care provided
to a child by the state has caused harm
•  Identify systemic failures to reform to the systems and practices of Oranga Tamariki
•  Provide a voice for survivors by working with the Crown Response Oﬃce – ensuring
the experiences of survivors inform ongoing improvements in care standards
•  Promote accountability at al  levels of the care system
Janis Adair wil  lead the development of the Terms of Reference and the operational
structure of the Unit before the end of the year.
The unit wil  be operational at the beginning of 2025.

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I know the drive every Te Riu member and I have to protect the children and young people in
care is shared amongst you al .
Not one of us wants harm to come to those we care for.
That’s why we, al of us are committed to not repeating the mistakes of the past.
That is our promise as Oranga Tamariki – and we are keeping it.

Ngā mihi nui
Andrew