Oranga Tamariki reform could make things worse - expert

The proposed reforms of Oranga Tamariki could actually lead to an increase of child abuse in New Zealand, Child Matters chief executive Jane Searle says.

Her comments came ahead of the select committee overseeing the reforms presenting its recommendations to Parliament on Monday.

Searle said that "we don't rate well at all" in New Zealand for identifying and preventing child abuse, or protecting the victims.

"We have a mental health system that's not coping, we have high rates of methamphetamine use, we have homelessness and poverty rising, and all of that under the shadow of a pandemic. So all of that means that our vulnerable people are most at risk.

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"And I personally think we have yet to see what the effects of the pandemic will be."

But she feels replacing the Children's Commissioner role with a board, as the reform proposals suggest, would not be the solution.

The Government have said the change is designed to create a group that can be fully focused on monitoring Oranga Tamariki.

"The Office of the Children's Commissioner is the most vocal and most publicly known advocate for children in this country," Searle said.

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"If we take that away from the public view, then we will have less public consciousness of what's happening, therefore politicians will put less focus on it - particularly coming into election years - and then we'll have less resource and policy around it.

"And this is a time when we need to increase resource and strengthen our policy and legislation, not the opposite."

Ultimately, the move was "not what any of the frontline workers were asking for," Searle said.

"There is so much more that we could focus on at the moment, there is so much more we could do in Oranga Tamariki."