Mō mātou - About Us

About Us

The Crown Response Unit was set up in February 2019 to coordinate and drive the Government’s response to the Royal Commission. The Unit is an autonomous unit housed within Oranga Tamariki.

The Unit makes sure agencies respond quickly and helpfully to the Royal Commission’s information requests and recommendations through to June 2023, when the Royal Commission will end.

Another significant part of the Unit's work is responding to the Royal Commission's interim report on redress, which recommended a new, independent, trauma-informed redress system. Find out more about our work.(external link)

Principles-based approach to the Crown response

The Crown is committed to a principles-based approach in its dealings with the Royal Commission and survivors of abuse in care. The six principles setting out how the Crown will respond to the Royal Commission are:

1. manaakitanga – that is, treating people with the compassion, fairness, and respect that upholds the mana of all those involved
2. openness – being receptive to new ideas, and to reconsidering how things have been done in the past and the way agencies operate now
3. transparency – sharing knowledge and information held by the Crown, including the reasons behind key actions
4. learning – listening attentively to survivors, learning from the Royal Commission, and using that information to improve systems
5. being joined up – agencies working together closely, helped by a dedicated secretariat and chief executive sponsoring group, to make sure government engagement with the Royal Commission is coordinated and resulting actions on recommendations are collectively owned, and
6. meeting obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi – honouring the Treaty principles, meeting Crown obligations and building a stronger Māori-Crown relationship through the way the Crown operates and behaves during this process and after it, when implementing its lessons.

Outcomes

The Crown would like to see the following outcomes from the Royal Commission process:

• survivors are heard, and feel heard
• harm is acknowledged
• the government care system is improved
• this type of harm never happens again
• Māori experiences and their impacts are recognised and respected
• disabled peoples’ experiences and their impacts are recognised and respected.

Governance and management

Strategic governance of the Crown Response is provided by a Sponsoring Group made up of the Chief Executives from:

• Ministry of Education
• Manatū Hauora - Ministry of Health
• Ministry of Social Development
• Oranga Tamariki
• Whaikaha-Ministry of Disabled People
• the Crown Law Office.

The Chair of the Sponsoring Group is the Secretary of Education, Iona Holsted.

The Minister for the Public Service, Hon Andrew Little, is the Minister responsible for the Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Inquiry.

An interagency group oversees and helps coordinate agencies' contributions to the Crown Response. The group includes representatives of the following agencies most directly involved in State care, or holding key records about care history:

• Ministry of Social Development
• Oranga Tamariki
• Manatū Hauora - Ministry of Health
• Ministry of Education
• Department of Corrections
• Ministry of Justice
• Archives New Zealand
• New Zealand Police
• Te Puni Kōkiri
• Te Kawa Mataaho - Public Service Commission,
• Whaikaha-Ministry of Disabled People
• Crown Law Office
• ACC

Our Director

Isaac Carlson has been appointed Director of the Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Isaac (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne) was previously Head of Injury Prevention at ACC, where he worked since 2007 across all aspects of prevention, care and recovery. He has worked collaboratively across the public sector in strengthening partnerships, supporting the delivery of public sector strategies, and supporting the development of whānau-centred well-being models.

 Isaac starts his role on 1 February 2023. He replaces Alana Ruakere, who has taken up the position of chief executive of Tui Ora Ltd, an iwi-based social services provider in New Plymouth.