Key points:
- Three of 10 youth hubs nationwide will have their funding reduced.
- Children's Minister Karen Chhour maintains Oranga Tamariki's overall funding remains the same but is simply being distributed differently.
- Under the changes, OT will give providers 70% of funding until services are delivered in full.
Several youth hubs nationwide have had funding cut for crucial frontline services amid Oranga Tamariki's budget reshuffle.
It comes as Children's Minister Karen Chhour asked the agency to properly assess hundreds of contracts with external service providers, which she said were valued at more than $500 million.
There are currently 10 health, addiction, and social services hubs contracted to the government department helping young people across the country. However, three are now facing funding cuts.
Among them is Te Tahi in Christchurch, with one of its Oranga Tamariki contracts — worth $150,000 — no longer being funded.
"For us here, we will have to, unfortunately, look at reducing the number of youth workers we have supporting some of our vulnerable young people," Te Tahi Youth's Fiona Kay said.
Similar services in Taupō and Rotorua will also have their funding slashed.
"We are fortunate that we do have other contracts and so we will be able to continue to operate, even if it is at a reduced capacity," Kay said.
"Unfortunately, some youth one-stop shops around the country are in a much more vulnerable position and if there were to be further funding cuts, they could face closure."
Chhour maintained the agency's overall funding remained the same and was simply being distributed differently.
"Seven will continue to be funded as per normal and three won't be because Oranga Tamariki is already paying for other providers to do a very similar service — so there's a bit of duplication," Chhour explained.
But Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the decision to slash funding "doesn’t add up".
"You only need to go and talk to these services who are delivering for our people, for our young people, at the frontline, and a cut is a cut — let's call a spade a spade," she said.
"It's time for the Government to grow up and to front up to those services that they are putting out into the cold."
Te Tahi said it's the community that will lose out.
"Without the youth work service, there will be a big gap because to access a lot of the wider services like counselling or therapy, huge waitlists," youth worker Amy Lloyd said.
Further changes are on the horizon, with Chhour today saying a small group of providers have built up their bank balances by under-delivering services, leaving the Government to claw back millions of dollars.
"I'm not saying organisations aren't doing a good job, but what I will say is we will no longer have this issue because we won't be funding providers 100% upfront anymore. It'll be 70% until they reach those deliverables," she said.
'Heartbreaking' - Labour
Labour's children's spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said Chhour's "botched handling" of provider contracts has led to "stress for many services and made life harder for vulnerable children and their whānau".
"More than 330 services like Family Start and Women’s Support have suffered funding cuts and are now worried about whether they can still help tamariki and whānau through some of the toughest times of their lives," Prime said today in a media release.
"How can we be confident that children will not lose out when there’s been no conversation with providers or communities about these cuts — a decision made and enforced with little warning."
She called the situation "heartbreaking", adding that more should be done to meet the need for support services, "not making it worse by culling contracts with no transition plan for children and their families".
"The Minister is putting a dollar value on the lives of our children and many will now be losing out on the only safe spaces they know," Prime said.
"The fact that the Children’s Commission and Independent Child Monitor are seeking information from the Government about these cuts shows just how serious this situation is.
"Instead of scapegoating providers and trying to spin the issue as their fault, Karen Chhour must recognise that the ones paying the ultimate cost of these cuts are vulnerable children and families."
SHARE ME