Purpose
Te Mātātaki 2023 presents findings from year 2 of Te Tohu o te Ora (2021/2022) – a recurring survey conducted by Oranga Tamariki—Ministry for Children (Oranga Tamariki) that seeks to better understand the experiences of tamariki and rangatahi in care.
Te Tohu o te Ora provides a mechanism for Oranga Tamariki to:
- hear from tamariki and rangatahi themselves about how they are doing while in care
- track changes over time in their collective experiences
- identify system improvements and drive changes to policies, practices and services based on what we have heard.
The survey is intended to be a census, to offer as many tamariki and rangatahi as possible the chance to have their voices heard. It was designed with input from tamariki and rangatahi to ensure it focuses on aspects of care experiences that are important to them.
Methodology
Survey population
The survey was based on a census approach so that all tamariki and rangatahi who met the eligibility criteria could be offered the chance to take part in the survey and have their voices heard. Tamariki and rangatahi were eligible to take part if they were aged between 10 and 17 years old, had been in the custody of the Chief Executive under a Care or Protection order for longer than 31 days, and were not living in a youth justice residence. The Oranga Tamariki client database was used to generate a list of 2,557 potentially eligible tamariki and rangatahi. Following updates to confirm eligibility and ensure accuracy, 2,412 tamariki and rangatahi were included in the final eligible sample.
Survey delivery
Year 2 of the survey was delivered in two rounds between November 2021 and August 2022, with Oranga Tamariki sites in two regions included in round one and Oranga Tamariki sites in the remaining 10 regions included in round two. Kaimahi (e.g., social workers and youth workers) offered the survey on their Oranga Tamariki laptops to eligible tamariki and rangatahi during routine visits. They were encouraged to offer the survey to as many eligible tamariki and rangatahi as possible. Participation was voluntary, and a carefully designed informed consent process was used to ensure tamariki and rangatahi understood that taking part was optional. Tamariki and rangatahi were guided through the informed consent process by kaimahi, and they gave their own consent to take part which was recorded in the digital tool. Caregivers were informed about the survey and could choose to opt out – that is, they could choose for the tamariki and rangatahi they care for to not take part.
Tamariki and rangatahi were given the option of completing the survey in te reo Māori. There were a range of accessibility features within the survey (e.g., audio playback of questions and response options, prompts for key words) to support tamariki and rangatahi to complete it independently, and they were also given the option of seeking help from kaimahi if they needed.
Kaimahi remained nearby to provide assistance and support to tamariki and rangatahi if asked, but otherwise gave tamariki and rangatahi space to complete the survey in private. Tamariki and rangatahi were given a unique respondent ID number, which enabled responses to be analysed at a group level against other administrative data.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire was the same as the 2019/2020 survey, with questions formed around the experiences tamariki and rangatahi in care said were most important to them. See Appendix 4 for the full questionnaire.
Participation
Kaimahi offered the survey to 1,035 (43%) of the 2,412 eligible tamariki and rangatahi across Aotearoa New Zealand. Of those, 819 agreed to take part, representing an acceptance rate of 78% for those offered the survey and 33% for all eligible tamariki and rangatahi. Of the 819 tamariki and rangatahi who agreed to take part (gave consent), 803 participated in the survey (partial or full completion of survey questions).
Analysis
This section briefly describes the approaches used to analyse and report on the survey responses. The survey had 19 questions. The first three questions asked tamariki and rangatahi to self-identify their age, gender and ethnicity. Questions four to 17 asked tamariki and rangatahi to respond to the question by choosing one of the four options on the rating scale—they could also choose to skip the question, or for some questions ‘don’t know’ type options were available.
The responses were brought together from all tamariki and rangatahi who participated so we could see what the combined voices of tamariki and rangatahi were telling us based on how they answered (or did not answer) each question in the survey.
To see if responses differed by age, gender or ethnicity we combined the ‘all of the time’/’most of the time’ and ‘yes, definitely’/’yes I think so’ response options to generate a total positive score. The score for each age, gender and ethnicity group was then able to be compared against others (for subgroups that had enough responses). Table 3 describes the subgroup definitions used in analysis. We then used logistic regressions to compare the total proportion of positive responses between subgroups, to see whether responses differed by age, gender or ethnicity.
We ran these analyses for each subgroup of at least 30 respondents (all except the ‘another gender’ group). To assess whether responses differed across years, we generated average scores for each experience question using all responses except for skipped/’don’t know’ options. These scores indicate where tamariki and rangatahi stand among the response options for a given question and provide a standardised way to compare information. Looked at this way, a score closer to 4.0 reflects relatively more positive responses to the question and a score closer to 1.0 reflects relatively less positive responses to the question. We then used statistical tests (paired samples t-tests)11 to compare average responses over time.
When interpreting the results in this report, note that any difference described as ‘higher/more likely than’ or ‘lower/less likely than’ was statistically significant.12 In this report, the word ‘significant’ specifically refers to statistical significance and does not mean ‘large’ or ‘meaningful’. Finally, some percentages may not total exactly 100% due to rounding.
Key Results
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you feel settled where you live now?” to assess how comfortable and stable they feel in their current care placement. The majority of tamariki and rangatahi (91%) indicated they felt settled (chose ‘Yes, I think so’ or ‘Yes, definitely’). Seven in 10 said they ‘definitely’ felt settled, approximately one in 10 did not feel settled. There were no significant differences by age, gender or ethnicity.
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do the adults you live with now accept you for you who are?” to assess how well they feel the adults they live with accept, respect and believe in them. Most tamariki and rangatahi (98%) felt the adults they live with accept them for who they are, with seven in 10 saying they ‘definitely’ accept them for who they are. There were no significant differences by age, gender or ethnicity.
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do the adults you live with now look after you well?” to assess how well they feel cared for in their current care placement. Most tamariki and rangatahi (98%) indicated the adults they live with look after them well, with eight in 10 indicating they did so ‘all of the time’. There were no significant differences by age, gender or ethnicity.
During the formative work for the survey, tamariki and rangatahi defined having good relationships with birth family/whānau as “I know my family and get to see and talk to them”. To assess their views of their relationships with birth family/whānau, tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you get to keep in touch with your birth family/whānau as much as you would like to?”. The majority of tamariki and rangatahi (77%) indicated they get to keep in touch with their birth family/whānau as much as they would like to with half saying they ‘definitely’ did. Around one in five tamariki and rangatahi said they did not get to keep in touch with their birth family/whānau as much as they would like to (chose ‘no, not at all’ or ‘no, not really’). A small number said they did not want to keep in touch with their birth family/whānau. There were no significant differences by age, gender or ethnicity.
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you get to have a say in important decisions about your life?”. The majority of tamariki and rangatahi (80%) indicated that they get to have a say in important decisions about their life. Three in 10 tamariki and rangatahi said they get to have a say ‘all of the time’, five in 10 said ‘most of the time’ and about two in 10 said ‘not much of the time’ or ‘never’. There were no significant differences by age, gender or ethnicity.
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you know your ancestry (whakapapa)?”. Just under one-half of tamariki and rangatahi (47%) indicated they know their ancestry (whakapapa), with two in 10 confident they ‘definitely’ knew it.
There were no significant differences by age or gender, but there were differences by ethnicity: tamariki and rangatahi who identified as Māori (56%) were 1.5 times more likely than all others combined to say they know their ancestry (whakapapa), whilenon-Māori and non-Pacific tamariki and rangatahi (43%) were 1.6 times less likely than all others combined to say they know their ancestry (whakapapa).
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you have somewhere you feel you belong?” to assess their sense of belonging and whether they feel that they have somewhere they can just be themselves. Most tamariki and rangatahi (88%) indicated that they have somewhere they feel they belong, six in 10 said they ‘definitely’ did and
about one in 10 said they did not have somewhere they felt they belonged. There were no significant differences by age or ethnicity, but there were differences by gender: males (91%) were 1.8 times more likely than females (85%) to say they have somewhere they feel they belong.
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you have people in your life who love you no matter what?” to assess the extent to which they feel loved unconditionally. Almost all tamariki and rangatahi (97%) indicated they had people in their life who love them no matter what, with eight in 10 indicating they ‘definitely’ did. There were no significant differences by age, gender or ethnicity.
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you have a friend or friends you can talk to about anything?” to assess friendship relationships. Most tamariki and rangatahi (87%) indicated they had friends they could talk to about anything; six in 10 said they ‘definitely’ did. There were no significant differences by gender or ethnicity, but there were by age: 10- to 12-year-olds (83%) were 1.6 and 1.9 times less likely than older age groups (13- to 15-year-olds, 89% and 16- to 18-year-olds, 90%) to say they had a friend or friends they could talk to about anything.
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you think you will have a good life when you get older?” to assess their hope for the future. A majority of tamariki and rangatahi (68%) indicated they expect to have a good life when they get older; four in 10 said they ‘definitely’ think they will have a good life when they get older. Two in 10 tamariki and rangatahi said they ‘don’t know’ whether they think they will have a good life when they get older. There were no significant differences by age or ethnicity, but there were by gender: males (94%) were 2.0 times more likely than females (90%) to think they will have a good life when they get older.
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Do you get the chance to learn about your culture?” to assess the extent to which they have the chance to connect with their culture. A majority of tamariki and rangatahi (76%) indicated they get the chance to learn about their culture; five in 10 said they ‘definitely’ did. About one in four tamariki and rangatahi indicated they did not have opportunities to learn about their culture (‘not really’ or ‘not at all’). There were no significant differences by age or gender, but there were differences by ethnicity: tamariki and rangatahi who identified as Māori were 1.6 times more likely than all others combined to say they get the chance to learn about their culture (79%), while tamariki and rangatahi who did not identify as Māori or Pacific were 1.8 times less likely than all others combined to say they get the chance to learn about their culture (68%).
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked, “Does Oranga Tamariki help make things better for you?” to assess their overall satisfaction with the organisation. Most tamariki and rangatahi (85%) indicated that Oranga Tamariki helps make things better for them; four in 10 said it ‘definitely’ does. There were no significant differences by gender, but there were by age and ethnicity: older age groups (13- to 15-year-olds, 83% and 16- to 18-year-olds, 80%) were 1.7 and 2.1 times less likely than 10- to 12-year-olds (89%) to say that Oranga Tamariki helps makes things better for them; tamariki and rangatahi who identified as Māori were 1.6 times more likely than all others combined to say that Oranga Tamariki helps makes things better for them (87%); and tamariki and rangatahi who identified as non-Māori and nonPacific were 1.7 times less likely than all others combined to say that Oranga Tamariki helps makes things better for them (80%).
Tamariki and rangatahi were asked two questions to assess their relationship with their social worker; “Does your social worker do what they say they will do?” and “Do you feel you can talk to your social worker about your worries?” Figures 14 and 15 show the results for both questions. Most tamariki and rangatahi gave positive responses to the questions about their relationship with their social worker (88% said their social worker does what they say they will do and 76% feel they can talk to their social worker about their worries). Four in 10 indicated their social worker does what they say they will do ‘all of the time’ and that they can ‘definitely’ talk to their social worker about their worries. However, one in ten tamariki and rangatahi said that their social worker did what they said they would do ‘not much of the time/never’; and one in four tamariki and rangatahi feel they can talk to their social worker ‘not much of the time/ never’. There were no significant differences for either question by age, gender or ethnicity.