Photo: RNZ
Vulnerable children and whanau in South Auckland will lose support from social workers being laid off as a result of funding cuts by Oranga Tamariki.
The social workers, employed by the ME Family Service, are among those affected by a $30m per year drop in Oranga Tamariki's commissioning budget for contracting services over the next four years.
ME Family Services (Māngere East Family Services) is one of many care organisations who have been waiting to hear the impact of cuts on them. Chief executive Carole Tana-Tepania (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine) had been told over the phone what to expect but a formal notification had been expected to arrive on Wednesday afternoon.
Tana-Tepania said she was still waiting for formal confirmation but was expecting to have to lay off one third of the organisation's front line practitioners by the end of the year as a result of the cuts.
"What we do understand is that our community based social work team, which provides advocacy for the wider Māngere Ōtāhuhu area, and provides wraparound resources for families who are struggling to meet their day to day needs. Those services will come to an end or be discontinued by the end of this year. And we will also see a reduction in our school based social work services as well."
The cuts would have real-life impacts on tamariki and mokopuna in their community.
"We won't be able to provide [support] to as many whānau as we have in the past. Whānau may miss out. Children may fall through the cracks because there are less staff there to support schools, to identify issues and make really sound safety plans for children.
"There will be whānau who can't access the resources they need, whether that be food, adequate and warm housing, clothing, even simple things like being able to get their children to school."
The majority of the whānau and tamariki the ME Family Service serves are Māori and Pasifika.
"We not only supporting families who are typically beneficiaries, but we're supporting working families, families who are holding down, sometimes two jobs in order to make ends meet. The cost of living here is horrendous, the rents absolutely unaffordable for our families.
"We can't imagine how it's going to be possible to continue to provide that advocacy and support for the many whānau that we know need it."
Chief Executive of the ME Family Service (Māngere East Family Service) Carole Tana-Tepania Photo: Supplied
Tana-Tepania said her organisation works with 17 of the 21 primary and intermediate schools in the South Auckland suburb of Māngere, but the funding cuts mean they are unlikely to continue providing support at the same level.
"There are real implications, and real lives that are at stake here. I really feel for our community. I'm worried about where they're going to go to get support. That's one of our main concerns."
'Widespread' impact of $30m cut
Oranga Tamariki fund a range of programmes delivered by external care providers - including counselling for children; social workers in schools; teen parent units; wrap around support for neurodivergent children, support for foster parents and family and sexual violence programmes. But the money available for funding these programmes was cut by $30 million annually in the Budget, announced in May.
Children's Minister Karen Chhour and Oranga Tamariki had not responded to RNZ's questions by deadline on Wednesday night.
Social Service Providers Aotearoa is a member-led organisation made up of about three quarters of the community based social sector. Chief Executive Belinda Himiona said it had been an unsettling and distressing few months for providers waiting to hear about funding decisions.
Himiona said she was very concerned about the reduction in funding, despite no reduction in need from vulnerable communities.
"Providers are seeing enormous need in their communities. We're very worried that child safety, that whānau well-being is going to be impacted by these reductions."
Although there was no clear scale of the impact on jobs just yet, it would be widespread.
"We had 160 providers join a zoom hui to discuss concerns, and there was universal concern about service delivery for children and families.
"This is not one or two providers. This is a number of providers that are very, very concerned. Many of these providers have provided services in communities for a number of years, if not decades, there are established services that are doing a great job. And I think that the scale of concern in the community sector should give us all pause for reflection."
The sector was feeling distressed and confused about the future.
"For the organisations, this is extremely disruptive, these services are needed and these providers want to deliver these services. This is very, very distracting into making our staff at the services who are committed and qualified, very unsettled."
Public Service Association national sector lead Josh Gardner said the jobs being cut were "absolutely frontline services".
"For a government that's spouted that this was not going to be reaching frontline services well, it might not be the public service, but it's the community public service and these are absolutely frontline services," he said.
The PSA had tried to bring together social service providers with the government to work on a solution without success.
"This shouldn't be a difficult decision. This is absolutely frontline services that are that are now at risk."
