The SWRB welcomes the funding announced in the Government’s Wellbeing Budget 2022 to build Oranga Tamariki Social Worker Capability. 

The investment provides $1.5m of ringfenced funding over two years for us to work with Oranga Tamariki on promoting the quality and professionalism of social worker practice. It is an important contribution to Oranga Tamariki’s delivery of its Future Direction Action Plan. 

Priorities for short-term impact focus on upskilling the quality and standing of Oranga Tamariki social work through developing:  

• micro-credential standards, starting with supervision (quality of supervision influences quality of practice) as part of pre/post qualifications 
• training material to help social workers understand the regulatory standards that apply to them and improve regulatory compliance, particularly in relation to the SWRB Scope of Practice and Code of Conduct. 

While the training material will be developed for social workers employed by Oranga Tamariki, it will also be of use for the social workers employed by the NGO providers Oranga Tamariki contracts with for delivering services devolved to the community.   

As a regulator, one of our functions is to promote and encourage high standards of practice and professional conduct among registered social workers and the employers of social workers. We also set standards for the education and training of social workers. This funding gives SWRB a valuable opportunity to complement the work in these areas. This work would not otherwise be possible within our current funding which is fully committed to regulatory activities.  

We look forward to working with Oranga Tamariki’s Tumu Tauwhiro Chief Social Worker Peter Whitcombe on this exciting initiative. We are still in the planning phase, and we will share further information when the details are confirmed.