Safety in Care
Improving safety practices without compromising dignity
Responsibilities
Service Design, Research
Organisation
Ministry for Children
Overview
Background
In 2024, the Abuse in Care Inquiry found that between 113,000 and 253,000 children, young people and adults had experienced abuse and neglect in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 1999.
Among its 138 recommendations were urgent calls to overhaul practices in residential care – including how searches of young people in residences were conducted.
Role
I was brought in as the sole Service Designer to lead the discovery and design of new search safeguards – working within tight legislative constraints, a fast-moving delivery timeline, and deeply sensitive subject matter.
Challenge
Reducing harmful items in care while maintaining the dignity of people with complex needs
Discovery
Establishing people-centred project foundations
Competing stakeholder priorities created ambiguity around the project goal. For some, success meant eliminating all harmful items – but pursuing that too aggressively risked increasing high-risk physical searches and compromising the dignity of young people in care.
To resolve this, I facilitated workshops with the project team to define a shared goal and design principles that could guide decisions when tensions arose.
I also used artefacts including design principles, research-based personas and service blueprints to maintain a people-centred perspective, and raised risks and recommendations when safety and dignity were in conflict.
Design
Facilitating workshops with competing needs
Search practices sit at the intersection of safety, legislation, trauma, culture and human rights – meaning the people involved have competing needs.
I facilitated targeted workshops with young people, staff and leadership separately – ensuring insights from each group genuinely informed the emerging design rather than important voices being drowned out by the loudest in the room.
Raising and mitigating safety risks
In every conversation with staff, there was a concern about how the new legislation and changes could harm them. Among all the voices, their needs were being drowned out the most.
I facilitated multi-disciplinary workshops explore ways to mitigate the risk from different perspectives. The end result is a service that meets the legislative intent while keeping young people and staff safe.
Prototyping a tool to support meaningful conversations
Prototyping directly with staff and young people in youth care residences surfaced insights that helped simplify new services while still meeting legislative requirements.
Through this process, the new search plan that includes the needs of young people evolved into a tool for staff and young people to have a genuine, relational conversation – with the plan itself serving as a record of the young person's needs and how staff could uphold them.
Outcomes
Illuminating the path forward for delivery
The discovery and design work established a clear foundation for service implementation – giving the programme the evidence, artefacts and direction needed to move into delivery with confidence.
Senior leadership supported to navigate tensions, mitigate risks and unblock critical delivery milestones through compelling, evidence-based artefacts.
Design principles, personas and current state mapping adopted as the foundation for the programme – ensuring young people's needs remained central in a high-pressure environment.
Future state service blueprint and tested prototypes used to inform implementation.
"My uncle had similar experiences when he was in care... something like this would have made a big difference for him"
– Staff (Kaimahi)