In May 2021, the South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board (SASWB) established Kotahi te Whakaaro to trial a cross-agency community led response to children aged 10-13 years who were apprehended for a serious offence such as ram raiding.

The early success of this approach in South Auckland and subsequently Auckland West resulted in the Government providing funding to establish the Fast-Track protocol and expansion of both teams to include young people aged 14-17 years.

The Fast-Track Protocol was agreed between Police and Oranga Tamariki, and in May 2023, Oranga Tamariki received extra funding to set up Fast-Track teams in Hamilton, Christchurch and Auckland Central.

In 2023 Oranga Tamariki commissioned Malatest International to evaluate Fast-Track. The evaluation consisted of two parts:

Part 1: A process evaluation focused on cross-agency ways of working for the two established sites:

South Auckland – Kotahi te Whakaaro (est. May 2021)
MDCAT West Auckland (est. December 2022)

Part 2: A formative and process evaluation for three recently established sites:

Auckland Central Te Kāhui Whitiora (est. May 2023)
Christchurch Ōtautahi Interagency (est. May 2023)
Hamilton Fast-Track (est. May 2023). (From the website). Record #8931