Eke Taumata

Eke Taumata supports and describes working being carried out across Fire and Emergency to achieve long-term workplace culture change and ensure a positive work experience for our people.

Part of the remit of Eke Taumata is to respond to the recommendations in the Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission review released in December 2022. You can find the full review and recommendations(external link) on Te Kawa Mataaho’s website.

The recommendations fall into five key themes:

1. Strong and accountable leadership
2. Clear expectations and consequences
3. Diverse leaders and workplace
4. Improved people management
5. Independent determination of complaints. 

We all have a collective responsibility for this mahi – Eke Taumata is about our values and who we are and want to be as an organisation.

We are committed to doing this right, which means taking the time to understand, to build a strong foundation and then to move forward together in the right direction.

Work currently underway

After the discovery phase was completed, the People Branch was identified as the owner of most of the recommendations arising from the 2022 review. The People Branch have established a programme team to oversee the delivery of recommendations 6-7, 9-13, 17-20. You can find out more information about the recommendations here.

• Recommendations 1-2 – these are the collective responsibility of ELT and development of a workplace culture action plan is underway.
• Recommendation 8 - establishing an Independent Advisory Committee has been completed.
• Recommendation 14 - is being progressed by our monitoring agency, Department of Internal Affairs.
• Recommendations 15 – 16 - these are being delivered as we change our complaints management system.

Changing how we manage complaints

We have now released the Decision Document outlining our new operating model for managing complaints.

We are proceeding with Option 1 – the Hybrid Model - an independent ‘front door’ where you can make enquiries and raise complaints. We will also be building internal capability to ensure our people leaders and decision makers have the tools they need to fulfil their responsibilities in the complaints management process, and, where appropriate, can better manage issues as they emerge and before they become complaints.

More information about the decision and the new operating model is available on our Changing how we manage complaints page.

Download the decision document  [PDF, 476 KB]

Thank you to everyone who participated in the consultation and engagement processes to help us get to this point. Your input and insights have made an important contribution to the outcome.

Current cases

We are committed to ensuring that work to resolve current active cases will continue uninterrupted.

If you are currently going through a process with the Behaviour and Conduct Office, things will continue without interruption. You will receive plenty of notice and support if things change before your complaint is resolved.

About our name:

Eke Taumata is the abbreviated version of 'Kia eke ki ngā taumata' – to aspire to greater level. 'Taumata' refers to a pinnacle or higher level. Other interpretations refer to taumata as being the top of a hill, an improved desired state or vision. In our context we can describe our own taumata or the desired state for our workplace. 'Eke' is a verb that in our context means to climb or embark upon. Together the two words describe our active journey to our desired improved state.