A Report by the Family Centre Social Policy Research Unit
for Oranga Tamariki—Ministry for Children, March 2023

This evaluation report is the final evaluation of the pilot programme after the two initial formative evaluations and the first impact evaluation6. It constitutes wave four and the second impact evaluation. The primary evaluation question for this impact evaluation is: To what extent has the programme achieved its wellbeing and pilot infrastructure outcomes, by mid-2022?

Pae Whakatupuranga: Functional Family Therapy Cross Generations (FFT-CG) is a pilot programme aimed at breaking the intergenerational cycle of justice involvement for rangatahi/young people and improving wellbeing for them and their families/whānau/aiga. This happens through the facilitation of positive change in family systems. This programme is an adaptation of the original Functional Family Therapy (FFT) model, which is designed and owned by FFT-LLC, but has been adapted in order to be culturally appropriate for the Aotearoa context.

Pae Whakatupuranga I FFT-CG aims to weave together three distinct approaches: the original FFT model; Whaitake Whakaoranga Whānau (WWW), whose purpose is to ensure that whānau experience therapy that is respectful of and consistent with Māori values, processes, and culture; and Uputāua Pan-Pacific Cultural Framework (Uputāua), a Pasefika framework that recognises many of the cultural and spiritual protocols that are central to Pacific communities, in a model designed to increase cultural understanding and skills for family therapists working with aiga.

Pae Whakatupuranga I FFT-CG is funded by Oranga Tamariki under its Reducing Youth Offending programme of work. The service involves two other agency partners – the Department of Corrections (Corrections) and New Zealand Police (Police). Youth Horizons (YH), a contracted third-party provider of the Pae Whakatupuranga I FFT-CG service, has been implementing the pilot in Auckland since July 2019.

The Family Centre Social Policy Research Unit (FCSPRU) is undertaking a multi-year evaluation of Pae Whakatupuranga I FFT-CG (July 2019 to June 2022). This evaluation has three overall high-level objectives: To assess how well Pae Whakatupuranga I FFT-CG is being implemented, including its cultural appropriateness in the Aotearoa/New Zealand context, and identify any areas for improvement; To understand the service’s early effect on the wellbeing of young people and their whānau; To identify key requirements for implementing the service well in other locations (if it is deemed effective).

(From the Executive summary). Record #8182