Advocating for Family Group Conferences and thier Kaitiaki, The Family Group Conference Coordinator

Puao Te Atatū (1988) was a landmark report that laid bare the institutional racism embedded within the New Zealand child welfare system. It highlighted the disconnection between state agencies and Māori, and the urgent need to reflect Māori values, perspectives, and leadership in decision-making about the wellbeing of tamariki.

A core recommendation of the report was to empower whānau, hapū, and iwi through culturally appropriate, community-based solutions — as opposed to state-imposed interventions. This recommendation became the foundation for the Family Group Conference (FGC), a process introduced through the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989, now the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989.

FGCs were a world-first innovation that legally mandated a family- and whānau-led decision-making process in both care and protection and youth justice settings. The process was, and still is, intended to be a manifestation of tino rangatiratanga and a move towards partnership between the state and Māori as promised under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The Significance of the FGC Coordinator Role (and Legal References)

The FGC Coordinator is a pivotal figure in ensuring that the FGC process functions as intended — with integrity, neutrality, and cultural safety. Their role is clearly articulated in the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, primarily in Sections 18 to 34. These provisions outline their statutory responsibilities, including:

• Convening the Conference within legislated timeframes.

• Consulting with whānau, victims, professionals, and tamariki to prepare for the conference.

• Ensuring the process is inclusive, mana-enhancing, and culturally safe.

• Facilitating the conference in a way that ensures whānau ownership of outcomes and decisions.

  
  

The Coordinator acts as both a guardian of process and a neutral facilitator, ensuring that legal obligations are met while also promoting meaningful participation by all parties — especially the whānau and tamariki at the centre of the issue.

Why the Role Must Be Protected, Strengthened, and Reinstated as a ‘Jewel in the Crown’

Despite its origins in transformative reform, the FGC Coordinator role has, over time, been eroded through:

• Organisational restructuring and lack of strategic investment.

• A diminishing understanding of the role’s independence and cultural significance.

• The potential fragmentation of practice through devolution without adequate safeguards.

  
  

This erosion threatens the very purpose of the FGC and undermines the spirit of Puao Te Atatū.

The Role Must Be:

• Protected: The Coordinator must remain independent, adequately resourced, and free from pressures that could compromise the integrity of the FGC process.

• Strengthened: Coordinators require robust training, cultural supervision, and support to carry out their roles effectively and safely.

• Reinstated as a Jewel in the Crown: Among all roles within Oranga Tamariki, the Coordinator embodies the department’s highest aspirations — partnership with Māori, empowerment of whānau, and tamariki-centred practice. This role should be celebrated, invested in, and elevated as a flagship example of what good practice looks like.

The Family Group Conference was a bold response to injustice — a tangible legacy of Puao Te Atatū and a genuine attempt to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The FGC Coordinator is the cornerstone of that process. If there is to be a restoration of faith in Oranga Tamariki and achieve equitable outcomes for tamariki Māori, it must uphold the mana of this role, protect its independence, and recognise it as a treasure — a taonga — within the department and across the child welfare system.

We continue to advocate strongly for the value and integrity of the FGC Coordinator role. This role is not only operationally important but is also of deep cultural and historical significance. We seek that Oranga Tamariki acknowledge and understand that they already have the mechanism and tool and people to achieve success in the difficult and complex work in front of them. They have the FGC process and the FGC Coordinators.

We acknowledge our members that work tirelessly in this space and those that pioneered the role that have passed.

Mathew Glanville

Advisor and Advocate

NUPE - National Union of Public Employees