Family Start Manukau - Awarding of Te Wana Accreditation

It is only fitting that when we celebrate the work of Family Start Manukau, we celebrate Dame June Jackson – and we celebrate with her the rich diversity of the community embraced within your service.

Today is a day to recognise the hard work, inspiration and commitment of so many people who have made Family Start Manukau what it is today.

In particular I want to acknowledge the three founding organisations who have invested so much in this group– Te Hononga o Tamaki me Hoturoa PHO; Ta Pasefika Health Care Trust; and the Plunket Society.

An accreditation like Te Wana is an international award that recognises the commitment of the whole team to assess themselves against their own standards, and then to seek to continually improve upon their own best benchmark.

And so I commend the leadership of your chief executive, Colleen Fakalogotoa; your kaumatua Eru Thompson, the Vice-Chair Roine Lealaiauloto; and indeed all nine members of the Board.

You can all feel justifiably proud that you have collaborated and cooperated in such a way, to improve the health and wellbeing of children and families within the Counties Manukau region.

But there is another equally important aspect of the leadership demonstrated here – and that is the wisdom and guidance expressed by the nine kaumatua and Pacific Matua to support the 64 employees of Family Start; as well as a small group of employees that assist with childminding from time to time.

I think this is absolutely tangible evidence that you mean what you say in your logo, ‘family success matters’.

And I was thinking of something that the champion boxer Muhammed Ali once said,

Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision.

Family Start Manukau is not successful just because it has a great workplace, or some outstanding employees.

Family Start Manukau is successful because families really matter, because the vision of everyone who works here, is to work with whanau to make a difference.

I was interested that the Incredible Years parenting programme is being followed here.

From what I know of this programme it comes with the endorsement of the United States office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as an exemplary best practice programme; a programme also recommended by the American Psychological Division Taskforce as a well-established treatment for children with conduct problems.

While I don’t doubt the programme has much to offer, my challenge would be whether we have our own home-grown visions which create a sense of future possibilities in our own setting. And I am absolutely confident that we do have solutions which focus on Whanau Ora and whanau wellbeing – rather than placing undue emphasis on issues such as delinquency or conduct disorders.

And perhaps that is something that at this occasion of your fifth birthday, might be something to consider for your future growth as an organisation – how to demonstrate the trust and confidence you express in your own solutions, and the solutions that all your families own and express.

I believe that one of the major features of Te Wana, the New Zealand Arm of the Australian Quality Improvement Council, is that you set yourself the challenge of continually reviewing your performance to see where you can improve.

I will be really interested to see where your learning leads you in respect of the locally owned, locally delivered strategies.

As I understand it, Te Wana has six core values: Te Tiriti o Waitangi, continuous quality improvement; collaborative team work; community governance and participation; health promotion and social justice.

These are all vital aspects of the leadership we might expect to continue to see as Family Start Manukau develops further.

And so as we contemplate a future informed by challenges and ongoing reflection, I would hope that this learning culture is something that we might also expect to be reflected in the families and whanau who access the support of services and programmes here in Manukau.

I am delighted to congratulate Family Start Manukau on the considerable achievement of receiving the Te Wana quality accreditation for service delivery.

Today is a great day to celebrate you have made, are making and will continue to make in your commitment towards working with whanau.

Thank you for your dedication towards achieving your aspirations that family success matters. And now, let’s cut that cake!