Published on 19 Aug 2025

Strengthening New Zealand's Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy Through Cultural Responsiveness: Evaluating the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy

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Dr Brendan Stevenson Quantitative Analytics Lead Contact me
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Susan Cook Senior Consultant Contact me

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) needed to understand how effectively their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy was working across government. With the three-year statutory review approaching, they needed robust evidence to improve this significant national framework. We delivered a culturally grounded evaluation that directly informed a statutory review process, strengthening a national framework designed to make New Zealand the best place in the world for children and young people.

 

  • Our Māori-led evaluation approach ensured Indigenous perspectives shaped the assessment of the Strategy.
  • We identified both implementation successes and system gaps, providing DPMC with practical recommendations.
  • Our insights directly informed statutory decision-making despite tight project timeframes.
By delivering this evaluation with both technical rigour and cultural integrity, Allen + Clarke demonstrated our commitment to work that makes a meaningful difference. Our findings are now helping to ensure this vital national framework can more effectively improve outcomes for all children and young people in New Zealand, particularly those with greatest need.

Understanding a complex national framework

Launched in 2019, the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy aimed to make New Zealand the best place in the world for children and young people. It was designed to provide a unifying framework for child wellbeing, drive coordinated government policy, increase public sector accountability to specifically improve outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi Māori. 

With over 100 actions from more than 20 government agencies, effective coordination was essential to achieve these ambitious goals. 

Our team brought together evaluation rigour with cultural competence. Senior Māori researchers led our work, designing an approach that delivered both technical analysis and assessed the Strategy's effectiveness for Māori tamariki and rangatahi. 

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Cultural Foundations strengthened our approach

We grounded our evaluation in key mātāpono (values) of whanaungatanga (relationship-building), manaakitanga (showing respect and care) and ōritetanga (focusing on equity for Māori). 

This cultural foundation strengthened our methodological approach, which included:

 

  • Creating a system ecology map to understand the complex environment in which the strategy is being delivered. 

  • Developing clear evaluation criteria and performance standards. 

  • Collecting rich qualitative and quantitative data through multiple methods. 

  • Conducting culturally appropriate engagement with Māori stakeholders. 

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Informing National Policy Direction

Our evaluation focussed on whether the Strategy had been implemented as intended and whether it was functioning as intended. 

Our final report provided DPMC with clear, evidence-based insights that directly informed the statutory review process.  Our practical recommendations address governance, cross-agency collaboration, monitoring frameworks and Māori engagement. 

  • We found the Strategy had successfully established a shared language and framework around child wellbeing. However, we also identified important gaps in coordination and implementation that needed addressing. 

  • We pinpointed where the Strategy effectively drove government policy and where mechanisms could be strengthened. 

  • Crucially, we addressed how well it met its commitment to improving outcomes for tamariki and rangatahi Māori, highlighting both progress and opportunities for enhancement. 

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Interconnected coloured pathways forming abstract network diagram