these larger system issues and the design of the new agency, Oranga Tamariki. The new agency itself, including secure residences, is now underpinned by a child-centred operating model, which is something we have long advocated for. • Consider the cultural values and beliefs that are important to our indigenous children and their families and whänau, hapü, and iwi. As part of its transformation, Oranga Tamariki is currently working to address each of the above issues. For example, there is now in place a clear vision for youth justice residences, a proposed new structure for residences that should enable residential care staff to receive a higher level of supervision, and new funding to expand the range of care options available to children and young people. Significantly, the new Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 lays the ground work for Oranga Tamariki to find better solutions to improve outcomes for Mäori children and young people, their families and whänau, hapü, and iwi. • Hold high aspirations for all children and young people. Evolving the way we monitor We continue to evolve and improve the way we monitor. In the last year, we have significantly improved how we engage with children and young people during our monitoring visits to Oranga Tamariki residences. For example, we conduct child and youth led tours of residences (where children and young people show us around the residence and point out any areas of the residence they like or dislike), we survey young people, and we conduct in-depth one-to-one interviews with them. These engagements have enabled us to understand young people’s experiences and consider young people’s views when assessing Oranga Tamariki’s performance against the OPCAT domains. This has noticeably enhanced the visibility of children and young people’s voices in our reports. Our engagement with children and young people has also led to numerous young people disclosing concerns that we have gone on to investigate and help to resolve. We are currently testing a new indigenous Mäori ‘lens’, which we have developed to assess the quality of children and young people’s experiences. This is important because over 60% of the children and young people in care and protection residences are Mäori and over 70% in youth justice residences are Mäori. We have named our new monitoring lens Mana Mokopuna. This ‘lens’ has been designed to ensure that we: • Focus on children and young people’s experiences and outcomes. Mothers with Babies Units (MBUs) in prisons In this 2016-17 period, we also monitored one MBU, in partnership with the Ombudsman’s Office. MBUs are self-care units within each of New Zealand’s three women’s prisons, managed by the Department of Corrections. Mothers who meet certain criteria may be given the opportunity to live with their babies in an MBU, up until their baby turns two years of age. Although the MBU we monitored was generally compliant with the OPCAT domains, we found that there had been a significant deterioration in the domain ratings between our latest visit and our previous visit to the same MBU in April 2014. For example, there were inadequate opportunities for babies to socialise and participate in activities outside of the prison and no tailored induction or training in place for MBU staff. We expressed concern to the Department of Corrections about the potential negative implications for babies in the MBU. Department of Corrections’ response The Department accepted all our recommendations and has made significant progress since our monitoring visit to the MBU. We have been informed that mothers and babies from this MBU are now going on regular external outings. The Department is also in the process of introducing training for all staff who work in the MBUs, which is expected to be completed in June 2018. Encouragingly, the Department now has a Women’s Strategy 2017-2021, which includes changes in the treatment and management of women offenders in New Zealand. This strategy should also benefit mothers and babies. 11