The Ombudsman has found that parts of the Ministry of Education’s scheme to assess sensitive claims are unreasonable for people who were abused or neglected in some state schools.

John Allen’s findings follow a complaint by Cooper Legal in 2023.

Mr Allen acknowledges the enormity and complexity of the task faced by the Ministry and other agencies in assessing whether to accept claims of historic abuse in care.

However, he says some aspects of the way the Ministry administered the scheme were inconsistent and unreasonable.

"It has taken far too long to process claims and there have been unjustifiable delays before the Ministry has published information about its framework around how those claims will be settled," Mr Allen says.

"There are limits to the types of claims the Ministry will accept. We found that while the Ministry is following the rules under the current legal regime, the way this is done, excludes the cases of claimants who attended state secondary schools before 1 October 1989 where the schools still remain open. Instead, those excluded claimants must pursue their claims with the school directly.

"This creates significantly different experiences for those who meet the criteria to have their claim assessed by the Ministry and those who don’t."

Mr Allen says the claims raise a host of difficult legal, ethical, and financial issues and pursuing them can have profound emotional and financial consequences for claimants.

"The scheme must be consistent with the principles of good administrative decision-making regardless of the complexities involved," he says.

"The Ministry’s process and decisions must be transparent and justifiable. It must engage with individual claimants so the claimant understands how their claim is being assessed and understands what information they should provide to support their claim."

The Ombudsman made three recommendations for improvement including that the Ministry finds ways to streamline the sensitive claims process, publishes its guidance, and makes sure (relevant) Ministers are advised on whether claims that are usually dealt with by schools could be incorporated into the state redress system.

Other aspects of Cooper Legal’s complaint have not been upheld.

The Ombudsman considered the Ministry’s approach was reasonable in terms of access and entry into the Ministry’s claims process, the role of claim reviewers, the Ministry’s position on not providing the claim reviewers reports to claimants and the scope of information accepted for consideration of a claim.

Additionally, the Ombudsman considered the application of the standard of proof, and its position on frameworks for breaches of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 was reasonable.

Mr Allen also made observations and suggestions on how the Ministry’s claims process could be improved. These include making information in its guidance and on its webpage clearer and ensuring the Ministry decisions on claims are adequately explained to claimants.

Read the final opinion: https://shorturl.at/y7ew5

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