Our work | Ā mātou mahi

The Crown Response Unit was established in 2018 to coordinate the Government’s response to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.(external link)(external link) 

The Royal Commission was established in 2018 to investigate children, young people, and vulnerable adults’ experiences of abuse and neglect in State and non-State care in Aotearoa New Zealand between the years of 1950-1999.

The Royal Commission ended on 25 June 2024.

Our work programme

Our work programme responds to:

• the Royal Commission's final report Whanaketia through pain and trauma from darkeness to light(external link), published in July 2024
• the Royal Commission's redress report(external link) He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu from Redress to Puretumu Torowhānui(external link) published in December 2021.

Since December 2021 our work programme has focused on:.(external link). 

1. improving redress for survivors
2. immediate projects to help improve survivors’ experience of redress with current processes
3. consideration of civil litigation settings
4. additional ways to prevent abuse, through a potential new right to be free from abuse and potentially expanding the focus of WorkSafe NZ.

Consideration of civil litigation settings (including both limitation and ACC bars) is led by the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (as the agency responsible for ACC policy).

If you would like to stay up to date on our work programme, please email: contact@abuseinquiryresponse.govt.nz with 'Pānui' in the email subject line.

Improving redress for survivors of abuse in care

A survivor-led Redress Design Group and Advisory Group produced high-level design proposals for a new redress system. These were presented to the Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, Minister Erica Stanford.

The high-level proposals cover:

• comment on the system’s intended principles, purpose, functions, and scope, with the option to outline a strong case for alteration to any of the specific aspects, especially from a Treaty perspective
• how the system should safely connect with and support survivors to navigate their redress journey – how redress needs to “look and feel” to give survivors confidence in the redress system and to provide them with a safe, accessible, trauma informed, and culturally responsive experience
• the types and mix of services and supports that should ideally be provided as part of each function
• feedback on draft apology and payment frameworks, example redress models and proposals prepared by the Crown Response Unit, with a focus on what is needed to support meaningful recognition of the harms people have experienced
• an outline of the critical issues that will need to be considered in the detailed design and implementation planning, including cost estimates and phasing of implementation.

Redress options are being developed for further consideration before final decisions are made on the detailed work required to improve redress to survivors of abuse in care.

This work has the oversight of a Ministerial Group established in April 2024 and made up of Ministers whose work relates to the care and redress systems. The  March 2024 proactively released Cabinet paper [PDF, 1022 KB] refers to the establishment of the Ministerial Group.

Cabinet will make a number of decisions to progress this complex work.

As recommended in the Royal Commission’s 2021 redress report He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu. From Redress to Puretumu Torowhānui(external link) the Government has been working on four projects while work on improving redress for survivors of abuse in care is underway.

These four projects have either been completed or are still underway:

1. rapid payments for claimants
2. a listening service
3. easier records access for survivors
4. a national apology.

1. Rapid payments

In December 2022 rapid payments were prioritised by the Ministry of Social Development for survivors who are seriously ill or unwell, aged over 70, or those with the oldest claims.

Rapid Payments are now fully integrated into the Ministry's historic claims process.

There are four historic claims agencies:

1. Ministry of Social Development
2. Oranga Tamariki
3. Ministry of Education
4. Ministry of Health.

Find out more: Historic claims agency details

2. Survivor experiences service 

In response to the Royal Commission’s recommendation to provide an avenue for survivors to share their experiences of abuse in care the Government established the Survivor Experiences Service(external link)(external link).

The service is housed within Te Tari Taiwhenua – Department of Internal Affairs and is guided by an independent Board to provide a safe, supportive, confidential place for survivors of abuse in care, and their whānau, to share their experiences. The Survivor Experiences Service can also help survivors request, receive and understand their care records.

To contact the Survivor Experiences Service:

• call 0800 456 090
• email contact@survivorexperiences.govt.nz
• text 8328.

Visit Home | Survivor Experiences Service(external link)(external link) for more information.

3. Improving records access for survivors

The Royal Commission found that many survivors had difficulty accessing their records. The issues included lengthy delays; or getting incomplete or heavily redacted information.

The Crown Response Unit and Archives New Zealand have been working together on five initiatives to make it easier for survivors of abuse to access their personal records while they were in care: 

1. Principles
2. Setting up a central website
3. A records support service
4. Retention and disposal rules
5. Cataloguing and indexing care records

For details about this work visit: Improving access to records

4. Preparing for a public apology

The Royal Commission recommended the Crown and relevant faith-based organisations should publicly acknowledge and apologise for the tūkino, or abuse, inflicted and suffered after it delivered its final report. 

The Prime Minister Christopher Luxon publicly apologised to survivors of abuse in care on Tuesday 12 November 2024 in Parliament.

Responses from faith-based insitutions to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry are below:

• Salvation Army acknowledges Royal Commission report | The Salvation Army(external link)
• Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand(external link)
• Presbyterian Support Southland(external link)
• Anglican Church in Aotearoa and Polynesia(external link)

Providing records to the Royal Commission - how it worked

The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry had two primary information sources:

1. the testimony of survivors and others involved in State and faith-based care
2. records held by the Crown, churches and other organisations.

As part of our work, we coordinated responses to the Royal Commission's information requests on behalf of the Crown.

We identified the agency holding the information and ensured they provide information on time and in a consistent way. We helped agencies compile their responses and identified information the Commission needed.

The Royal Commission requested from the Crown historical records it needed for its different investigations. The requests varied widely in scale, from a few documents held by a single agency to thousands of documents across many organisations.

Archives New Zealand also provided the Royal Commission with older records:

• How Archives New Zealand provide records to the Royal Commission(external link)(external link)
• Accessible version - How Archives New Zealand provide records to the Royal Commission(external link)(external link)