OIA-CE-2025-03094
14 October 2025
Sam Butcher
FYI website
[FYI request #32258 email] Tēnā koe Sam
Thank you for your email, received on 8 September 2025, to Oranga Tamariki—
Ministry for Children (Oranga Tamariki) requesting information on the breakdown of
organizational spend over the last 10 years at Oranga Tamariki. Your request has
been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
You have requested:
For each of the last ten financial years, a breakdown of organisational spend,
separated by Titles and Scopes of Appropriations (as reported to Treasury or as
otherwise recorded by Oranga Tamariki) in a way that enables consistent
benchmarking over time.
1)
For each Appropriation, provide a separation of
•
Direct expenditure by Oranga Tamariki (including staff and
departmental overheads, or the equivalent categories used in your
reporting), and
•
Expenditure contracted to NGO partners, iwi and Māori providers, and
community organisations.
2)
For the Appropriation “Statutory Intervention and Transition”, a more
detailed breakdown of its recorded components - however these are
recorded within the ministry - over the last ten years. Where possible,
please provide:
•
Direct spend on Oranga Tamariki staff and overheads by component
•
Direct spend on total children’s expenses (such as schooling, medical
care, extracurricular activities, therapy)
•
Direct payments to foster parents/caregivers
•
Expenditure contracted to NGO partners, iwi, and community
organisations
I have responded to each part of your request below.
IN-CONFIDENCE
1)
For each Appropriation, provide a separation of
•
Direct expenditure by Oranga Tamariki (including staff and
departmental overheads, or the equivalent categories used in your
reporting), and
•
Expenditure contracted to NGO partners, iwi and Māori providers, and
community organisations.
Please find attached as appendix one the breakdown of organisational spend between
the 2018 and 2024 financial years.
Oranga Tamariki was established on 1 April 2017 (at that time as the Ministry for
Vulnerable Children), and as such information can only be provided from the 2018
financial year onwards (the first full year of operations). At the time of writing, the
annual review process for information for the 2025 financial year is not yet complete.
The financial information has been presented for each of the financial years by
appropriation and output class in accordance with the appropriation structures in
existence at the end of each year, and in line with the appropriation structure presented
in the Annual Report for that year.
Please refer to the first tab of the provided attachment for further explanatory
information about the data.
2)
For the Appropriation “Statutory Intervention and Transition”, a more
detailed breakdown of its recorded components - however these are
recorded within the ministry - over the last ten years. Where possible,
please provide:
•
Direct spend on Oranga Tamariki staff and overheads by component
•
Direct spend on total children’s expenses (such as schooling, medical
care, extracurricular activities, therapy)
•
Direct payments to foster parents/caregivers
•
Expenditure contracted to NGO partners, iwi, and community
organisations
Separating the costs allocated to an appropriation into contracted services, payments
to caregivers, or other recipients of funding in more detail than what has been provided
cannot be done without significant manual effort as this information does not already
exist in this format.
As such, this part of your request is refused under section 18(f) of the Act, on the
grounds that collating the information requested would have a significant and
unreasonable impact on the ability of Oranga Tamariki to carry out its core operations.
Oranga Tamariki may make the information contained in this letter available to the
public by publishing this on our website with your personal details removed.
I trust you find this information useful. Should you have any concerns with this
response, I would encourage you to raise them with Oranga Tamariki. Alternatively,
you are advised of your right to also raise any concerns with the Office of the
IN-CONFIDENCE
Ombudsman. Information about this is available a
t www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or by contacting them on 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Betty O’Connor Scurr
Chief Financial Officer
People Culture and Enabling Services
