Part 4: How Te Puna Aonui agencies are meeting people's needs

Meeting the needs of people affected by family violence and sexual violence.

4.1
In this Part, we discuss:

4.2
We wanted to assess how Te Puna Aonui agencies work individually, together, and with tangata whenua and community partners to improve how they meet the needs of people affected by family violence and sexual violence.

4.3
We expected Te Puna Aonui agencies to be:

  • working individually, together, and with tangata whenua and community partners to understand how best to meet the needs of people affected by family violence and sexual violence;
  • focusing on developing a partnership approach to working together and with tangata whenua and community partners to best meet the needs of people affected by family violence and sexual violence;
  • appropriately sharing information about incidents of family violence and sexual violence to best meet the needs of people affected by that violence while protecting their privacy; and
  • monitoring and evaluating responses to support decision-making about improving the responses.

Summary of findings

4.4
Te Puna Aonui agencies are working at the national and local level to improve how they meet the needs of people affected by family violence and sexual violence. This work includes increasing the capability of agency staff and community partners to respond to people's needs appropriately, improving the accessibility of services, and changing the way social services are commissioned.

4.5
More progress is needed to develop new ways of working. Te Puna Aonui agencies need to focus on developing partnerships with tangata whenua and community partners. This means that each agency needs to consider the support tangata whenua, community partners, and their own staff need to work in this way.

4.6
Te Puna Aonui agencies could provide further clarity for their staff about how their individual agency's strategies, work programmes, and priorities relate to, and can be balanced with, their collective work to deliver the purpose of Te Aorerekura.

4.7
Local initiatives could provide valuable insights into the importance of forming relationships with tangata whenua and community partners, and how long it will take to achieve this. Te Puna Aonui agencies' national offices need to be more connected to the work of their staff at a national and local level so they can learn from these insights and help develop the initiatives further.

4.8
There are ongoing problems and a lack of trust in how information about people affected by family violence and sexual violence is shared. Te Puna Aonui agencies, tangata whenua, and community partners need to work together to address these issues, build trust throughout the system, and support work to better meet people's needs.

4.9
Te Puna Aonui agencies could do more with the information they collect from their monitoring and evaluating of responses to family violence and sexual violence. Te Aorerekura states that developing a learning system is an important part of the system change. However, this will take time to develop. In the meantime, Te Puna Aonui agencies could improve the way they use information from their monitoring and evaluating of responses.

Te Puna Aonui agencies are improving how they meet people's needs

Work is under way to improve the capability of staff at Te Puna Aonui agencies and community partners

4.10
Improving capability in organisations that support people affected by family violence and sexual violence is a significant part of Te Aorerekura. We saw how Te Puna Aonui agencies led work with community partners to help improve the capability of those who work with people affected by family violence. This was done primarily by introducing capability frameworks for specialist and non-specialist workforces.

4.11
We were told that each Te Puna Aonui agency has developed a plan for providing generalist family violence training to their workforce.

4.12
We also saw some Te Puna Aonui agencies support the capability of community partners and agency staff. For example, the Ministry of Justice brought together communities of practice to support community partners who provide non-violence programmes to share their insights with each other, including insights on the needs of their staff.

4.13
Ara Poutama Aotearoa Department of Corrections is looking to improve the contributions that its staff could make to SAM tables used throughout the country to triage Police reports about family violence (see paragraphs 3.37-3.39). This includes creating new roles to improve information sharing and helping to develop best practice for discussing cases.

4.14
Some local initiatives are also considering how to use their collective capability to respond in ways that best meet people's needs. The South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board is developing the skills needed to support community-led and whānau-centred ways of working.

4.15
People involved in the Integrated Safety Response Canterbury told us that Te Puna Aonui agencies and community partners work together, which helps them to identify strengths and weaknesses in capability.

Some Te Puna Aonui agencies are trialling whānau-centred ways of working

4.16
Whānau-centred approaches are holistic and strengths-based approaches that place people, whānau, and families at the centre of decision-making. They are open to all New Zealanders. Under these approaches, people are supported by their chosen networks, with an awareness of the safety, protection, well-being, and accountability of all those involved.

4.17
Developing and using whānau-centred approaches to address family violence and sexual violence are important parts of Te Aorerekura and its action plan. Some Te Puna Aonui agencies are trialling using whānau-centred approaches and longer-term support.

4.18
Te Puni Kōkiri (through its Whānau-Centred Facilitation programme) and the Ministry of Social Development (through its Whānau Resilience programme) are improving responses by learning from whānau-centred approaches. These are relatively small programmes that involve working with community partners to build their capability to deliver whānau-centred approaches.

4.19
The Ngā Tini Whetū programme involves ACC, Oranga Tamariki, and Te Puni Kōkiri working with the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency to gain a broader understanding of the needs of people affected by family violence. It aims to support whānau by reducing the number of family violence incidents and averting care, protection, or youth justice interventions from Oranga Tamariki.

4.20
The programme involves 800 whānau in the North Island. It initially ran for two years and was extended for another four years through funding provided by Budget 2022.

4.21
People who are part of local initiatives are improving their collective understanding of what is needed for responses to work well for whānau. We heard about the importance of understanding the broader context of people's lives.

4.22
Some people avoid seeking help because they fear that their children will be taken from whānau or families. For others, practical issues get in the way, such as childcare arrangements, transport, or a lack of secure housing alternatives.

4.23
The South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board is helping Te Puna Aonui agencies and community partners to better understand the work needed to remove barriers and work in whānau-centred ways. It partners with a marae-based organisation to support a more dynamic and wrap-around approach for whānau.

Local initiatives are helping to strengthen and broaden responses to violence

4.24
The four local initiatives we looked at support Te Puna Aonui agencies, tangata whenua, and community partners to work together. The South Auckland Wellbeing Board and the Integrated Safety Response Canterbury are specifically funded to support agencies and community partners to be involved in those initiatives.

4.25
Whāngaia Ngā Pā Harakeke Waitematā and Te Kura mostly rely on the people and organisations involved to voluntarily commit their time and resources. The Ministry of Social Development provides some funding to support the involvement of tangata whenua and community partners in SAM tables.

4.26
We saw in each initiative a focus on developing relationships with Te Puna Aonui agencies, tangata whenua, and community partners. Although developing these relationships can take a lot of time and resources, they play a crucial role in connecting Te Puna Aonui agencies to individuals, families, and whānau. This helps to build a better understanding of what responses are effective and who should lead them.

4.27
The South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board has a broad focus on whānau well-being that includes, but is not limited to, responding to family violence. It developed a Multi-Disciplinary Cross Agency Team, where agency staff and community partners work with whānau in crisis and build resilience.

4.28
Community partners involved in the Integrated Safety Response Canterbury told us of the value of working with other community partners. Two collaborative groups of community partners have been formed – a tangata whenua and tauiwi collaboration – that support those involved to work together to help people affected by family violence. Community partners are also working with government agencies to consider which organisation is best placed to respond to a given family violence report.

4.29
Similarly, community partners involved in Te Kura told us how their involvement is helping to build a network of community partners. These community partners increasingly understand the strengths that each party can bring to a response. They can refer people to partners in their network who they feel are more equipped to work with particular communities such as tangata whenua, Pasifika, and men who use violence.

4.30
People who are part of Whāngaia Ngā Pā Harakeke Waitematā told us that the approach is helping connect Te Puna Aonui agencies with tangata whenua and community partners. This collaboration has removed the burden of navigating the system of responses from individuals, families, and whānau.

4.31
For example, staff from the Ministry of Social Development are working with the Police to connect people to a range of services without them needing to go to a Ministry of Social Development office.

Some work is under way to improve the accessibility of responses

4.32
Ensuring that responses to family violence and sexual violence are accessible is a significant and complex task. It involves understanding the multiple and diverse characteristics of the people seeking help, as well as their needs and preferences about how responses are provided.

4.33
Improvements are needed to enable more people to have better access to the responses that best meet their needs. Te Puna Aonui agencies are aware of this, and some are carrying out work to ensure that people feel comfortable when getting help that best meets their needs.

4.34
In paragraphs 4.16-4.23, we discussed the work of some agencies to support and develop whānau-centred approaches. We also saw how ACC has developed a rongoā Māori service as an additional treatment path for those it covers.

4.35
In response to our initial findings, ACC told us that, more broadly, it is partnering with tangata whenua to develop kaupapa Māori solutions – indigenous, localised, whānau-centred solutions designed by Māori for Māori. Providing people who experience sexual violence with better access to appropriate responses is central to its work on evolving its integrated service for sensitive claims.

4.36
Some Te Puna Aonui agencies are giving community partners greater flexibility to respond to people in ways that better meet their needs. For example, the Ministry of Justice built on the experience of operating during the Covid-19 pandemic and is increasingly allowing community partners to speak with people remotely rather than in person. This is an important option for some people, such as those who live in remote areas, lack access to transport, or have trouble with physical access to buildings.

4.37
The Ministry of Justice also told us that it could do more to improve the accessibility of responses. The Ministry wants to engage more kaupapa Māori community partners in some regions and look at responses that would meet the needs of LGBTQIA+ and disabled communities.

Significant change in how government agencies will work with community partners has been signalled

4.38
The approach Te Puna Aonui agencies take to commissioning responses poses challenges for the formation and progress of relationships between those agencies and community partners.

4.39
Commissioning responses is also an important factor in building a system that can support individuals, families, and whānau to access appropriate care as they move through the family violence and sexual violence response system.

4.40
We did not look at approaches to commissioning. This was because the work of the Ministry of Social Development and Oranga Tamariki on social sector commissioning is likely to result in significant changes. However, many of those we spoke with from Te Puna Aonui agencies and community partners highlighted that commissioning needs to change.

4.41
Approaches to commissioning responses can be programme-based and highly siloed. Administering, reporting on, and renewing contracts place a significant burden on community organisations. For one community organisation we spoke to, offering long-term and wrap-around care meant managing about 40 contracts between multiple agencies.

4.42
The cross-government Social sector commissioning: 2022–2028 action plan could fundamentally change how Te Puna Aonui agencies work with tangata whenua and community partners. This change will not be straightforward and, as the action plan states, developing trust between government, tangata whenua, and community partners is critical to its success.

4.43
However, not all the community partners we spoke to trusted that significant change could be made. People were getting increasingly frustrated with a perceived lack of action on social sector commissioning and how it affects the ability of community partners to offer long-term support to people affected by violence. Te Puna Aonui agencies need to make progress on building trust and relationships with their community partners to counter this frustration.

More progress on supporting transformative change is needed

Working in new ways remains a challenge

4.44
One of the main challenges for Te Puna Aonui agencies is finding new ways to work within agencies, between agencies, and with tangata whenua and community partners. Although improvements are being made, establishing new ways of working remains a challenge.

4.45
Many strategies and priorities guide Te Puna Aonui agencies. As one person told us, multiple strategies intersect and require agencies to be more responsive to local needs, tangata whenua, and communities.

4.46
These strategies and priorities can get in the way of working collaboratively. For example, staff in one Te Puna Aonui agency stated that progress on working on some cross-agency issues is not being made because each agency is too focused on its own priorities and ways of doing things. In their view, progress could be made if agencies focus on the solutions needed to help people and communities affected by violence.

4.47
At a local level, making sense of different agency priorities and strategies can complicate the work of developing cross-agency responses to family violence and sexual violence. For example, there is a lack of clarity about how local staff are supposed to navigate competing priorities. This can affect their ability to devote time and resources to local initiatives to improve responses to family violence and sexual violence.

4.48
A lack of trust in government was a theme that often emerged from our discussions with tangata whenua and community partners. Tangata whenua, community partners, and community advocates told us that their engagement with staff from Te Puna Aonui agencies is often sporadic and focuses on agency priorities.

4.49
One tangata whenua group working with a Te Puna Aonui agency felt that the agency ignores community expertise. Members of the tangata whenua group felt that, when they shared their expertise, the agency undermined their personal integrity.

4.50
Other community partners told us that they are not involved in important decisions about how they are expected to work with agencies. In their view, at times, Te Puna Aonui agencies go ahead with new initiatives without proper consultation or understanding the pressures the sector is under.

4.51
Community partners told us that they generally see value in these new ways of working. However, they do not always feel they can influence their development, even though they have an important role in delivering them. Nor do they always have the capacity to engage in the initiatives.

4.52
We heard about a community organisation in one region that has an established network of community organisations and government agencies to improve responses to family violence. However, this network was not fully considered when a new SAM table was set up. Representatives of community partners and staff in Te Puna Aonui agencies noted how community partners feel less able to contribute to the SAM table to influence its operations.

4.53
We also heard concerns that Te Puna Aonui agencies are not focusing enough on responses to sexual violence. We spoke to representatives from community organisations that help people affected by sexual violence. Some told us that most cross-agency work treats the sexual violence sector as an afterthought.

4.54
Some work to improve how Te Puna Aonui agencies work with tangata whenua and community partners is under way. For example, we saw how Regional Public Service Commissioners are working to provide more clarity for those working at a local level. This includes providing guidance to locally based staff from Te Puna Aonui agencies on balancing an individual agency's strategies and priorities with work to deliver the purpose of Te Aorerekura.

4.55
Ara Poutama Aotearoa Department of Corrections released an implementation plan for Te Aorerekura in May 2023. This plan shows the links between Hōkai Rangi (its own strategy) and Te Aorerekura, and how they work together to help people live lives free of family violence and sexual violence.

4.56
In response to our findings, the Police advised that it has been working to connect its strategy (called Our Business) to Te Aorerekura. It has developed an action plan that outlines the contributions the Police makes to Te Aorerekura, additional activity for strengthening its responses to family violence, and how the Police's family violence activities connect to other priorities, such as the Police's Māori strategy (Te Huringa o Te Tai).

4.57
Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health advised us that it is adopting a "localities approach" that will give iwi and communities a strong voice in deciding priorities and the wider determinants of health in their local area.

4.58
In our view, leaders in Te Puna Aonui agencies could provide further clarity for their staff. All staff need to understand how their individual agency's strategies, work programmes, and priorities relate to, and can be balanced with, the agencies' collective work to deliver the purpose of Te Aorerekura.

Better connection between local initiatives and the broader work of Te Puna Aonui agencies is needed

4.59
Te Puna Aonui agencies are working together and with tangata whenua and community partners through locally based initiatives. These local initiatives were set up, in part, to test and learn from different approaches to collectively address family violence reports.

4.60
The initiatives support all those involved to better understand and meet the needs of people affected by violence.

4.61
The local initiatives also provide an example of trust developing between Te Puna Aonui agencies, tangata whenua, and community partners. To differing degrees, the initiatives support creating positive relationships and trust between the organisations involved. This trust helps them to more effectively help people affected by violence.

4.62
However, we also found that the work of local initiatives is largely unconnected to Te Puna Aonui agencies' broader work. Opportunities to learn from the work going on in these initiatives are being lost. One staff member from a local initiative told us that they are operating in a bubble. There is no place to report the lessons they learn through their work.

4.63
This lack of connection can also mean that Te Puna Aonui agencies are not assisting with the development of local initiatives as much as they could.

4.64
Te Puna Aonui agencies need to address issues such as this. To do so, all Te Puna Aonui agencies need to be familiar with the work of their staff in these initiatives.

Te Puna Aonui agencies need to agree with tangata whenua and community partners on how they will work together

4.65
Transforming the way that government agencies work together and with tangata whenua and community partners is a significant challenge for Te Puna Aonui agencies. Clarity about the roles, authority, and accountabilities of the organisations involved is needed. This clarity is critical to delivering on the purpose of Te Aorerekura.

4.66
Te Puna Aonui agencies need to work with tangata whenua and community partners to answer fundamental questions about system transformation that Te Aorerekura raises. For example:

  • Where does authority and decision-making need to sit to support the development of a system that is whānau centred and locally led?
  • What does a whānau-centred and locally led system mean for how Te Puna Aonui agencies approach their policy work – who needs to be involved, when do they need to be involved, and in what capacity?
  • What support do tangata whenua and community partners need to work with Te Puna Aonui agencies to develop a whānau-centred and locally led system? What support do local staff at Te Puna Aonui agencies need to help achieve this change?

4.67
In our view, answering these questions will help create the trust between Te Puna Aonui agencies, tangata whenua, and community partners that is needed for them to work together effectively.

4.68
We recognise that work on some of these issues is under way. In particular, the business unit of Te Puna Aonui is leading work on action 5 of the action plan in Te Aorerekura. This is about working with tangata whenua, community partners, and subject-matter experts to support the development of locally led approaches to addressing family violence and sexual violence. Developing these approaches will take time.

4.69
However, this is not a task for the business unit of Te Puna Aonui alone. Each Te Puna Aonui agency needs to consider how it supports its staff to work in whānau-centred and locally led ways.

4.70
In our view, all Te Puna Aonui agencies can act now to improve how they work with other agencies, tangata whenua, and community partners to respond to family violence and sexual violence while building a better system.

4.71
The Board of Te Puna Aonui needs to also ensure that Te Puna Aonui agencies are well positioned to learn from the experience of other agencies as they better understand what responses people need and the skills their staff need to respond in those ways. Ensuring that Te Puna Aonui agencies are connected to, learning from, and helping to develop local initiatives needs to be a priority.

Recommendation 2
We recommend that Te Puna Aonui agencies support the transformational change set out in Te Aorerekura by working with tangata whenua and community partners to agree on how they will develop and implement a partnership approach and clarify their respective roles, authority, and accountabilities.
Recommendation 3
We recommend that Te Puna Aonui agencies each ensure that they are better connecting work taking place at the national and local levels to support the development of local initiatives and ensure that these initiatives are informing the development of responses to family violence and sexual violence more generally.

Information sharing needs to be improved to support more effective responses to family violence and sexual violence

Sharing information appropriately supports improved responses

4.72
Te Puna Aonui agencies need to develop appropriate approaches to sharing information about incidents of violence and the people affected by it with each other and with community partners. This will help improve responses to family violence and sexual violence.

4.73
Provisions in several Acts (the Privacy Act 2020, the Family Violence Act 2018, and Oranga Tamariki Act 1989) allow for information to be shared to respond appropriately. The Ministry of Justice also produced comprehensive guidance on information sharing under the Family Violence Act 2018.

4.74
Effectively sharing information about incidents of violence allows those involved in a response to place the violence in the context of all the challenges that an individual, family, or whānau may be facing. For example, it allows responses to be planned that take into account any safety, health, educational, income, housing, or behavioural needs that an individual, family, or whānau might have.

4.75
Those involved in a response must take great care when sharing information. Some people we spoke to emphasised that the information shared is about the people, families, and whānau affected by violence and could be deeply personal in nature. Those involved in a response must consider people's right to privacy and their dignity whenever they share information.

4.76
There are real and potentially serious risks involved in sharing information. Inappropriate sharing of information – such as too little consideration of what information is shared, how it is shared, and who may see the information – can further endanger those affected by violence. This could undermine the trust of people who sought help from government agencies or community organisations.

More clarity about what information can and should be shared is needed

4.77
We saw approaches that support appropriate and considered information exchanges between Te Puna Aonui agencies and community partners. The Integrated Safety Response Canterbury and South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board have well-developed processes, clear guidelines, and training on information sharing between agencies and with community partners.

4.78
Some Te Puna Aonui agency staff and community partners told us that this collaborative approach led to an increase in trust and confidence in sharing information, better collaboration, and, in their view, better outcomes.

4.79
Furthermore, in response to our findings, Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health stated that Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora have drafted a privacy impact assessment to provide health professionals with clarity on their responsibilities when accessing and sharing patient information about incidents of family violence.

4.80
In general, however, we saw variable approaches, uncertainty, and some frustration and mistrust about how information is shared. This included how information is shared between Te Puna Aonui agencies and with community partners.

4.81
People we talked to who are involved in responding to incidents of violence understood that sharing information is important to supporting effective responses. They were also aware of legislative support for sharing information.

4.82
There was sometimes less clarity about the process of sharing information, including who should have access to the information, what purposes they should access it for, and how sharing information should be balanced with protecting the privacy and dignity of those the information is about.

4.83
People in Te Puna Aonui agencies told us that this lack of clarity is frustrating. It also contributes to the lack of trust in Te Puna Aonui agencies' approaches to sharing information that some community partners have.

4.84
This lack of clarity also restricts the ability of agencies to provide responses in ways that best support individuals, families, and whānau. Some community partners told us that Te Puna Aonui agencies do not provide them with adequate information about the people they are working with.

4.85
We heard about an organisation that had been working for an extended period to understand the trauma a young person had suffered. The organisation then discovered that an agency it was working with already knew the information. Similarly, we heard how staff from one Te Puna Aonui agency struggled to meet the needs of people they were working with because the agency did not have important information about them, such as health or education information.

4.86
We also heard some concerns about Te Puna Aonui agencies oversharing information and the difficulty of balancing sharing too little or too much information. Some community partners were concerned that agencies request information without considering whether they really need it.

4.87
Others felt that people involved in the SAM tables have access to information that they do not need, or have information that is related to incidents outside of the communities they work in. There was also some concern that individuals, families, and whānau affected by family violence and sexual violence are not being told that their information is being shared.

Better sharing of good practice could improve confidence in information sharing

4.88
Our work showed that people throughout the family violence and sexual violence system carefully consider how to balance the risk of sharing and not sharing information. However, in some instances, they lack clear policies and agreements to support this decision-making.

4.89
Te Puna Aonui agencies need to work together and with community partners to build on existing good practice for recording and sharing information and develop frameworks and guidance where none currently exist.

4.90
A consistent approach to this work throughout Te Puna Aonui agencies will help to build trust and confidence in processes and support effective responses for those affected by family violence and sexual violence.

Recommendation 4
We recommend that Te Puna Aonui agencies work together and with community partners to agree on legally appropriate and robust protocols for sharing information about incidents of family violence and sexual violence to support responding in ways that best support the individuals, families, and whānau affected. The protocols will need to ensure that people whose information is being collected understand why their information is being collected and who can use that information.

Improvements to monitoring and evaluation could be made

There were positive developments in monitoring and evaluation in some Te Puna Aonui agencies

4.91
Te Aorerekura recognises that monitoring and evaluation are critical to improving the family violence and sexual violence response system. The first action plan includes developing a continuous learning system that collects evidence, advice from tangata whenua, and the voices of communities to support continuous improvement.

4.92
The Social sector commissioning: 2022–2028 action plan also identifies monitoring, evaluation, and continuous learning as critical to making effective change to how services are commissioned. The plan includes establishing a commissioning hub that will support ongoing learning by setting up regular monitoring and reporting.

4.93
Monitoring and evaluation are also important for individual Te Puna Aonui agencies as they work to improve their own contributions to the family violence and sexual violence response system. We heard about the importance of evidence-driven practice in building trust throughout the system.

4.94
We saw some agencies taking steps to use information that community partners provide in their monitoring reports to support improved responses to family violence and sexual violence. For example, the Ministry of Social Development is carrying out work to involve community partners in designing outcome measures.

4.95
We heard that, although this work is resource intensive, it is changing how the Ministry of Social Development approaches its work and that it is building trust in communities. The Ministry is also planning an integrated approach to evaluation. This will consider a programme of work rather than separately evaluating individual responses within that programme.

4.96
Ara Poutama Aotearoa Department of Corrections and the Ministry of Justice carry out joint monitoring of family violence programmes. We were told that these agencies built on their closer collaboration on contracts for non-violence programmes and are considering how to share data, information, research, and feedback from community partners to improve contracts for family violence programmes.

4.97
Other agencies are also considering the cross-system impacts of their evaluative work. Te Puni Kōkiri intends for its Whānau-Centred Facilitation initiative to help create a whānau-centred policy framework that will inform the work of other Te Puna Aonui agencies.

4.98
The South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board is still developing its approach to monitoring, learning, and acting on insights. Its approach is based on understanding the local enablers of, and barriers to, whānau well-being and acting quickly on the insights that its work delivers. These include better understanding what partnership means, how the government can be accountable to communities, and where decision-making should lie.

4.99
We also saw leaders in some local initiatives reflecting on how to use the lessons learned from evaluations to improve local responses. For example, the Integrated Safety Response Canterbury's leadership group holds regular strategic reviews. It uses these to reflect on what is working, discuss with community and government partners where to target resources, and understand current gaps in responses.

Te Puna Aonui agencies can act now to support improvements to monitoring and evaluation

4.100
Te Aorerekura acknowledges the need for improvements in monitoring, evaluating, and learning. The Social Wellbeing Agency is leading the development of a learning system, which will take time. However, in our view, Te Puna Aonui agencies could do more now to better use the information that they get from monitoring and evaluation.

4.101
These improvements could help improve current responses to family violence and sexual violence and support better monitoring, evaluation, and learning throughout the system.

4.102
Agencies individually monitor and evaluate responses. Therefore, the systemic gaps and issues that prevent people from accessing responses are unlikely to be identified, and the systemic changes described in Te Aorerekura are unlikely to be made. Te Puna Aonui agencies should be working together to share the insights gained from their monitoring and evaluation.

4.103
Te Puna Aonui agencies also need to use the insights gained from monitoring and evaluating local initiatives. Lessons learned through local initiatives did not appear to be consistently informing decision-making about improving responses. Some people, including regionally based staff from Te Puna Aonui agencies, doubted that Te Puna Aonui agencies in Wellington are set up to learn from local initiatives.

4.104
Community partners also need to see how Te Puna Aonui agencies use the information they provide. Community partners are required to provide regular monitoring information to Te Puna Aonui agencies that fund them. Doing this involves a lot of work, and community partners do not see how the agencies use this information.

4.105
ACC is working to address this problem. In response to our findings, ACC stated that it is carrying out an evaluation, monitoring, and research programme that aims to collect data at a community, system, and population level. ACC plans to enable the community partners and individuals involved to have access to this data. This is to help ensure that initiatives, services, and responses to sexual violence are evidence-driven and meet the needs of communities.

4.106
However, some staff in Te Puna Aonui agencies acknowledged that they do not routinely review the information that community partners give them. This means that opportunities to learn from the experiences of community partners and to address any problems they may identify are being lost.

4.107
Although the overarching frameworks for monitoring and learning in Te Aorerekura are being developed, all Te Puna Aonui agencies need to systematically seek, acknowledge, evaluate, and use information from existing responses. They need to share the outcomes with each other and – importantly – with community partners who supply the information.

Recommendation 5
We recommend that Te Puna Aonui agencies gather information from their monitoring of programmes and initiatives, share it with communities and non-government organisations, and together use this information to improve existing responses or design new responses.