Published September 2021

On 1 July 2019, changes to section 66 of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 (the Act) came into effect. The new voluntary information sharing provisions were designed to enable safe and appropriate information sharing to ensure everyone working with tamariki can collaborate in the best interests of the child.1 The new provisions give the child welfare and protection agencies the ability to request, collect, use and
share personal information for purposes related to the wellbeing and safety of tamariki. This has broadened the information sharing provisions of the Act, enabling the child welfare and protection sector (the sector) to act together and ensure the safety and wellbeing of tamariki.

The Act also includes mandatory information sharing provisions between ‘authorised’ child welfare and protection agencies which have not been brought into force yet by
issuing a Code of Practice. Cabinet agreed to review the effectiveness of the voluntary information sharing provisions before decisions were made about whether the mandatory provisions were needed.

Oranga Tamariki needs to understand how the voluntary provisions are working in practice, and if they are achieving the Government’s objectives of better information sharing among the sector. This information sharing is for the purposes of keeping tamariki safe and improving their wellbeing.
Synergia was commissioned to provide an independent evaluation of the preparedness for and the implementation of the new voluntary information sharing provisions in the Act. The evaluation was designed to understand the sector’s
awareness and use of the new provisions. An online survey over two timepoints was used to establish an overall picture, and interviews with 32 stakeholders from the
sector provided detailed insights into the use and influence on practice of the new provisions.

An initial evaluation plan was revised by Oranga Tamariki and Synergia in December 2020 due to the implications of Covid-19. The main revisions were an adjusted
timeframe and the use of Zoom to conduct the stakeholder interviews.

Synergia worked with Oranga Tamariki to adopt a formative approach to the evaluation to ensure lessons learned and examples of good practice were regularly shared. This was achieved through shared sense making sessions and formative
feedback reports.

This final evaluation report draws on the insights from the formative evaluation reports and sense making sessions to address the key evaluation questions. (From the Introduction). Two survey reports and interview report accompany this final report - follow the links to download these reports or see the webpage for more information. Record #7308