Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Oranga Tamariki is getting rid of its target to place 58% of the kids in its care with wider Whanau.   And it's also ditching a target for investment with Māori organisations - 23% of funding was targeted for those organisations.  The Minister for Children Karen Chhour says this is part of OT's 'Safety First' approach. She says the targets were outdated and went against the ‘need not race’ directive.   And she was concerned whether the priority of Māori organisations were getting in the way of the quality and efficacy of the services being provided.   And it all makes sense.  The ingrained belief in our child social workers that kids are always better off rehomed with whanau always seemed counter factual. In many cases the abuse directed at the kids was at the hands of whanau themselves - people that had been raised by other people in their family but failed at their own parenting. So why would we give the kids to them? It often seemed that children were being thrown right back i