Our vision: New Zealanders are confident to use social services that help them live the lives they choose.
Our purpose: We help to make sure that social services are safe for New Zealanders to use.
Our mission: We assess social services against a set of standards to help them succeed.
Who we are and what we do
We’re a business unit hosted by the Ministry of Social Development.
We’re responsible for assessing approximately 2,000 organisations that need accreditation or approval to deliver social services.
We use the Social Sector Accreditation Standards to conduct our assessments. Meeting these standards, and gaining accreditation or approval, shows that an organisation can safely deliver social services to their communities.
Our staff have a wide range of backgrounds and experience and are qualified in New Zealand regulatory compliance. Our assessors are based all across the motu, so we can visit organisations from Invercargill to Kerikeri.
We also respond to complaints about accredited or approved providers, and manage the core worker exemption application process.
Who we work for
We provide accreditation and approval on behalf of six government agencies (our partner agencies):
- Department of Corrections - Ara Poutama Aotearoa
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Development - Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga
- Ministry of Justice - Tāhū o te Ture
- Ministry for Pacific Peoples -Te Manatū mō ngā Iwi ō te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa
- Ministry of Social Development - Te Manatū Whakahiato Ora
- Oranga Tamariki - Ministry for Children.
An Advisory Board, made up of representatives from each partner agency, oversees our work. An independent person chairs the Board.
Whakapapa | Our history
We have been around since 1989. At first we only worked for the Ministry of Social Development. In 2016, a group of government agencies developed and published the Social Sector Accreditation Standards, which included ten core standards and specialist standards. Our unit became Social Services Accreditation, and we expanded to provide assessment services for other government agencies as well.
In 2021, we chose the name Te Kāhui Kāhu, which was endorsed by Te Taura Whiri I Te Reo (The Māori Language Commission). We identified with “kāhui kāhu” which means a gathering of hawks, a metaphor for the keen and sharp sight our assessors have.