Oranga Tamariki IT overhaul leaves social workers without access to some information

A multimillion-dollar IT platform vital to safeguarding children at risk of abuse has lurched into the danger zone and had to be reset.

Oranga Tamariki is trying to overhaul technology so old its frontline social workers and analysts cannot get the information they need.

But that caught it between an unfinished new platform that went off-course and 20-year-old tech hampering its frontline.

"People delivering frontline services, including partners, do not have all the information they need to do their job," said one paper, a year ago.

"Decision makers inside and outside OT do not have access to trustworthy and reliable information to make good evidence-based decisions.

"The current data technology platform is aging, inflexible and fragile which means we cannot support new ways of working and poses risk to business-as-usual functions."

But the overhaul went awry in mid-2023. The agency told RNZ it was now four months into the reset of its Whiti-EDAP (Enterprise Data and Analytics Programme) project.

The parlous state of the old IT and trouble replacing it were revealed in a 100-page OIA response that OT took a year to release to RNZ.

"I acknowledge the significant delay you have experienced with our handling of your request - this is unacceptable and is far below the standard laid out in the act and that I expect," the agency's deputy chief executive of system leadership Phil Grady said in the response.

An independent assessment put Whiti-EDAP in the red danger zone last June, even as it faced major deadlines in July and November last year.

The needle on it was wavering between: "Proceed with caution ... prepare to stop."

"The programme suffers from significant issues requiring redress," the assessment said.

While assessors spoke of a "solid foundation", many core components being in place and a significant number of data products delivered, they also rated eight out of 10 key areas as being in trouble.

"If not addressed it is unlikely the programme will deliver the expected value."

This was borne out when, instead of meeting its deadlines, the whole project had to begin to be overhauled last July.

Oranga Tamariki has told RNZ how it has put in place new leadership, new governance oversight, and changes to its scope and plan for delivering it.

This came to light five years after the agency won funding for the project in Budget 2019 for "reducing risk in critical systems".

The Independent Children's Monitor Aroturuki Tamariki told RNZ the data it got from Oranga Tamariki was a bit better this year.

But "it is clear Oranga Tamariki needs to improve its data systems ... so it can provide basic information about the tamariki and rangatahi in its custody and care," the Monitor said in a statement.

Whiti is Oranga Tamariki's attempt to break free from relying on the Social Development Ministry's data and analysis, within an MSD IT system itself at "severe risk" of failure, that is also being overhauled at high cost. It is now due to be fully separated from MSD by November, one year late.

OT managed in 2022-23 to build a new data warehouse covering everyone it works with, and some tools "to make sense of the raw data" to make cases "child centred".

"While the frontline technology systems have been incrementally updated over the years, they are no longer fit for purpose," Grady said in the OIA response.

"Current technology is more than 20 years old, and Oranga Tamariki are undertaking this work to enable frontline social workers to utilise more accurate, efficient and meaningful information that will inform their practice."

However, in a statement late last week he was more upbeat, asserting Whiti was now live and already making it "easier to navigate data so that social workers spend more time on what matters most, the safety of children".

The cost of the project to the taxpayer was a commercial secret, he said.

The OIA puts operational costs for EDAP at $10m a year; just $200,000 of that is for "'analytics and insights - support for new capabilities and data".

However, it was not yet free of the "technically fragile solution dependent on MSD".

The very high hopes expressed repeatedly for years of getting "more accurate, efficient and meaningful" data to the front line and analysts, now hinge on the project's reset being rolled out now, as revealed by the OIA.

It has not helped that Whiti had hand-to-mouth funding for years.

"During the two to three years the EDAP/Whiti programme has been underway funding has been constantly uncertain, and often assigned in small tranches and only at the last minute," a governance paper a year ago said.

Last year there was not enough money to run the replacement systems.

This, perversely, has forced reliance on costly contractors and IT vendors for the build, because things were too uncertain to employ permanent staff on it, the governance paper said.

Under the overhaul, the project has completed two thirds of the 36 recommendations made by the 2023 independent assessment, with another 11 to go.

Assessors found the greatest weakness in change management, communications and training; but other basics, like financial management, and programme management needed an urgent fix, it said last June.

"Since the reset, the programme scope and governance model have been refreshed, a full risk review has been completed, a new delivery structure approved, a full assurance review completed, and a draft integrated delivery plan developed," Grady said.

Aroturuki Tamariki chief executive Arran Jones said Oranga Tamariki needed tech upgrades - but should not just wait till they were finished.

"We are not monitoring the implementation of the Enterprise Data Analytics Platform, but we are tracking the quality and the extent to which Oranga Tamariki can measure its performance," Jones said.

"For example, the data it can provide about compliance with the National Care Standards Regulations as well as services and supports for tamariki at risk of coming into care. Better data and information will enable Oranga Tamariki to focus its efforts and resources on improving outcomes for tamariki, rangatahi and whānau."