30 November 2017

Project Connect.

Palmerston North Police station Auditorium.

Present: M. Clarkson, (MOE), J. Hook, (Manager learning support), D .Peck (Principal

Riverdale), S. Oliver (Principal Central Normal), J .Howe,(Principal Roslyn), M.
McCallum, (Principal Monrad), A Butler (manager Highbury Whanau Centre), A .Rolls
( Highbury Whanau Centre), Inspector D. White ( prevention manager Palmerston
North Police), M. Stewart, (RTLB Manager), D Sorenson (SENCO Roslyn school),
J.Spear, Mercedes strut , C. Murphy (PNINS counsellor), D. Edwards (Attendance
officer PN), T.Thorn ,(Acting Principal Milson school), K. Wood (Acting Deputy
Principal Milson School), S . Algie (Central Regional Health school), R Hina, Snr
Constable E Macmellon, Sgt M Rix (Youth services).

Apologies: D Punler, D McKay, J Nelson-Paki, S Allomes, B Gilmore, W Jenkins, T Edwards, V

James, I Robbins, M, Miranda.

Welcome: Inspector David White welcomed the team to the station.

Introduction: R Hina provided a brief background and overview of project engage which has since
been renamed to Project Connect. Emerged from the Manawatu student’s forum.
Acknowledgement of the commitment and dedication above and beyond from schools to keep
children in school. Overview of challenges schools face in managing extreme behaviours and
receiving timely support.

Police have vested interest in supporting children to remain in education as disengaged children
have higher risk of offending. If these issues are not addressed the problem will continue to
secondary school.

A collective co-ordinated partnership with schools and other Government departments such as
Mental health and Oranga Tamariki and Non-Government agencies required to address the issue of
primary and intermediate children who are excluded or disengaged from education.

Proposed the establishment of a working party to research and provide recommendation’s to the
team.

Marlene Clarkson - Ministry of Education Regional Manager

Acknowledged the work of schools and the numbers of disengaged children at a younger age in
Palmerston North. That school needs support. Have met with principals at the Manawatu principals
Association. Ministry working with learning support to get students re-engaged. Open to working
with other agencies to find a path forward.
Julie Hook- manager Learning Support

Acknowledged that some silo mentality exists and working to remove barriers. Working in
partnership with RTLB. Support a co-ordinated approach that is seamless. New budget initiatives in
New Year. Support needs to be supported by accurate data. Running workshops across agencies,
parenting workshops for example incredible years, initiatives such as oral language skills etc.

Open discussion (key points from discussion)

Need ambulance at the top of the cliff.

Long time frames before support received.

Goodwill from schools exhausted with interventions from schools.

Many kids are totally out of control

Frustration at report of concern to Oranga Tamariki now 6 pages long no time may not do a ROC as a
consequence.

Concern at time consuming processes to apply for support.

Early identification of behavioural needs of children through info sharing.

School are not given all the info regarding a child who wishes to enrol especially in relation to
behaviours and current supports.

Acknowledged that Privacy Laws can restrict info sharing.

What stage does child protection concerns outweigh privacy?

Severe behaviours from children are getting younger 3-4 -5-6 year olds.

Do not want “Communities of Learning “to be the forum to meet and plan for interventions, to keep
this forum separate.

Schools feel isolated with lack of support.

Mental health support required.

Social workers in schools required but restricted by decile rating.

Support should be needs based not based on Decile rating to get Social workers in schools etc.
schools should not have to individually pay for a SWIS.

Parents cannot cope with the behaviours of their children.

Need support for dealing with mental health and family issues.

Require someone who can work with children in schools.

Some school have supports or can access these but this is through informal networks. This needs to
change to be formal.

Some schools are utilising a tuakana- teina approach with a local high school to
mentor/support/buddy students.
Highbury Whanau Centre can take students 13 years and older into its programme. Provides a
multiple disciplinary team, Youth workers, educators and psychologist to support students to re-
engage back to mainstream education. Have strong networks with other agencies.

Some schools at times are unwilling to take students back after being at Alternative education.

A multidisciplinary team and process will be most effective.

Require a skilled team as working with children with severe behaviours etc require a high level of
skills.

Opportunities for Ngo’s to engage especially when some parents are averse to working with some
government agencies.

Families contact Highbury whanau centre daily for support.

Children often caught in a “trap” between agencies to receive support, each says it’s the others
responsibility.

Training required for support workers and those managing children examples include training in
attachment disorder etc.

Support cannot be time limited example after 5 weeks, support ends when the issue has not been
resolved needs to be needs based and interventions to reflect this.

Training by Oranga Tamariki or Mental health to schools to have a specialised person at each school.

Schools need a person who is trained who can respond at the time needed, within reason not have
to wait hours and hours for support.

Initiatives exist in Kapiti Coast that could be investigated.

Preschool suggested as being included but was agreed that outside the scope of this forum but was
acknowledged that further work is required in this space.

Working party

Agreed by consensus that a working party be formed. The purpose is to investigate opportunities to
support children and schools to keep children from disengaging and to re-engage children at primary
and intermediate age back into education. To investigate the size of the problem utilising data and
research and other evidence to create a process.

A triage process must have decision making abilities.

Be Multi-disciplinary.

Have point of call person or persons for increased responsiveness.

Staff in schools who are trained in mental health etc, create a training programme?

Holistic approach.

To be creative, perhaps pool resources.

Focus to remain on education

To be task and solution focussed.

Parents and caregivers must be involved.

To identify 3 families to test the process when this has been developed.

To include all schools based on need not restricted by decile rating.

Strengthening Families model to be looked at as well as other local initiatives within and outside our
city.

To strengthen relationships between schools and other agencies that work with children.

Working party Team

M. Clarkson, (MOE), J. Hook, (Manager learning support), D .Peck (Principal Riverdale), M.

McCallum, (Principal Monrad), A Butler (manager Highbury Whanau Centre), A .Rolls ( Highbury
Whanau Centre), , M. Stewart, (RTLB Manager), D Sorenson (SENCO Roslyn school), J.Spear, C.
Murphy (PNINS counsellor), D. Edwards (Attendance officer PN), T.Thorn ,(Acting Principal Milson
school), S . Algie (Central Regional Health school), R Hina (Child offender case manager)

Initial meeting to be held in early term 1 2018. With an aim to report back to the group by the end of
term 1 2018. Invitations to be sent by Raymond Hina at the start of the school year to the
participants of the working group.