Family Start changes raise concerns of mokopuna being put at risk – Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi
Family Start services rely on face-to-face connection and relationships that are built over time, writes Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi. Photo / 123RF
Dismantling prevention while promising reform is not just risky – it is reckless. It threatens to undermine one of Aotearoa’s most critical child protection systems at the very moment they are needed most.
At the centre of this is Family Start, an evidence-based, intensive prevention service working with vulnerable whānau from pregnancy through to early childhood.
Delivered in homes and high-risk environments, Family Start prevents harm before it escalates to state intervention from agencies such as Oranga Tamariki.
I was part of one of the earliest iterations of Family Start programmes in Hamilton, and what stood out immediately was how naturally the model worked.
It wasn’t something we had to force or adapt to fit communities. It aligned with the way whānau needed care and placed value on our māmā and babies.
When you get alongside whānau early and when you hold space with them and not over them while honouring their cultural needs, the work becomes both effective and sustainable. That is what Family Start enables.
I know it works because I was part of delivering it.
The Government is currently undertaking a major redesign of social services commissioning, including a transfer of these services to the newly established Social Investment Agency.
But here is the problem: contracts for Family Start are expiring this year, while the redesigned system is not expected until mid-2027. That leaves a dangerous gap.
This is no longer a routine contracting issue, but a system-level risk to child protection.
We are talking about more than $529 million in prevention and early intervention funding, delivered through 43 providers across roughly 1800 services and 810 contracts.
The exposure of this system and the mokopuna they protect will stretch from now into 2027.
Across the country, providers are being forced to stretch limited resources further than ever.
The escalating fuel crisis has resulted in the rationing of prevention services.
In rohe as far away as the West Coast, this reality is hitting hard. Services span vast distances, and some whānau are becoming harder to reach. That means fewer visits, less contact and higher risk.
In Te Tai Tokerau, we know exactly what this looks like.
Our rohe covers long distances, rural communities and whānau who are already under pressure. We know that at least 9500 Te Tai Tokerau mokopuna are living in poverty without heating, the ability to go to a doctor or to keep up with power and rent. These are the breeding grounds for violence, neglect and harm.
Family Start exists to intervene early in these exact circumstances. The services rely on face-to-face connections and relationships that are built over time. You simply cannot replace that with instability, and you cannot deliver these services from a distance.
So, the question must be asked: if prevention is weakened now through funding instability, rising fuel costs and delayed decision-making, what happens to our mokopuna?
I already know that answer.
I know that this will lead to more of our mokopuna in state care and more whānau reaching extremes before help arrives.
That could never be reform. That is a new tactic for embedding intergenerational cycles of harm.
What is needed now goes further than reassurance. The Government must extend contracts until certainty can be reached, stabilise the existing workforce and adjust funding to reflect the costs of reaching whānau in our most rural and isolated communities.
If this Government is serious about reform, it must protect what is already working because, once prevention is weakened, it becomes much more costly for us to rebuild.
Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi’s career has traversed many paths, each grounded in service to communities with a focus on iwi Māori, hapū, whānau, māmā and wāhine. For Kapa-Kīngi, every decision is guided by mokopuna. Her work is driven by the understanding that actions taken now must ensure future generations will inherit a better situation than the one experienced today.