Gloriavale Leavers put staff member on Coast

| Greymouth Star | Laura Mills |

The Timaru-based Gloriavale Leavers Trust will base a staff member on the West Coast from next month.

Kathryn Tuck lives near Gloriavale and the leavers’ trust says she has been instrumental in supporting many people inside and outside of Gloriavale for over eight years.

Meanwhile, the trust says the multi-agency oversight of Gloriavale has officially ended. The last government gave Gloriavale 16 months to meet five key outcomes, however the new Government will not be continuing with their oversight.

Numerous government departments remain involved, though:

The Ministry of Education is working with the Gloriavale School after a bad ERO report.

Charities Services is over 21 months into an ongoing investigation over the charitable status.

Police investigations continue.

The Ministry of Business and Innovation, charged with enforcing the Employment Court rulings, conducted more interviews in Gloriavale a few weeks ago.

Labour Party list MP Damien O’Connor said today he was concerned the taskforce was being dismantled.

“It’s a complex and high-risk situation. If there was a major breakdown for whatever reason, we would effectively be facing a refugee-like scenario — 500-plus people with limited access to any support.”

He said it was hard to understand why it was being disbanded. MBIE’s workplace relations and safety policy general manager Anna Clark told The Press the group’s mandate from Cabinet came to an end on December 31. “Since August 2022, agencies working alongside the Gloriavale leadership have made progress towards supporting the community to achieve the five outcomes.”

Agencies would continue working with Gloriavale for the foreseeable future, and take a collaborative approach where it made sense to do so, she said.