Kia ora e te whānau

For many weeks, I have been talking about episodes of violence in schools, the lack of appropriate therapeutic support for these troubled youngsters, the lack of alternative education pathways for them and the duty of care to keep all staff and students safe.

Raising these issues was initially prompted by you. You shared many horrific stories of violence at your schools when I met you on the NZPF road show last year. Later you shared some 680 more stories when we surveyed you on the same topic. Many of your stories involved innocent students, teachers and teacher aides being harmed, abused, and physically injured.

Thank you for providing this huge volume of evidence which I have used to advocate for positive changes on your behalf. You have stressed that your calls for help are urgent and I understand that, but the wheels of Government churn slowly, even in the face of urgency.

Aside from speaking with media I have also written to Minister Hon Chris Hipkins and this past week he responded. In my letter to the Minister, I called for an initial roll out of the Te Tupu Managed Moves Service to ten more areas. See here for an overview of Te Tupu Managed Moves.

In his response, Minister Hipkins said, ‘Te Tupu Managed Moves has shown promising results so far. However, we know that the success of Te Tupu has been dependent on the desire of the community to work together to find solutions, the strength of local relationships, and the disposition and skills of the individuals involved.’ 

The Minister acknowledges that Te Tupu has shown promising results. I do not doubt he would like to see Te Tupu rolled out to more areas of the country, but he is hesitant about whether other communities would have the same motivation, strength of local relationships and availability of skilled people.

I believe we can help the Minister dispel his doubts.

I believe we can provide evidence to show the Minister just how eager principals are to support what is demonstrably a successful solution for our most vulnerable and troubled young people. Te Tupu provides safe, therapeutic and educational support these youngsters so richly deserve and need.

With your help, I would like to offer the Minister the names of the schools and the communities they serve who, given the funding, judge they are ready to work up a local Te Tupu Managed Moves service.

NZPF has asked for 10 Te Tupu Managed Moves clusters of schools to be established by 2022, a further 10 in 2023, and more in 2024 as required.

Please engage with your local schools to decide whether you would like to be funded to work up a bespoke local Te Tupu Managed Moves as currently exists in a Napier cluster of schools.

Email me:

1. The name of your group (you may be a Kāhui Ako but not necessarily);
2. The schools that are likely to be involved;
3. The number of students your group would service;
4. The nature of the behaviour challenges your local schools are experiencing;
5. Any supporting information about your struggle with agency dysfunction;
6. A brief description of the strength of your local relationships, particularly if you have effective iwi engagement. Helping the Minister understand the desire in your community to work together to support complex students is a key goal.

Do not see this request as submitting a proposal for funding. We just need brief information from you that is concise and compelling in an email.  

I believe there will be no shortage of communities that can help dispel the Minister’s doubts so that a future roll out of Te Tupu Managed Moves can be Budgeted. The Minister is as concerned about getting our most violent and troubled young people the right therapeutic intervention as we are.  And now, you can help him to help you. 

We will provide your information directly to Minister Hipkins to show him that we do indeed have the local relationships established to make this service fly.

Please send in your emails to me by Thursday 1 April. Make it a priority before shutting the school gate for Easter!

Enjoy the break and take a breather!

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz