Caregiver and adoptive applicant assessment and approval

This policy doesn't apply:

• to prospective caregivers of a section 396 provider care partner, who go through the provider's assessment and approval process
• when te tamaiti or rangatahi is returning to the care of a birth parent or the person who cared for them before they entered the custody of the Oranga Tamariki chief executive – in these cases, a parenting assessment is completed
• to independent living arrangements.

Assessing and approving caregivers and adoptive parents

Policy: Care arrangements – approved independent living arrangements

We must consider their ability to:

• provide an appropriate standard of care for te tamaiti or rangatahi
• provide a safe, stable, and loving home for te tamaiti or rangatahi
• respond to the needs and advance the oranga of te tamaiti or rangatahi
• value te tamaiti or rangatahi for who they are and promote and support their identity and aspirations
• support te tamaiti or rangatahi to maintain and strengthen their whakapapa connections
• recognise and support the practice of whanaungatanga in relation to te tamaiti or rangatahi
• provide a new family for a tamaiti or rangatahi in need of adoption.

In urgent situations, this may be provisional assessment and approval.

Policy: Caregiver and adoptive applicant assessment and approval – provisional assessment for urgent placements

We must complete an assessment and approve adoptive applicants before a social worker can:

• offer their profile to birth parents considering adoption
• issue a placement approval that enables the lawful placement of a tamaiti or rangatahi in a home for the purposes of adoption – this includes where a private adoption arrangement is proposed with people who don't meet the definition of close whānau or family as described in section 2 of the Adoption Act 1955
• assemble an intercountry adoption dossier.

Facilitating the adoption of a tamaiti from overseas

Approving intercountry adoptive applicants

If the assessment is for an adoptive applicant who has made direct application to the court for an adoption order

We must complete an assessment of adoptive applicants who make a direct application to the court for an adoption order so we can provide a report to the Family Court pursuant to the Adoption Act 1955.

The social worker provides the Family Court with a report containing their analysis, rationale and recommendation about whether the applicants meet the criteria in the Adoption Act. The decision to grant or decline the adoption application is made by the court.

The special consideration of approval process does not apply to these applicants. The social worker retains the ultimate responsibility for their decision on the recommendation in their court report.

If concerns about the adoptive applicant's suitability to adopt are identified during the assessment, the social worker should explore these concerns with the applicant supported by our practice tools.

Practice tools

We must ensure this information is provided to prospective caregivers:

• the criteria and process for the assessment and approval of caregivers
• the level of care expected from the caregiver and what will happen if it's not provided
• the impact that caregiving may have on the caregiver's life and household, including their tamariki or rangatahi
• the support, training and resources that will be available to the caregiver, including information about what financial support and respite care is available
• why they must inform us whenever there is a significant change in their circumstances or their household
• the best interests of te tamaiti or rangatahi are our primary focus when we make decisions that affect them
• the need for connection between te tamaiti or rangatahi and their family, whānau, hapū, iwi and family group and how this will be facilitated
• the effects of trauma on the behaviour and development of te tamaiti or rangatahi
• appropriate ways to respond to difficult and challenging behaviours
• available services or other means to support recovery and prevent further trauma
• the effects of trauma on family/whānau, hapū, iwi
• the importance of the views of te tamaiti or rangatahi and their participation in making decisions that affect them
• the decisions a caregiver can and can't make and the decisions te tamaiti or rangatahi can and can't make about day-to-day care arrangements
• the right of te tamaiti or rangatahi to keep personal belongings and have somewhere safe to store them
• the rights of legal guardians and how we uphold them
• the feedback and complaints process including:
  • how te tamaiti or rangatahi can make a complaint
  • how the caregiver can support te tamaiti or rangatahi to make a complaint
  • what support is available to the caregiver if a complaint is made against them by te tamaiti or rangatahi
  • how a caregiver can make a complaint.

For detail about information about the caregiver that we must provide te tamaiti or rangatahi before they move to live with the caregiver, refer to the policy for transitions within care.

Policy: Transitions within care

We must consider:

• the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant's experience, skills and attitudes relevant to their ability to provide safe, stable, loving care
• the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant's ability to respond to the needs, and advance the oranga of a tamaiti or rangatahi
• the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant's cultural competence, including their ability and willingness to promote and support cultural identity and connections for te tamaiti or rangatahi and ability to foster and support whanaungatanga
• the needs, strengths and circumstances of the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant and their household
• the safety, adequacy and appropriateness of the physical caregiving environment
• what support and capability building the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant and their household might need to help them provide care.

Assessing the home environment of applicants

Caregiver and adoption assessment framework

Policy: Caregiver support

We must also consider:

• the types of care the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant is seeking to provide
• the needs of the particular tamaiti or rangatahi needing care or being considered for adoption – if there is an identified tamaiti or rangatahi in mind
• the likely effects on te tamaiti or rangatahi and the household if te tamaiti or rangatahi is placed with a particular household, including the effect on other tamariki and rangatahi within the home.

Types of care

Policy: Care arrangements

If the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant is in a different area from te tamaiti or rangatahi, we must work together to ensure that the caregiver assessment is completed.

Policy: Casework responsibilities when our work involves more than 1 site

A suitability check is required for:

• the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant
• members of the caregiver's or adoptive applicant's household who are 18 years or older.

We must also consider carrying out a CYRAS check and police vet for household members aged 14 to 17 years.

We have discretion about a suitability check for people aged 18 years or older who:

• have connections to the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant or their household and
• are likely to have regular unsupervised or overnight contact with tamariki or rangatahi in custody or care or the adopted tamaiti or rangatahi.

If we decide not to carry out a suitability check on a person who is not a household member but meets the criteria above, we must record our rationale for not completing the suitability check. This decision must be made in consultation with a supervisor.

You must have the consent of the person you’re suitability checking to carry out a police vet or check of CYRAS, TRIM and CGIS. If a person declines to give their consent for these checks, consult with your supervisor and Oranga Tamariki Legal Services.

As part of a suitability check, we must gather and consider the following information:

• identity confirmation
• police vet information and a risk assessment of the information obtained
• current residential address in CYRAS
• residential addresses from the previous 5 years
• referee checks
• medical report – for the prospective caregiver or adoptive parent only
• immigration status – of the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant only
• CYRAS, TRIM and CGIS records.

We must also consider any information from other sources that's relevant to the assessment – for example, information about previous caregiving for another agency, or a volunteer role they perform in the community. This could be information we seek or information that is volunteered to us.

Assessing information from suitability checks

If concerns are identified during our assessment, our practice tools can support us to explore the concerns with the applicants and their household, and consider whether the assessment should continue.

Practice tools

Identity confirmation

A person undergoing a suitability check must confirm their identity.

For inter-country adoption applicants, we must view and photocopy pages 2 and 3 of their passport.

Police vetting

We must obtain a New Zealand Police vet from the New Zealand Police Vetting Service for all people undergoing a suitability check. Consent of the individual is required.

We may also require police vetting:

• from overseas jurisdictions
• of other people, such as a rangatahi who is aged under 18 who resides in the home.

Information obtained from a police vet must be taken into account in our analysis of the suitability of a prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant.

Completing police vetting

Addresses

All people undergoing a suitability check must provide a list of their residential addresses for the previous 5 years.

Referees

All people undergoing a suitability check must provide the names of at least 2 referees (referees can be shared) who have known them at least 2 years including:

• 1 referee who is not related to the person and not part of the person's extended family, and
• 1 referee who is a member of the person's extended family.

Prospective caregiver and adoptive applicants must name at least 1 referee who knows them as a group and can comment on their interactions with one another. For example, a referee who knows the prospective caregivers as a couple or a family unit.

We must contact at least 2 referees named by each person to request information to assist our assessment.

Medical reports

Prospective caregivers or adoptive applicants must provide a medical report from their doctor.

Oranga Tamariki will pay the fee for this report and reasonable fees for any associated consultation, investigation or examination for prospective caregivers and joint prospective caregivers and adoptive applicants.

People applying only to be adoptive applicants pay these expenses themselves.

Immigration status

The prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant must provide evidence of their citizenship, permanent residency or other immigration status.

Prospective permanent caregivers, short-term caregivers (were known as transition caregivers) and adoptive applicants must have New Zealand citizenship or a New Zealand permanent resident status with no travel restrictions.

For New Zealand citizens, evidence of their citizenship should be gained through their identity confirmation check. No further evidence of immigration status is required.

Search CYRAS, TRIM and CGIS records

We must search CYRAS, TRIM and CGIS records for information about all people undergoing a suitability check.

We must seek each person's consent to:

• search our records for information about them
• share their information contained in our records with others as relevant to the assessment and approval of the applicant.

If concerns are identified through suitability checking and a decision is made to continue with our assessment, special considerations may apply for approval.

Where concerns identified through suitability checking would prohibit approval, stop the assessment and tell the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant about the intention not to complete a full assessment.

Prospective adoptive applicants can request that a full assessment is completed even if issues are identified, but approval remains discretionary.

Writing the assessment report

If the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant is in a different area from te tamaiti or rangatahi

We must work together to ensure that the caregiver assessment is completed.

Policy: Casework responsibilities when our work involves more than 1 site

Assessment for an Oranga Tamariki staff member who is a prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant must be completed by a caregiver social worker or adoption social worker who is not responsible for assessments at that site or, where appropriate, an NGO may be commissioned to complete the assessment.

Oranga Tamariki staff cannot be considered for any caregiving or adoptive roles involving tamariki or rangatahi they are directly working with.

The social worker must take steps to be satisfied that the proposed carer can provide safe and suitable care and meet the needs of te tamaiti or rangatahi.

The social worker will:

• complete identity checks, police vetting and CYRAS, TRIM and CGIS checks for all members of the household
• interview the proposed carer to ensure they can provide safe and suitable care and meet the needs of te tamaiti or rangatahi
• visit the home to check the safety of the environment.

Custody of child or young person pending hearing – section 238(1)(c) of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989

Provisional approval is not available in this situation.

In addition to the usual requirements of a caregiver assessment, assessment for a prospective caregiver for a section 238(1)(d) community care arrangement must include consideration of their capacity to ensure that the requirements of detention are met.

In particular, the care arrangement must be appropriate to avoid:

• absconding
• further offending
• loss or destruction of evidence
• interference with any witness.

You must ensure that a tamaiti or rangatahi subject to a section 238(1)(d) order knows that they're not free to roam and that they may be charged with a criminal offence if they abscond.

Custody of child or young person pending hearing – section 238 (1)(d) of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989

At a minimum, a social worker will:

• visit the home to check the safety and suitability of the environment
• meet with the parents and proposed carers together (where possible) to clarify the details of the proposed care
• complete identity checks, police vetting and CYRAS and CGIS checks (with consent) for all members of the household aged 18 years or older.

Completing police vetting

Assessing information from suitability checks

Policy: Family group conferences for care and/or protection concerns

It may be appropriate for the person being proposed as a carer to seek legal advice in these circumstances.

We must help proposed carers to understand:

• their authority to make decisions and carry out responsibilities for te tamaiti or rangatahi for whom they don't have custody or guardianship
• the impacts on future entitlements to support from Oranga Tamariki if they take on the care of te tamaiti or rangatahi without them first being in the custody of the chief executive.

If it has been agreed that the carer will apply for an Unsupported Child Benefit, we must also offer to support their application to Work and Income.

Before agreeing to an overseas care arrangement for te tamaiti or rangatahi, a recognised social service agency in the proposed country must complete an assessment of the prospective caregiver to ensure the care arrangement is viable and in the best interests of te tamaiti or rangatahi.

Policy: When children and young people move (including overseas)

If a request is received from the Family Court to report on an adoption application for an applicant who is habitually resident overseas, contact the Central Authority for Inter-country Adoption at National Office to discuss how to get independent information about the applicant's circumstances.

For further information, you can enquire with the NZ Central Authority.

Email: NZCA_Adoptions@ot.govt.nz

The report will include:

• analysis of the prospective caregiver's or adoptive applicant's strengths
• areas that would require development or support if approved, including any risks and how these would be mitigated
• their cultural identity and connections
• their willingness and ability to promote and support identity and connection for tamariki and rangatahi
• the safety, adequacy and appropriateness of the caregiving environment
• a recommendation as to whether or not the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant should be approved.

If the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant has been assessed to provide care for or adopt a specific tamaiti or rangatahi, the report will focus on:

• the assessed needs of te tamaiti or rangatahi
• the prospective caregiver's or adoptive applicant's ability to meet those needs.

The report template is in CGIS.

Writing the assessment report

Policy: Caregiver support

The decision to decline a prospective caregiver for any other reasons, such as health issues, sits with the supervisor.

The decision to decline an adoptive applicant always sits with the supervisor.

If you reach a preliminary decision to decline a prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant, you must:

• tell the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant of your preliminary decision and the reasons why in a personal interview, with a supervisor present
• give the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant a letter advising the reasons for the decision to decline them
• give the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant 10 working days to comment on or correct information that they believe is incorrect before the decision is finalised.

If after considering the revised and/or additional information the decision to decline the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant stands, the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant must receive:

• written advice of the decision from the decision-maker
• information about the Oranga Tamariki feedback and complaints process.

Templates for the interim decision letter and the decision to decline letter are in CGIS.

Special considerations apply for approval if the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant or any other person who has undergone a suitability check:

• is an Oranga Tamariki staff member (prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant only)
• is being considered as a prospective Family Home caregiver (prospective caregiver only)
• has a conviction
• has had tamariki or rangatahi removed from their care through an Oranga Tamariki intervention in the past (family group conference decision or court order)
• has a finding in CYRAS that they have abused, neglected or harmed a tamaiti or rangatahi.

Approval of intercountry adoptive applicants is done by the New Zealand Central Authority for Intercountry Adoption at National Office.

Approving intercountry adoptive applicants

If a caregiver is approved to provide more than 1 type of care (for example, respite and short term), the decision to place an approval condition must be made separately for each care type and recorded in CGIS and CYRAS.

The approval conditions may be varied and new approval granted through the caregiver review process.

Policy: Review of caregiver approval

Intercountry adoptive applicants can only be approved to apply to adopt from 1 specific country and the approval must identify the age and nature of special needs of the tamariki or rangatahi that the applicants have been approved to adopt.

Before provisional approval is granted, we must carry out a provisional assessment of the prospective caregiver's suitability to provide care.

The provisional assessment must include:

• confirmation of identity of the prospective caregiver and other household members 18 years or older
• police vet of the prospective caregiver and other household members 18 years or older who consent to be checked
• a CYRAS and CGIS check of the prospective caregiver and other household members aged 18 years or older
• an interview with the prospective caregiver, which may be in person, by phone, or by audio-visual link such as Teams
• a visit to the caregiver's home, unless exceptional circumstances mean we aren't reasonably able to visit – if a home visit doesn't take place, a conversation must occur about the condition and safety of the home and a visit must occur within 48 hours of te tamaiti or rangatahi moving to live there
• a risk assessment based on the information provided
• any other steps we consider necessary to ensure we're satisfied that the prospective caregiver can provide the required level of safety for te tamaiti or rangatahi.

An assessment for the provisional approval of a caregiver must be led by a CGRS caregiver social worker unless it is not practicable in the circumstances. If the provisional assessment was completed by the social worker for te tamaiti or rangatahi, they must advise the CGRS supervisor as soon as practicable.

Who carries out the caregiver or adoptive applicant assessment

If the provisional assessment is for a prospective caregiver living in a different site area to te tamaiti or rangatahi, the area in which the caregiver resides is responsible for the approval or provisional approval. No approval of a prospective caregiver should occur without the knowledge or involvement of the CGRS kaimahi where the caregiver resides.

Casework responsibilities when our work involves more than 1 site

Provisional approval won't be given if the prospective caregiver or a household member aged 18 years or older has a conviction that requires DCE Tamariki and Whānau Services approval.

The regional commissioner may, with prior consultation with the CGRS manager if required, give provisional approval where:

• a prospective caregiver or a household member aged 18 years or older has a conviction not requiring approval by the DCE Tamariki and Whānau Services
• has had tamariki or rangatahi removed from their care through an Oranga Tamariki intervention in the past – for example, through a family group conference decision or court order
• there is a finding in CYRAS that they have abused, neglected or harmed a tamaiti or rangatahi

providing they are satisfied that the prospective caregiver can provide the required level of safety and care for te tamaiti or rangatahi.

Delegated approval for special consideration

Giving provisional approval

The close monitoring arrangements and the rationale for them must be recorded in the All About Me plan for te tamaiti or rangatahi and the caregiver support plan.

The social worker for te tamaiti or rangatahi must advise the CGRS supervisor if the plan is for te tamaiti or rangatahi to remain in the care of the provisionally approved caregiver, and a full assessment is to be pursued.

All About Me plan to meet the needs of tamariki and rangatahi

Support for caregivers

The full assessment must include all steps, including completion of application documents, suitability checks, and information provision.

If a full assessment isn't completed within 30 working days, the provisional approval ceases to be valid and the caregiver becomes unapproved.

If a full assessment isn't completed because the care arrangement is no longer needed, this should be recorded and the caregiver record closed.

Ngākau whakairo

For caregiver applicants, how will I support the right of te tamaiti or rangatahi and their whānau or family to participate in building understanding and in decision-making about who will care for them or their tamaiti or rangatahi?

Ngākau whakairo practice framework domain

Whai mātauranga

What do the narratives of prospective caregivers and adoptive applicants tell me about why caring for tamariki and rangatahi is important to them? What do these narratives tell me about their history, their past experiences and their resilience?

Whai mātauranga practice framework domain

Whai oranga

How will I explore and understand the oranga of the prospective caregiver or adoptive applicant's whānau or family? How will mana tamaiti be preserved and strengthened within the collective oranga of the caregiving or adoptive whānau or family?

Whai oranga practice framework domain

Whai pūkenga

What skills and approaches will I use to make sure that prospective caregivers and adoptive applicants are able to demonstrate their strengths and feel safe to share concerns or uncertainties as we build a shared understanding about their suitability to care for tamariki or rangatahi?

Whai pūkenga practice framework domain

Whai ākona

Has there been a time when someone has asked probing, personal questions about me, my past, my family? How did I feel? How might this shape the way in which I engage with prospective caregivers and adoptive applicants when I ask questions of them?

Whai ākona practice framework domain