Oranga Tamariki has acknowledged practice failures following the death of a nine-and-a-half-month-old baby killed by his father, with a review finding aspects of the agency's involvement did not fully meet expected standards.
Mustafa Ali died on 8 June 2024 from blunt force trauma resulting in a crushing injury to the abdomen. His father Mukzameel Ali was jailed for 6 years on Tuesday in the High Court at Hamilton after pleading guilty to manslaughter, assault with intent to injure, and assault on a person in a family relationship.
Oranga Tamariki had received a Report of Concern about the family in October 2023 and had a safety plan in place for Mustafa. The baby was never in the custody of Oranga Tamariki and his day-to-day care remained the responsibility of his parents.
Deputy chief executive Thomas Ronan said "more should have been done to ensure our plan was working". The social worker involved in the case is no longer employed by Oranga Tamariki.
The agency has introduced ongoing training on child protection protocols, strengthened professional supervision for staff and increased oversight of cases, and introduced new assessment and planning tools to support social work decision making.
A postmortem found Mustafa had abscesses around his larynx that would have caused significant discomfort when feeding, as well as bruising behind his ears and on his head. The pathologist found Mustafa would not have survived longer than 30 to 60 minutes after the fatal blow was inflicted.