Records project update and Ministerial Group established
This pānui/newsletter is from the Crown Response Unit – the team that responds to recommendations from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry. We will issue pānui when we can update you on progress with our work programme.
Please feel free to share this pānui to other survivors of abuse in care. They can sign up to receive the pānui at: contact@abuseinquiryresponse.govt.nz with 'pānui' in the email subject line.
Kia ora koutou,
The Crown response work programme continues to progress projects as recommended by the Royal Commission in its 2021 redress report. He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu. From Redress to Puretumu Torowhānui.
This update is about the records project and a proactive release of the latest Cabinet paper outlining the Government’s approach to managing the Crown response ahead of the final report from the Royal Commission on 26 June.
Records website
The Royal Commission’s 2021 redress report found that many survivors had difficulty accessing their records. The issues included lengthy delays; or getting incomplete or heavily redacted information.
Setting up a central website for survivors, care-experienced people, their whānau and support people is one initiative the Crown Response Unit has been working on in the records project.
The aim of the website is to provide care-experienced people with advice and information to help them to access their records. It would provide:
- practical advice on how and where to access their records
- information about their rights to access and influence records
- what to expect from the experience of requesting their records.
The website would only provide the information described above, it would not provide direct access to the records themselves and would not contain people’s personal records.
The Crown Response Unit is working with the Citizens Advice Bureau New Zealand (CABNZ) to design, develop, manage and host the website. CABNZ is working towards a go-live date of December 2024.
We will update you over the coming months as this work progresses.
Setting up a Ministerial Group
The Minister responsible for the Crown Response, Minister Erica Stanford established a Ministerial Group so all the Ministers whose work relates to the care system can work together. This will ensure the Crown’s response to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry involves all the government agencies that need to be involved.
Minister Stanford is the Chair and the Ministers are:
- Minister of Health and Minister for Pacific Peoples
- Minister of Justice
- Minister for Social Development and Employment and Minister for Disability Issues
- Minister of Corrections and Minister of Police
- Minister for Māori Development, Minister for Whānau Ora and Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti
- Minister for ACC, Minister for Mental Health and Minister for Youth
- Associate Minister of Health
- Minister for Children and Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence.
You can find more information in the proactive release of the 27 March Cabinet Social Outcomes Committee paper on the Crown Response Unit website:
Royal Commission final report and recommendations
The Royal Commission’s pānui on 1 May(external link) says it is on track to deliver the full final report to the Governor-General by 26 June.
Ngā mihi,
Crown Response Unit