Oranga Tamariki hires support services to help some children through court cases

Oranga Tamariki is hiring support services for children who have been victims of sexual violence, to help them through court cases.

A tender closes on Monday for 12 workers to cover nine regions in the top half of the North Island, Taranaki, Whanganui, East Coast and Canterbury.

This comes five years after specialist services for adults proved their worth for reducing trauma and improving victims' recovery.

"Tamariki and whānau in sexual violence criminal proceedings are being re-traumatised by the court process," said the tender documents.

"There is no dedicated support for tamariki and rangatahi, which may lead to additional harm and secondary re-victimisation."

It added: "Whānau are not enabled with skills and knowledge to support either tamariki or themselves."

The initiative falls under the national Te Aorerekura anti-violence strategy launched three years ago, that says "long, confusing and costly" court processes that lack violence specialists can revictimise complainants.

The top aim was "the long-term healing and wellness of victim-survivors, reducing their potential for future re-victimisation".

One of the new workers' jobs would be to ensure children could "manage and cope with stress from the criminal proceedings", and learn about any other support or funding they could access.

It would extend out to support whānau, too.

The services aim to start next January, with the aim to expand them to hire another seven people in March to cover the remaining regions.

"Greater community trust in the criminal justice process" was another aim.

The tender gave the most weight to proven experience in delivering sexual violence support, and next, culturally appropriate engagement.

It was entirely optional for respondents to say what their service would cost; OT aimed to have a standardised rate.

Non-government agencies that provide support services in court for children have been understaffed for years.

Oranga Tamariki has had problems getting up to speed with its core jobs under Te Aorerekura.