Kia ora and thank you for hosting us here today.

It is a pleasure to be here supporting innovation in the family violence system through local leadership.

I want to acknowledge Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for their important role in this mahi and for hosting us.

Ngāti Whātua are doing important work to improve the wellbeing of people in Auckland, and the new partnership between Manawa Tītī and Te Puna Aonui is an important next step in improving responses to the complex issue of family violence.

I believe that the expertise required sits here, in the community, where you hold the necessary insights to enable change with families and whānau.

Government has a role in this too, through enabling policies and practices that promote safety, providing resources and helping create the conditions for communities to succeed.

In December, the government launched the family violence and sexual violence Action Plan, to guide next steps in implementing Te Aorerekura – our National Strategy.

A key focus is Keeping People Safe through strengthening the multi-agency responses to family violence, so that people affected by violence receive the support they need and get to safety sooner.

The Action Plan is designed to focus government agencies on parts of the system that require collaboration: including effective responses to people affected by violence, and improved ways of working with people who use violence.

Here in Auckland, Te Puna Aonui is partnering with Manawa Tītī, the local multi-agency response to family violence that includes Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Police, other government agencies and community partners working together to enable people to be safe and live free from violence.

This partnership will develop a system improvement plan to strengthen their multi-agency response to family violence, which will test the consistent approach to respond to high-risk, and the specialist outreach support.

This work will enable coordinated support and collaboration to deliver timely and effective responses to people at high risk and with complex family violence needs.

Effective responses to violence include improved risk management processes, systems and practices; and intensive, proactive and whānau-centred support through specialist outreach support.

Through this new partnership, government is investing in building skills and knowledge levels to respond to high-risk, and investing in specialist outreach so that the families who need the most support receive it.

Evidence shows that having specialist or assertive outreach support increases safety for survivor-victims and children and reduces revictimisation.

This work will enable coordinated support and collaboration to deliver timely and effective responses to family violence high-risk and complex needs, to ensure the safety of victim/survivors and children and young people.

I know that Ngāti Whātua and Manawa Tītī will be piloting new ways of working to improve safety for families and their community.

This will be achieved by developing a local system improvement plan, building from local insights, with the voices of whānau at the centre, so responses to family violence in Tāmaki Makaurau reflects the needs and aspirations of your community.

Through this partnership, we will learn together what it takes to support local responses to work collectively in their response to families, including what system barriers are getting in the way and preventing people from getting the help they need sooner.

The local system improvement plan will inform what future funding and support is required for implementing effective multi-agency responses for communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

I am really pleased to announce this partnership and the specialist outreach support to respond to high-risk family violence with Manawa Tītī and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for a stronger and robust response to family violence in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Thank you all.

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