The grandfather of a four-year-old boy currently in Starship Hospital has criticised Oranga Tamariki for returning him to the Flaxmere home where he suffered severe injuries.
Dion Te Ahu says the boy had been in his grandmother's care in Auckland following a previous serious injury.
Te Ahu said Oranga Tamariki should never have returned him there to begin with.
"The bad things that have happened with the experience I've had with them have now led to my moko now being hurt again," he told Newsroom.
"When I heard what had happened, from a medical perspective, it was shattering."
He told the outlet Oranga Tamariki returned the boy to his immediate family less than six months after he'd been hospitalised for a prior injury.
"We've asked for reports or minutes for the meeting to advise us how that decision came, and that hasn't come to us yet."
Te Ahu said that last June the boy was injured in Flaxmere, and taken to Wellington Hospital. He was then sent to Auckland and placed in his grandmother's care.
But in December he was returned to his immediate family back in Flaxmere. Last month, he was injured again and taken to Starship Hospital where he remains.
No charges have been laid for the first incident - Te Ahu says Oranga Tamariki told him the investigation was closed but the police said otherwise.
The immediate family remains silent.
Oranga Tamariki said in a statement it was satisfied there was sufficient support from wider whānau and professionals for the boy to be returned to his immediate family.
