Summary

The aim of the evaluation was to capture the voice of Rangatahi and their experiences at RSS, the outcomes for Rangatahi enrolling through the direct access pathway, and whether this pathway into the Residential Specialist Schools (RSS) was working as it was intended. It also looked at how the pathway meets community needs.

The evaluation relied on previously collected anonymised and redacted administrative data from the Ministry and interviews with former RSS students and their families.

Concerns were raised about some aspects of the evaluation methodology and the Ministry conducted an internal review of the methods used.

The review confirmed the concerns outlined in the report itself:

• Only a relatively small number of former students and their whānau were able to be interviewed (five students and 12 whānau/family members).  The roll at the RSS has grown since the report was commissioned in 2021.
• The number of Ministry student data sets that were analysed is small.
• The evaluation report doesn’t include Māori student and whānau Māori voice. The evaluation team was not successful in engaging Māori students or their whānau.
• The finding about transition planning both into and out of RSS being poorly documented, and/or poorly planned should be viewed with some caution. The evaluators based this conclusion on the data sets that were provided by the Ministry. Schools (RSS, as well as schools that students were transitioning out of or back into) had other documentation on transition planning that was not reviewed.
• The Ethics process adhered to University of Auckland standards. The data collection processes were approved by the University of Auckland’s Human Participants Ethics Committee (UAHPEC). This included the processes for participant recruitment, data collection, and analysis and secure storage of data.

The Ministry also recognises that this evaluation did not reflect the voice of the schools. This will be captured through future work.