Page URL: https://practice.orangatamariki.govt.nz/practice-approach/practice-framework/whai-akona/supervision/oranga
Printed: 25/06/2025
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Oranga and the tangata whenua and bicultural supervision model
Oranga is central to the supervision model and is expressed as kaimahi ora, mahi ora and whānau ora. If supervision maintains a central focus on the ora of kaimahi, and kaimahi are enabled within their workplace, they will be able to promote whānau ora.
Expressions of oranga within the tangata whenua and bicultural supervision model
Quality supervision must have a central focus on maintaining kaimahi ora. The following aspects can contribute to maintaining kaimahi ora in supervision.
Understanding who we are, what we bring into our practice, and what this means for working in a supervisory partnership.
A focus on 'ko wai au' is at the heart of principled practice and forms the foundation for both supervision and practice. Self-awareness, and understanding of ko wai au is necessary to critically reflect on your personal values and beliefs. Supervision can then help you to engage in reflexive practice and to manage the impact of personal bias on the practice setting.
Supervision must be responsive to ko wai au and be culturally appropriate and relevant for each kaitiaki. Kaiārahi should apply the principles and cultural values of our practice models as hoa haere (trusted companions). This includes working with Te Toka Tūmoana and Va'aifetū in supervision with tangata whēnua and Pacific kaitiaki.
How do I identify myself? Gender, age, family upbringing, cultural heritage?
What do I bring into my mahi from my culture, upbringing and life experiences?
What are the ways in which my cultural and ethnic identities, upbringing and life experiences shape how I practise social work?
How does who I am impact on what knowledge bases I draw on? What ideas and models am I drawn to?
How do my life experiences lead me to notice particular things within whānau and families?
What do I bring from my own culture that supports me to work with tamariki and whānau Māori?
What do I bring from my own culture that supports me to work effectively with all ethnic cultures?
Understanding oranga supports us to recognise and respond appropriately when mahi is impacting on us (and when we may be impacting the mahi). The oranga elements and dimensions support conversations about what holistic kaimahi ora looks like for each social worker. This is fundamental for maintaining workforce health and safety. Working with the elements and dimensions of oranga, the supervisory partners can then explore the role of supervision in promoting kaimahi ora.
What are the ways in which I maintain and sustain oranga within my personal life and work environment?
What aspects of the mahi environment can adversely impact on my oranga?
What role does supervision play in maintaining my kaimahi ora?
How will my kaiārahi know if or when my oranga is being impacted?
As a kaiārahi, what strategies can I use to recognise and support the oranga of the kaitiaki?
Recognising the professional and developmental stage of both the kaiārahi and kaitiaki promotes supervision being positioned as an intentional learning environment, appropriate to the needs of the kaitiaki.
An intentional re-balancing of focus is required in supervision to promote learning and development. To support the learning and development, it is helpful for the supervisory partners to understand each other's learning and development stage, so the kaitiaki can be best supported.
Supervision prompts
What is my (our) stage of professional development?
What is my (our) learning style(s)? How do these compare and what does this mean for my learning?
What promotes or hinders my learning in supervision?
Which areas do I want to focus on the most in supervision?
How will we ensure I am getting enough support and enough stretch?
How do I like to receive feedback and challenge?
As a kaiārahi, how enabled am I to adapt my own style to best meet the individualised needs of each kaitiaki?
Considering the above, conversations are enabled about how additional needs will be met through other learning and development opportunities.
The developmental and support needs of any practitioner will change over their professional career. Both kaiārahi and kaitiaki will participate in career-long supervision, and the nature and scope of that supervision will need to change over time to continue to be responsive to their changing needs.
Supervision prompts
Based on my developmental stage, how often do I believe I need supervision (within the parameters of organisational and regulatory policy)?
How will we manage case management outside of supervision?
How will we notice and review my needs and developmental stage?
How will we manage ad hoc needs?
Who will provide support when my kaiārahi is not available?
Given my developmental stage, in addition to line-management supervision, what other forms of supervision and/or learning and development support would I benefit from (that is, peer/group/external supervision, coaching, mentoring, other)?
Where (spaces of engagement) is most conducive to my (our) supervisory needs being met?
Mahi ora
Mahi ora reinforces that Oranga Tamariki is a practice agency where supervision is valued and prioritised as an essential extension of quality practice, leading to improved outcomes for tamariki, rangatahi and whānau. Mahi ora includes the policies, operational processes and systems that inform practice.
Mahi ora also encompasses the 'practice system' and the various components that are required for quality supervision to occur. Essential components include supportive leadership and site culture where supervision is prioritised, appropriate time and space to engage in supervision is enabled, and learning and development opportunities that enable kaiārahi and kaitiaki to have the necessary knowledge, skills and capabilities required for delivering and engaging in quality supervision are provided.
Line-manager kaiārahi manage dual functions within their role, providing both reflective case-management supervision and line-management responsibilities. Maintaining a supervisory relationship that is relational, inclusive and restorative starts with acknowledging these dual functions while working with the power imbalance that exists within the relationship. The supervisory partners should seek to openly discuss how power (and/or knowledge and/or experience) imbalances will be managed in the supervisory relationship.
Supervision prompts
How will we acknowledge and work with any differences between us in terms of knowledge and/or experience?
How will I (as kaiārahi) manage the competing functions that present between kaiārahi and line-manager functions?
How will we manage any challenges or tensions that may arise across these functions?
What types of matters or issues discussed in supervision will necessitate associated line-management actions?
Our practice is located within a wider system. It is therefore enabled or constrained by a number of system-level factors, including access to resources, availability of services that tamariki, rangatahi and whānau or families require, and our relationships with iwi, Māori, community partners and children's system agencies.
Our practice within Oranga Tamariki must interface with the operating model of other government departments (for example, the courts, Health and Education), which can cause taukumekume (tensions) and opportunities.
Supervision draws from all components of the practice framework domains to support us to navigate these systems, with rights, values and professional obligations at the heart of our practice.
Supervision prompts
How am I 'unmuting the social work voice' within Oranga Tamariki and across the systems I work with?
How do I ensure I stay well connected across the system with strong networks and relationships within my current role?
How comfortable am I engaging in partnered practice? What knowledge, skills and behaviours does partnered practice require?
What knowledge and skills do I draw on to advocate for tamariki and rangatahi?
How will I manage any tensions in my relationships with partner agencies, so that I am maintaining mana-enhancing relationships that will benefit tamariki and rangatahi in their pursuit of oranga?
What types of matters or issues discussed in supervision will help me uphold the rights of tamariki and rangatahi within Oranga Tamariki and across the children's system?
How do I use supervision to understand when and how I should escalate system-level concerns?
How do I have discussions about the support and work environment I need for quality practice, including caseload and workload discussions?
A key feature of coaching is learning through the modelling of others – noticing behaviours, attitudes, skills and practice techniques of more experienced colleagues. This offers a shared and collegial development opportunity because we offer learning while engaging with our own practice when we coach.
Supervision prompts
How comfortable am I being observed in my practice and seeking feedback?
Do I take opportunities to observe others and offer feedback and stretch?
How do I seek feedback from whānau and families about my practice?
How do I work with our partners, exploring opportunities for cross-agency supervision, peer support, feedback and joint learning?
Do I understand how quality assurance tools help build practice capability?
Whānau ora
Whānau ora refers to understanding and working with tamariki and rangatahi in the context of their whakapapa, with oranga as the frame. When working with tamariki, rangatahi and their whānau, our practice is focused on understanding the strengths, needs and risk from an oranga perspective.
Oranga framing orients our understanding and response – to the safety, harms, needs and aspirations of tamariki, rangatahi and whānau – to be holistic and ecological. We need to work relentlessly with whānau and community to keep tamariki safe within the context of their whānau. When we are not able to ensure their safety, there is a statutory obligation for us to act. Some aspects that maintain whānau ora are described below.
All tamariki and rangatahi have the right to be cared for and nurtured through mana tamaiti, whakapapa and whanaungatanga (section 5). This is fundamental to working effectively and relationally with tamariki and whānau or families in ways that heal, restore and uplift mana.
Our shift in practice is framed by te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), is supported by a mana-enhancing paradigm for practice, and draws on Te Ao Māori principles of oranga. For us, oranga is a way of thinking about how we respond effectively to the holistic wellbeing of tamariki, rangatahi and whānau or families. In repositioning our practice approach to focus on oranga, we will always see tamariki, mokopuna Māori and rangatahi in the context of their whakapapa.
Our work with all tamariki, rangatahi and whānau or families starts by recognising and upholding their inherent rights. Within our legislation, United Nations treaties and the Social Workers Registration Board New Zealand core competence standards (competence to practise social work with Māori), oranga is entrenched as a human right. It is thereby within our professional obligations to uphold oranga. All Oranga Tamariki kaimahi are required to start their mahi with an oranga focus.
The oranga framing does not overlook or minimise harm and risk. It helps us to understand the impact of harm to oranga and how we respond effectively to ensure that we are enabling the support that tamariki, rangatahi and whānau or families need. This helps to reduce or mitigate future risk and understand risky and worrying situations.
How do we ensure we are drawing on the practice framework throughout our discussions to promote whānau ora?
How do we ensure we are engaging with our practice models to guide us in how we work with all tamariki and whānau or family in their pursuit of oranga?
What do tamariki, rangatahi, their whānau and our partners tell us about our practice and what can we learn from this to constantly improve service provision?
A key function of enabling whānau ora is the promotion and embedding of ethical practice. This is especially important in a statutory context given the power that is held by kaimahi in undertaking delegated duties and responsibilities. Supervision is the primary context in which the responsibility and accountability for the development of competence, behaviours and ethical practice takes place.
Kaimahi may experience taukumekume (tensions) when needing to balance the rights of tamariki and rangatahi to be loved and cared for by their whānau or family, with their rights to live free from harm. Supervision is central in helping you work through such taukumekume.
Supervision prompts
As a kaitiaki, how do I understand the role, responsibility and accountability of my kaiārahi, and the place of supervision in facilitating and monitoring my practice?
Have we reviewed the Code of Ethics together, and do we draw on this throughout our supervision sessions?
Do we routinely discuss which pieces of our legislation are relevant for the specific mahi?
How do we hold a central place for social work theories and models in supporting our ethical practice?
What other professional and organisational documents must we ensure we are giving effect to?
What processes or tools are available in helping us to work through ethical dilemmas?
As a kaiārahi, how will I decide when I must intervene versus when I may intervene in practice and practice decisions?
If there are concerns about practice, how will these be raised and managed both inside and outside of the supervisory relationship?
Our practice approach helps us to enact our statutory duties and responsibilities through practice that is relational, inclusive and restorative. Supervision is essential in supporting us to ensure safety and wellbeing for tamariki and rangatahi.
All tamariki and rangatahi have the right to be in safe, loving whānau and communities where oranga can be realised. We deepen our understanding of how safety is enhanced when it is explored through a broader frame of oranga.
Ensure safety and wellbeing (practice standard)
We must take action every time we are worried about harm to te tamaiti or rangatahi, in order to protect them from harm and the impact of this on their long-term wellbeing. We know we will have achieved this standard when our assessment of risk has taken account of both the immediate needs of te tamaiti, and any risks to their long-term wellbeing because of cumulative harm or unmet need.
In what ways does the Oranga Tamariki Act guide what we must do to understand and respond to the care, protection and wellbeing needs of tamariki and rangatahi we work with, including offending or reoffending behaviour?
When will we know that we have worked sufficiently with family, whānau, hapū, iwi and others to keep tamariki and rangatahi safe?
What does our safety and risk assessment and planning and review activities tell us?
In exploring safety concerns for pēpi, tamariki or rangatahi, are we considering the seriousness of the situation, cumulative harm and potential for further harm? How are we balancing this with options to secure safety for te tamaiti or rangatahi within their whānau or family?
What is required next if we are considering removing te tamaiti or rangatahi from the care of their family, whānau or usual caregiver, due to a serious risk of harm for them and we cannot ensure safety?
Key elements and dimensions
Oranga sits at the centre of our tangata whenua and bicultural supervision model. Rippling out like water in a puna (pool), we have the 3 expressions of oranga, the phases of the supervision model and the foundation provided by ngātakepū of Te Toka Tūmoana.
In the deeper water underneath are the 6 dimensions of oranga, which provide a more holistic understanding. In addition, each expression of oranga is considered in the context of the following key elements.
5 key elements
Oranga is different for all whānau:
Understandings of oranga are different within whānau and across different generations.
Tamariki, mokopuna, rangatahi, mātua and kaumātua understand the collective oranga of whānau and their individual oranga from diverse perspectives.
Oranga is a relationship between whānau and their spiritual, natural, physical and social environments:
It includes systems of complex relationships between tamariki, mokopuna, rangatahi and whānau and their spiritual (for example, wharekarakia and urupā), natural (for example, maunga and awa), physical (for example, public transport and infrastructure) and social (for example, whānau, school and social media) environments.
Oranga is not a finite destination:
It is fluid, ebbing and flowing through various states over a lifetime, including experiences of both harm and wellbeing through which tamariki, mokopuna, rangatahi and whānau resilience and potential can be developed.
Oranga is multi-dimensional:
It is dynamic, holistic, reciprocal, and relational.
Oranga reinforces manatamaiti, whakapapa, whanaungatanga and other te ao Māori wellbeing principles.
Oranga is inclusive:
It includes all tamariki, mokopuna, rangatahi and whānau and their lived experiences, including tāngata whaikaha, tāngata whaiora, gender perspectives, multi-cultural whānau, whānau belonging to takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ communities or combinations of these.
While Oranga is founded in te ao Māori, it embraces the diversity of all cultures, faith and belief systems and communities who will have their own understandings of what oranga means for them in their cultural context.
6 core dimensions
Each expression is understood more holistically through the 6 dimensions of oranga.
Wairua (cultural wellbeing):
This dimension includes understanding and supporting the values, beliefs (including spiritual), practices, significant people, and places which sustain and restore the wairua of whānau and families.
Hinengaro (mental wellbeing):
This dimension includes understanding and supporting empowering thought patterns, memories, feelings, and actions which enhance oranga.
In addition, it includes recognising and supporting the right of tamariki, mokopuna Māori, rangatahi and whānau and families to develop their individual and collective potential.
Ngākau (emotional wellbeing):
This dimension includes supporting tamariki, mokopuna Māori, rangatahi, whānau and families so that they feel safe, valued, listened to and respected, enabling trusting and meaningful relationships.
Tinana (physical wellbeing):
This dimension includes encouraging and supporting healthy, active lifestyles.
A priority is to ensure that tamariki, mokopuna Māori, rangatahi, whānau and families can access the full range of mainstream health services, rongoā Māori and alternative medicine.
Whānau (family wellbeing):
The whānau dimension includes supporting the development and maintenance of healthy whanaungatanga networks.
Tamariki, mokopuna Māori, rangatahi, whānau and families are supported in building or strengthening their relationships, feel loved, feel a sense of belonging and identity and are connected to their whakapapa.
It also highlights the importance of collective (whānau or family) wellbeing to strengthen whānau and family resilience.
Waiora (environmental wellbeing):
This dimension includes understanding the spiritual, natural, physical, and socio-economic environments in which whānau and family live.
It includes the systems operating within those environments, and their impact on the autonomy, participation and collective oranga of tamariki, mokopuna Māori, rangatahi, whānau and families.
It involves social advocacy for the rights of tamariki, mokopuna Māori, rangatahi, whānau and families, supporting them to identify barriers which prevent full inclusion.
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