Te Tumu Whakarae comprises General Managers Māori and Executive Directors Māori from each of the 20 DHBs. Te Tumu Whakarae works in synergy with the Ministry of Health and the Māori Health Directorate. Members include:

Tumu Whakarae has developed a position statement on Māori Workforce development. Based on the Position Statement, Te Tumu Whakarae and the DHBs Workforce Strategy Group worked in partnership to develop targets to address the three key influences to improve workforce responsiveness. Together the Position Statement and targets are a Treaty based response to Māori health inequity and accelerating health gain for Māori in Aotearoa. All 20 DHB CEOs endorsed the Position Statement and the targets in March 2019.

Position Statement by Tumu Whakarae on Māori Workforce

Endorsed by the National DHB Chief Executives March 2019

You cannot be clinically competent if you're not culturally competent. -Riki Nia Nia, 2018

Tumu Whakarae, the national Māori General Managers/Directors are committed to a Treaty based response to Māori health inequity and accelerating health gain for Māori in Aotearoa. While addressing inequity is complex, requiring multiple interventions, workforce is entirely modifiable but will require deliberate and specific action. Workforce development is crucial in achieving Māori health gain.

Our position recommends three key influencers to improve workforce responsiveness:

• New and future staff; i.e. growing our proportion of Māori workforce to reflect the ethnic makeup of NZ society.
• Current and existing staff; i.e. realise cultural competence throughout the entire workforce.
• Making our environment conducive to greater uptake by Māori to improve recruitment and retention of Māori.

To that end, Tumu Whakarae is compelled to provide leadership and guidance in this area and is sending clear messages to the sector about its expectations around workforce development that supports the elimination of Māori health inequity:

1. All DHBs will actively grow their Māori workforce to achieve a Māori workforce that reflects the proportionality for their Māori population, particularly, but not limited to, all clinical professions. It is acknowledged that these targets are a start point in a long-term strategy to seek and achieve Māori proportionality in our health workforce.

Growing Māori staff will require the measurement of progress by reporting the ethnicity for all DHB staff. This should be led by GMs HR/People and Capability and be completed within the next 12 months.

2. All DHBs will set in place steps to significantly and meaningfully realise cultural competence for all clinical staff, the Board and other staff groups that have regular contact with patients and whānau.

Tumu Whakarae remains concerned about the evidence that continually points to poor Māori experience and lower levels of health care.

Cultural competence should be monitored against changes to individual clinical practice which ensures Māori receive optimum care.

3. All DHBs will measure and report on the recruitment and retention of Māori staff in clinical and non-clinical occupations.  

Tumu Whakarae believes there should be identified recruitment and retention targets, supported by policies that works towards improved practices utilised by DHBs.

Tumu Whakarae acknowledges the time for rhetoric is well past and we must all collectively be bold as we look to achieve health equity. Such objectives can be both aspired to and achieved if we demonstrate strong leadership and guidance to staff that are seeking pathways to improve. We believe these resolutions provide such leadership.

Based on the Position Statement the following targets were developed.

1. All DHBs will actively grow their Māori workforce to achieve a Māori workforce that reflects the proportionality for their Māori population

Target One
Each DHB will have 0% of employees who have their ethnicity recorded in their employee profile as "unknown" by 30 June 2020.

Target Two
Each DHB will employ a Māori workforce that reflects the Māori population proportionality for their region by 2030. Report annually.

Target Three
Each DHB will employ a Māori workforce with occupational groupings that reflect the Māori population proportionality for their region by 2040. Report annually.

2. All DHBs will set in place steps to significantly and meaningfully realise cultural competence for all clinical staff, the Board and other staff groups that have regular contact with patients and whānau.

Target Four

All DHB staff (clinical and non-clinical) who have contact with patients and whānau, Board members and those in people management or leadership roles will demonstrate participation in cultural competence training by 2022.

3. All DHBs will measure and report on the recruitment and retention of Māori staff in clinical and non-clinical occupations.

Target Five
In each DHB, 100% of Māori applicants who meet the minimum eligibility criteria for any role are shortlisted for interview. 

Target Six
In each DHB, turnover for Māori staff will be no greater than the DHB turnover for all staff.

Monitoring of the Targets

Work is underway with the DHBs to measure the progress in Target Four in embedding cultural competency training with the DHBs and monitoring the outcome of this for patients and whānau.

TAS supports Te Tumu Whakarae by capturing and reporting DHB-employed workforce demographic data against the targets and through the provision of secretariat support. 

Contact email: workforce@tas.health.nz