E Tipu E Rea Reducing Child Poverty Report

E Tipu E Rea, highlights the insights of the Ngā Tini Whetū Pilot, which is the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (WOCA) response to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s (DPMC) child poverty reduction and child and youth wellbeing strategy programmes. The aims of these programmes is to improve the wellbeing of all New Zealand children and young people, with a particular focus on those from low-income households. The DPMC provides significant financial and policy support to these programmes, including through the Child Wellbeing and Poverty Reduction Group.

This report first outlines the current state of child poverty within Aotearoa. The DPMC Child and Youth Wellbeing is then discussed, providing the contextual basis for how Ngā Tini Whetū has been designed and funded through a cross-sectoral and devolved approach. The logic model and models of transformation underpinning Ngā Tini Whetū are reviewed, providing an in-depth understanding of the drivers and mātauranga that provide the foundations to the kaupapa. The levers of change that were utilised throughout the Pilot will then be outlined, primarily that of Te Kete Oranga, highlighting the key elements and activities that made this Pilot successful in reducing child poverty, and increasing the wellbeing of whānau and their tamariki.

Ngā Tini Whetū exemplifies the ongoing success of Māori-led, kaupapa Māori, whānau-centered and wraparound approaches in supporting whānau Māori into spaces of mana motuhake. Through engaging multiple levers of change, the programme achieved a multitude of diverse and far-reaching outcomes. The cross-sectoral funding that devolved resource from multiple agencies to WOCA allowed the partners to use the pūtea in ways that work best to support whānau to flourish.

This report concludes that Ngā Tini Whetū provides a model for future cross-sectoral collaborations in addressing and funding solutions to complex social issues.