Te Aorerekura Action Plan 2025-2030 launched, report on first Action Plan and report on multi agency responses released.

Te Aorerekura second Action Plan launched

Te Aorerekura is a 25-year national strategy to eliminate family and sexual violence in Aotearoa through coordinated government and community action. The strategy was launched in December 2021 along with the first Action Plan, which concluded in December 2023.

The second Te Aorerekura Action Plan 2025 - 2030, Breaking the Cycle, has seven focus areas it will deliver over the next five years:

1. Investing and commissioning well

2. Keeping people safe

3. Stopping violence

4. Protecting children and young people

5. Strengthening our workforce

6. Taking action on sexual violence

7. Preventing violence before it starts

During the launch of the five-year plan, Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour outlined that it would be divided into two sections, with the first two years focusing on investing and commissioning well, keeping people safe, and stopping violence. Progress would then be assessed and focus refreshed for the remaining three years.

Investing and commissioning well includes:

• Taking a social investment approach to better map the impact of spending

• Reviewing current spending for future investment

• Improving how contracts in the sector are managed, including reducing duplication and increasing coordination.

Keeping people safe includes:

• Strengthening multi-agency responses by bringing providers together to deliver sustainable safety services to victim-survivors

• Using the recently released multi-agency response report from Te Puna Aonui as an important baseline to identify opportunities for improvement.

Stopping violence includes:

• Introducing new anti-stalking legislation

• Reviewing mandatory non-violence programmes for those subject to protection orders

• Rolling out a new family violence service for men called Te Huringa ō te Ao

• Extending rehabilitation services

• Creating a single ACC/MSD platform for sexual violence services

• Continuing to develop kaupapa Māori sexual violence services

Minister Chhour stated:

“[That] is what this Action Plan is all about: delivering practical improvements in key parts of the system, with a focus on families and whānau who we are here to serve. We want to do more of what works to break the cycle of violence. This Plan takes a different approach to the first Action Plan and is centred on government doing fewer things, more comprehensively.”

In response to the release of the plan, Women’s Refuge Chief Executive Dr Ang Jury told RNZ that while there were things in the plan she found “useful”, there needed to be far more investment and focus on prevention work. "It's about stopping that situation occurring in the first place… It does not have to be like this, we know it doesn't have to be like this but we keep allowing the conditions that enable it." She noted this plan comes at a time when police have begun stepping back from family harm incidents: "We're seeing police not responding to incidents where they previously would, where there is no risk of physical harm. It's not spread right across the country yet, but certainly we are starting to see some differences."

Similarly, Grenville Hendricks spoke on behalf of Shine, saying: “We should be putting more money into prevention. We should be spending a lot more money on the children and those that are impacted by family violence because they become the next generation."

Closing Report for Action Plan 1.0: Reporting and reflecting on the first Te Aorerekura Action Plan 

Delivery of the first Te Aorerekura Action Plan (2021-2023) has now been completed, and the Closing Report for Action Plan 1.0 reflects on Te Puna Aonui’s experiences during delivery. Key achievements include:

• Production of key reports including Family Violence and Sexual Violence Service Gaps, Outcomes and Measurements Framework, and Family Violence Workforce Capability Framework

• $188 million secured for family and sexual violence initiatives 

• Foundational training for 550 court-related workforce members to ensure safe, consistent, and culturally appropriate staff responses to disclosures of family or sexual violence

• Regional partnerships for kaupapa Māori service design with ACC, Te Puni Kōkiri

• Launch of Family Violence Online Help Tools, Campaign for Action on Family Violence and other prevention initiatives

• Programmes trialled and expanded for population groups like Waitematā Safeguarding Adults from Abuse pilot, Social and Emotional Learning pilot.

Appendix 1 of the closing report outlines the status of the first action plan’s 40 commitments. 23 are completed, while 17 are ongoing. Work still in progress includes:

• Continuous capacity building and support for Te Aorerekura, including investment planning and improvement of learning systems

• Developing new practice guidelines for participants in court proceedings and case management systems for responders

• Ongoing community engagement for collective implementation of programmes and local capacity building for primary prevention of violence

• Specialist sexual violence framework development and community mobilisation

• Development and delivery of family and sexual violence prevention initiatives, and kaupapa Māori sexual violence elimination and healing programmes

• Development of tools and curriculums to support healthy relationship education for young people

• Delivery of violence prevention programmes for ethnic communities

• Delivering safeguarding responses for disabled and vulnerable adults.

Understanding the current state of Family Violence: Multi-Agency Responses 

The Multi-Agency Responses report outlines the current state of multi-agency responses. It sought to understand the current state of each local crisis family violence response to strengthen existing processes and structures to deliver safer, more effective responses.

Steps taken to complete the current state analysis:

• Te Puna Aonui reviewed existing evaluations and reviews of multi-agency responses

• A cross-agency advisory group (Te Puna Aonui, Ministry of Social Development, NZ Police, and Oranga Tamariki) agreed the scope and further information required to complete the analysis

• Decision taken to gather the same information from all sites

• Decision taken to look at responses through the Safety Assessment Meeting (SAM) table and equivalent groups, which limits information gathered (no cases of sexual assault or assault on children, but family violence where children are present is included)

• Data gathering sessions involved a mix of people from local sites, online or in-person between 23 April and 13 May 2024.

Key insights:

• 40 sites across the country operate in diverse ways and have adapted to suit local communities

• Weekly case volumes, number of attending organisations (government, non-government, and iwi), number of available specialist and generalist services, number of response organisations, number of referral organisations, and frequency of meetings varies across all sites

• There is a need for balance between national consistency and local innovation

• Some sites work uniquely with iwi partners to best serve whānau Māori experiencing family violence

• The lion’s share of work undertaken to respond to family violence happens outside of multi-agency meetings, but most sites were keen to ensure that the value of meetings was understood and preserved.

Related Media

Family violence funding review could see services lose out – critics, RNZ, 16.12.2024

Government launches new plan for reducing family and sexual violence, RNZ, 15.12.2024

Family, sexual violence: New action plan released by Government, New Zealand Herald, 15.12.2024

Government to review $1.3b in family and sexual violence spending, Stuff, 15.12.2024