WelCom May 2023
The Government announced on 12 April 2023 that the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care must deliver its final report and recommendations by 28 March 2024. The previous deadline was 30 June 2023.
The extension is necessary as more evidence emerged in the past year, the Commission says.
‘The scale of abuse is beyond what anyone had ever imagined at the start of this inquiry,’ said Inquiry Chair Coral Shaw.
Significant amounts of new evidence has been received and report writing is well underway.
‘More time ensures our final report and recommendations are impactful and meaningful for survivors. They must demand transformational change in the way we nurture and protect tamariki, rangatahi and adults in care,’ said Shaw.
‘Up until registrations closed on 21 March 2023, survivors continued to come forward to be heard. We also continue to receive new evidence. We have received 400,000 new evidential documents recently, held 133 days of public hearings and undertook many survivor engagement hui across the motu.
‘We are now focused on analysing this information, testing and refining our findings and recommendations to ensure they will affect meaningful change to prevent abuse in care happening again.
‘The granting of this extension is a welcome acknowledgment of the enormity of this inquiry and the importance of getting it right, but we also know that survivors have been waiting a long time for recognition of the abuse and neglect that they suffered in the care of the State and faith-based institutions,’ she said.
It is with this in mind the Royal Commission will continue to work hard to ensure its final report is impactful and, importantly, creates change.
Over the coming weeks, the Commission will begin testing recommendations with survivors, iwi, Māori, Pacific community, mental health sector, disability sector, rainbow community, faith leaders and Government. Some sectors may require more time than others for testing, while some ideas will need more time to refine.
A case study report on St John of God’s Marylands School will be released later this year.