Turning Tables: Ōtautahi on the Fast Track to Success

For Oranga Tamariki social worker Catherine Heemi, her working day begins with a list of Police referrals, looking at overnight youth offending in Ōtautahi.    

She’s joined by various government agencies, seated at the tēpu alongside community workers, to work out what is known about a child or young person and their whānau.

This information will form the basis of the decision to go and meet with this whānau within 24-48 hours to develop a plan with them in the hope of preventing further offending.

The members of Ōtautahi’s Fast Track tepu are often not seated for too long. With a wealth of inter-agency experience and knowledge, they use the information available to them to quickly assess the suitability of the referral and the potential supports that could be made available for each young person and their whānau.

The tepu will decide between them who will visit the whānau to discuss what Fast Track can offer and to obtain consent.

The tepu maintain one common goal: to provide early, wrap-around support to prevent children and young people from entering the youth court or Oranga Tamariki care.   

Staying on track

Initially launched in south and west Auckland late in 2022, Fast Track was developed by Oranga Tamariki and Police to activate a community-led response to serious and persistent offending by children aged 10 to 14.    

The programme has seen hugely positive signs of success in preventing young people and children from being re-referred. Nationally, more than 70% of those referred through the Fast Track programme have not been re-referred, stopping them from progressing further into the youth justice system. 

In Ōtautahi, since September 2023, members of the tepu have supported close to 100 children and their whānau who have been at risk of further escalation into the youth justice system.

For experienced social workers like Catherine, it has been heartening to see such positive signs for young people and their whānau.  

Catherine started as a Care and Protection social worker, before moving to the Youth Justice space and now plays a vital role linking families and kaimahi to navigate the Fast Track programme and the wider system.  

Inter-agency approach

Several other members of the tepu lauded the collaborative efforts of the inter-agency approach. 

Dallas Proctor, the Ministry of Social Development representative, has worked under MSD for more than 20 years, with much of that time spent with disadvantaged youth.     

Dallas assesses the financial support for each young person, from debt reduction, to benefits and allowances. She said that this was the first multi-agency programme she had been involved with that offered such a great level of support.

Nearly every young person that has been through the programme has received direct or indirect support through MSD.  

This could be around attendance, re-enrolling, transitioning, advocacy and/or learning support plans.

Meanwhile, 49% of the young people needed direct financial support, and 86% of them were receiving benefits – such as a disability allowance or accommodation supplement.

Enthusiasm for the joint-up approach was endorsed by another member of the tepu; Kainga Ora social worker advisor wellbeing Joss Clarke.    

She said the kaupapa around her role was supporting families in finding or maintaining a suitable place to live.     

More than half of the young people who had come through the programme so far were in Kainga Ora homes, emergency accommodation or transitional housing. 

“We have a reasonably high percentage of children that are attached to our homes. We can help out with urgent maintenance or advocate for transfers, and we’ve had some really good wins here as far as housing goes.”     

She said it was one of the best functioning inter-agency groups she had been a part of.    

Building trust

Catherine says the strong joined-up approach allows them to get into the door of families faster and build up much-needed trust.     

“During that first visit we tap into the family’s energy. They’re distressed; they have a child who has just been brought home by the Police.”   

Getting in the door is crucial, says Catherine, to allow whānau to be part of the planning process and consent to the services.        

The programme’s kupu, ‘OI’ was initially an acronym for Ōtautahi Interagency, but it relates to the Fast Track kaupapa in both Te Reo Māori and English. In te reo it means to agitate, and in English it means to attract attention. 

“By getting in at the earliest point and providing support, there are better outcomes,” said Catherine.    

This success highlights the strong focus Oranga Tamariki continues to have on the prevention of offending and reoffending through child-centred and co-ordinated partnerships with other government agencies, iwi and the community.