Children and young people living in Oranga Tamariki residential care are not getting a good enough education, the Education Review Office says.
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Oranga Tamariki has eight sites run by three providers for about 700 to 800 students each year, with most students being male and 80 percent being Māori.
The review office (ERO) has consistently found that the education is too variable and dependent on which residence students are in.
Despite the high number of Māori and a commitment to improve outcomes for them, the report said more than half of the sites were not performing well on culturally responsive practice.
ERO chief executive and chief review officer Nicholas Pole said quality education for students in residential care was crucial, because they were most at risk of poor outcomes later in life.
"There is a committed workforce who work with these children and young people - and these students told us how much they liked learning and working with their teachers in residences," he said in a statement.
"Yet, commitment isn't enough. Achieving good outcomes for students in care will require significant change."
The report stated a quarter of sites are not serving students well, with many taking up subjects that had limited pathways for when they move out.
"We also need to ensure students have access to good support when they move out of residence, so they don't lose the progress made with learning while in residence," Pole said.
Students in residential care were more likely than others in the community to have experienced trauma, and to have behavioural, emotional, mental health and learning difficulties, the ERO noted.
Pole said teachers in the care residences told reviewers they needed more support to improve their skills.
"There needs to be more opportunities to share good practice across sites - something that isn't supported in the current model.
"We need to have a clear picture of what good education in residences looks like, something that is currently lacking, and deliver this consistently across sites."
ERO has made recommendations for changes, which it said would require a co-ordinated approach across agencies and providers.
ERO Te Ihuwaka (education evaluation centre) head Ruth Shinoda told Morning Report they were concerned to see that over a decade of reviews the variability across sites remained.
"[The sites that had variability this time are] not the same as last time and that's also concerning, which means we think there's some fundamental changes that need to be made to the model."
"Even in the sites which are doing better there are still things they could improve on" - ERO Te Ihuwaka head Ruth Shinoda
Shinoda said they had suggested for there to be a single expert provider who could ensure consistency.
"One of the things we're particularly concerned about is the disruption what we heard again and again was that when they come in, teachers don't know what they've been studying before they were in these residences and when they leave they can't continue studying things they're actually making progress on and a lot of the progress is lost.
"Even in the sites which are doing better there are still things they could improve on, an area that really stands out is contact with whānau to know how the students are doing. So that's the thing students most wanted to see and that most sites struggled with."
She said they had not seen or heard evidence of mistreatment during the review, but they had also not asked because the focus was on education.
Oranga Tamariki declined an interview request from Morning Report.
ERO's recommendations:
- To improve the quality of the students' education while in residence - developing a clear picture of quality practice, ensure teachers have access to specialist training and professional networks and enable information to follow the student.
- To grow expertise and reduce variability - re-examine the how education is provided and develop new options including an overarching provider with local sites or a strong network of providers.
- To ensure students have access to high quality education when they move out of residence - plan pathways earlier, have experts to help students find the right schools and courses to move on to, and investigate additional in-school support for students.