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The Crown Response Unit coordinates the Government’s response to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.(external link)(external link)
The information below describes our current work programme as we respond to the Royal Commission's redress report(external link)(external link) published in December 2021 and its recommendations.
If you would like to stay up to date on our work programme, please email: contact@abuseinquiryresponse.govt.nz with 'Pānui' in the email subject line.
The Royal Commission’s findings and recommendations published in the December 2021 report on redress(external link)(external link) focused on transforming redress across four strands:
The Minister for the Public Service proactively released Cabinet papers outling the Government's response:
Consideration of civil litigation settings (including both limitation and ACC bars) is led by the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (as the agency responsible for ACC policy).
The high-level design of the new redress system has been developed by a design group supported by an advisory group drawn from diverse survivor communities.
The Redress Design Group has produced high-level design proposals and presented these to the Minister for the Public Service. The high-level proposals cover:
The government is working on three projects to improve support for survivors of abuse in care while a new independent redress system is being designed:
Work is also underway on preparing a national apology to abuse in care survivors.
This work is being coordinated by the Crown Response Unit and guided by previous engagement with survivors, including the views of hundreds of survivors that informed the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry’s interim report on redress(external link)(external link), released in December 2021. Additional advice and guidance from survivors, experts and others will also be sought.
On Tuesday 13 December 2022 the government announced the first set of rapid payments by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), which has about 3000 historic claims – more than 90 per cent of all the current historical claims being processed by four government agencies. The Ministry is prioritising rapid payments for survivors who are seriously ill or unwell, aged over 70, or have waited the longest to get their claims considered.
Rapid payments are not part of the new, independent redress system – they are being run by existing claims agencies, Ministry of Social Development, Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health.
Budget 2023 funding allowed MSD to continue resolving historic claims while a new independent redress system is being established. The Government is investing $58.4 million in 2023/24 to resolve a further 1,000 claims of historic abuse of people while in the care of Child, Youth and Family (or its predecessors).
This funding will support both MSD's individual claims assessment process and the rapid payments process that was set up in response to the Royal Commission's recommendations. Since October 2022, over 75% of claimants who have identified their preferred settlement pathway have opted for a rapid payment.
To find out more please contact the Ministry of Social Development: 0800 631 127 or visit its website.(external link)(external link)
In response to the Royal Commission’s recommendation to provide an avenue for survivors to share their experiences of abuse in care the government established the Survivor Experiences Service(external link)(external link).
The service will run until a new, permanent redress system is in place.
The service is housed within Te Tari Taiwhenua – Department of Internal Affairs and will be guided by an independent Board to provide a safe, supportive, confidential place for survivors of abuse in care, and their whānau, to share their experiences.
Survivors and whānau can contact the Survivor Experiences Service to organise a time and place for them to share their experiences:
Visit Home | Survivor Experiences Service(external link)(external link) for more information.
The Royal Commission found that many survivors had difficulty accessing their records. The issues included lengthy delays; or getting incomplete or heavily redacted information.
The Crown Response Unit and Archives New Zealand are working together to make it easier for survivors of abuse to access their personal records while they were in care.
Five initiatives are underway to improve people’s access to their own information. The following three initiatives are led by the Crown Response Unit:
1. Principles on how agencies and non-state organisations could:
Shared redaction guidance [PDF, 206 KB] has been developed for agencies and non-State organisations to improve consistency when making redactions to records to be provided to individuals. The goal is to improve a person’s access to their own information, while being clear when information has been redacted to protect other’s privacy.
Online information has also been developed(external link) explaining the records and redactions process.
Organisations that have already indicated their intention to use the shared redaction guidance include:
2. Setting up a central website for survivors, care-experienced people, their whānau and support people that would provide:
The website would not provide direct access to the records themselves and would not contain people’s personal records.
3. The design of a records support service informed by insights from survivors.
Archives New Zealand(external link) is leading work on the following two projects:
4. Retention and disposal rules
Archives NZ has published the scope and definition of care records to help the government and other organisations know which records are valuable for those in care and should be protected until a wider decision is made about:
You can find the scope and definition here: The care records definition(external link) (archives.govt.nz)
5. Cataloguing, indexing and digitising of care records.
The Chief Archivist has issued a temporary care records protection instruction(external link) to protect care records while work is undertaken to review the retention and disposal of State care records.
This replaces the previous broad disposal moratorium aimed at protecting records for the Abuse in Care Royal Commission's investigations.
The instruction:
This action will not impact your ability to access your own records. As a member of the public, you can continue to request your own records by approaching the relevant government agency.
The Royal Commission recommended the Crown and relevant faith-based organisations should publicly acknowledge and apologise for the tūkino, or abuse, inflicted and suffered after it has delivered its final report. It also recommended some groups, including Māori who were over-represented in State care, should also receive specific apologies.
The Crown Response Unit has started working on Crown apologies and is involving survivor groups, tikanga experts and representatives from other communities impacted by abuse in care.
Further recommendations relating to apologies may be made by the Royal Commission, and these will be carefully considered.
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry has two primary information sources:
As part of our work, we coordinate responses to the Royal Commission's information requests on behalf of the Crown.
We work to find the agency holding the information needed and ensure they provide information on time and in a consistent way. We also help agencies compile their responses, identify all information that the Commission might need.
The Royal Commission makes requests of the Crown for historical records that it needs for the different investigations it has under way. The requests vary widely in scale, from a few documents held by a single agency to thousands of documents across many organisations.
The Crown also provides other information to the Royal Commission that may assist its work.
Archives New Zealand provides the Royal Commission with older records. Watch a video about how they provide older records:
