We advocate for Wairarapa whānau needs and aspirations, helping bridge the gap between whānau and health services.

Locally-based Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards like us address the need to have Māori voices involved in shaping local and national health services. IMPBs were established under the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 to help enable equitable health outcomes through tino rangatiratanga and by ensuring health services meet the specific needs and aspirations of local iwi, hapū, and whānau.

We korero and connect with our whānau to understand their hauora needs and experiences with health and wellbeing services, then work in partnership with iwi, government agencies and others to find ways to transform the system to meet those needs.

Our Strategic Priorities

Toitū te Tangata is our Strategic Plan for Hauora in Wairarapa, setting our course for Matariki 2023 – Mataraki 2026. We have four strategic priority areas of work:

• Engaging whānau voice
• Commissioning and contracting
• Localities, planning, and coordination
• Data, analytics, and sovereignty.

A summary of these follows, or you can read our full Strategy.

2021 survey results show that whānau Māori in Wairarapa see hauora as a broad concept that involves feeling physically and mentally well, both as individuals and as whānau. Core to good health for our whānau is living well as whānau.

Many health services are delivered by community-based providers in our rohe (i.e., services provided outside of Masterton Hospital), usually under contract to Te Whatu Ora (although formerly this would have been through contracts to Wairarapa DHB or the Ministry of Health).

For us what this really means is that there will be:

• Intentional service design, based on the needs and aspirations of whānau and hapori Māori
• Sensible contract processes (without too many loopholes) and a focus on partnership and co-design
• Fair prices paid for services by government funders
• Effective performance monitoring – to make sure providers can show the positive impacts they are making for whānau Māori.

Te Poari will have an integral role in identifying and evaluating the health priorities of our rohe, alongside Te Whatu Ora. Through this collaborative effort, we will strive for more suitable contracting of all health services. It is our expectation that as a result contracted providers will better align their services with the needs and aspirations of whānau Māori. This means more fairness in monitoring and accountability to improve Māori health outcomes and health inequity.

We believe in empowering Kaupapa Māori providers to expand their reach and enhance their services, to contribute to growth and well-being in our community.

Localities have been introduced by the government to connect service providers, Iwi, and other stakeholders to collectively improve community health and wellbeing outcomes through better service design, planning, and coordination.

For whānau, hapū and Iwi, locality planning provides a more formalised way to be part of setting an agenda for health services in Wairarapa.

We will also take a critical role in developing, with local service providers, community groups, and agencies who can contribute to hauora, a plan that shapes the services provided in the Wairarapa. The plan will focus on wellness, reflecting the needs and aspirations of whānau, ensuring joined up care and support services, and seek to improve the physical location of services so they are easier for whānau to access regardless of where in the Wairarapa they live.

Over the past twenty years, we have had access to a wide range of data on Māori health – thanks to improved ethnicity data collected through health providers and hospitals. This improvement has often been driven and advocated by Māori. However, there are still significant limitations in the data collected by the health sector. This includes a lack of data to show what is happening for tāngata whaikaha Māori, and a lack of good quality analysis that helps us determine the nature and extent of health inequities for Māori compared with non-Māori.

Through this priority area Te Poari will enhance data gathering, analysis, and sovereignty practices to ensure the governance, collection, management, and utilisation of data aligns with ethical standards and respects privacy while providing valuable insights. We will also embed tikanga me to mātauranga Māori practices into data we have responsibility for.  As part of this priority area, we will also work with Iwi across the motu to make sure they have access to information about whānau Māori with whakapapa connections to places outside of the Wairarapa.

The first year to 18 months of this priority area will involve understanding the data that is currently available through health and other government data, and ensuring it is analysed in a way that allows whānau Māori to be well informed and in control of the narratives around the data held by the Crown.

The four priority areas of Toitū te Tangata are interrelated. For example, gathering and sharing whānau voice supports the needs assessment stage of commissioning, provides key information for service design and planning, and provides context to administrative health data. In the same way, monitoring progress in these priority areas needs to take a holistic approach.

Between now and July 2027, we see our work having three different phases, as set out in this diagram

Every six months, from December 2023, we will provide a summary of our activity and progress to whānau Māori, kaupapa Māori providers, hapū, and Iwi in our rohe. The summary will be focused on the key performance indicators set out in Toitū te Tangata.

We welcome feedback on how you would like to receive this information and encourage any thoughts be shared with us on office@tkoti.nz.