"Oranga Tamariki is tasked with leading national policy change and is rolling out policies but we need a better interface between national and local approaches so we are a juggernaut working together down the same pathway. That is difficult to achieve.
"As a local governance group it's really key for us that we assist the system we all work in to change. It currently feels we are imposing our work systems on families and children and that, in turn, contributes to risk. Our systems suffer from bureaucracy and somehow that needs to be addressed.
"Our role is to reshape how we are working as a community and, as lead professionals, to examine our approach to the system for children. As a local example, one of the biggest tensions is we have to operate within [government] contracts.
"There isn't any profound statement within the contracts that says we are working together to reduce the impact on vulnerable children. Is the system making people more exposed than they need to be because of the way the system works?"
A change in mindset and information-sharing is essential to improving outcomes for vulnerable children and families, Mrs MacDonald said.
"We need to move to directing rather than doing. We need to enable our families to do things for themselves, not do it for them. We also need good information and to ensure that any door is the right door so that families that pop up in multiple agencies get an empathetic response consistently from everyone and don't get sent to another door. We don't currently have the tools we need to get more cohesive.
"We need to be child-centred and ask who and what is important to the child and how do we wrap stuff around that to achieve a different outcome. What does society need to do to support parents to nurture their children? How can we enable them to get help really quickly when they need it or things aren't going so well?
"The landscape is quite difficult to negotiate. For example, from a health perspective, needy people are not accessing services at the right time because the system is difficult to navigate.
"We need to take a good look at ourselves as a society and what kind of culture we want for our communities. We have kids who don't have the most basic needs being met and it's a tragedy."
The governance group is refining its strategic plan and the Children's Team will be working with staff who deal with vulnerable children and families.
"There needs to be a consistent message on having the workforce all working in the same way and feeling confident about having difficult conversations with children and understanding what child-centred means. We want to get some cross-sector partnerships happening and maybe sharing information where there are other issues for a family coming into an agency.
"We want to be less intrusive on families. Whanganui is the right size where we can work differently. We need to instil the Whanau Ora way of working with all the workforce.
"We care about our children and making a difference in our community. We're having some success but we're not having an impact yet that's making a noticeable society and community difference."