Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions (Royal Commission) Whanaketia - Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light was tabled in Parliament on 24 July 2024 and became public.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions (Royal Commission) Whanaketia – Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light was tabled in Parliament on 24 July 2024 and became public.
The Royal Commission’s role
The Royal Commission external URL was established in 2018 to investigate children’s, young people’s and vulnerable adults’ experiences of abuse and neglect in State and non-State care in New Zealand between the years 1950 and 1999. The Royal Commission also heard about abuse, care settings, policies and practices outside this timeframe and up to the present.
Deaf, disabled people, tāngata whaikaha Māori and people with learning disabilities have been a significant focus in the inquiry.
The Ministry has provided information to the Royal Commission through ‘Briefs of Evidence’ and ‘Notices to Produce’ in response to questions from the Royal Commission.
The Ministry continues to work with the Crown Response Unit and Crown agencies in a range of cross-agency workstreams and groups.
Whanaketia recommendations
Whanaketia has many findings and 138 recommendations for change that, if adopted, would impact on many government agencies with care responsibilities, including the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha.
In particular, Whanaketia recommends significant change to care safety processes, organisational arrangements and structures for the regulation, monitoring and commissioning of services, including DSS funded by the Ministry.
Other recommendations relate to:
- legislation for care safety and the rights of disabled people
- redress
- safeguarding
- providers and workforce
- complaints, data collection, record-keeping and information sharing
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi, human rights and United Nations conventions.
Reports of abuse and neglect in care settings, including disability settings and with disabled people, show that improvements continue to be needed.
The Ministry is working with the Crown Response Unit and Crown agencies to provide advice on the recommendations and findings to the Ministerial Group chaired by the Lead Response Minister, Erica Stanford.
Records improvement
In its 2021 report, the Royal Commission found that many survivors experienced difficulty accessing their records, lengthy delays, and getting incomplete or heavily redacted information. Recommendations for improvement included the location, access and protection of personal care records.
The Ministry is also continuing with the key workstreams of redress, records improvement and contributing to work on the public apology.