Background

The National Kaitiaki Group (NKG) was established under and operates within the Health (Cervical Screening (Kaitiaki)) Regulations 1995.  The group is accountable to the Minister of Health.

What are the group's functions?

The National Kaitiaki Group's task is to consider applications for the release of Māori women's aggregate data from the National Cervical Screening Programme-Register (NCSP-Register).

The criteria used to approve applications are:

• the principle of the sanctity of Te Whare Tangata
• the need for culturally-appropriate protection for the taonga of protected information
• the need to ensure that protected information is used for the benefit of Māori women.

How many meetings are there?

The group considers applications four times a year, usually in February, May, August and November.  The dates for the next NKG quarterly meetings are as follows:

19 August 2008

18 November 2008

Process for submitting applications

Applications for data are required at least two weeks prior to a meeting.  Where important matters require consideration outside this schedule, ad-hoc meetings or teleconferences may be held with the prior approval from the NKG.

Please send all applications to the NKG's secretariat.  The NKG secretariat's contact details are:

NKG Secretariat
Maori Health Directorate
Ministry of Health
PO Box 5013
Wellington

The timeframe for data release is approximately six to eight weeks (depending on the complexity of the request) following notification of the NCSP-Register staff of approved data releases.  Very complex applications may also incur a cost which will be made clear to applicants prior to extraction of the approved data.

Types of data

The following information may be easily extracted from the NCSP-Register:
1. The number of Maori women enrolled by:

• age
• domicile
• overdue status
• gone, no address
• no response to recall.

2. Number of smears taken and received by the NCSP-Register (a woman may have more than one smear test).

3. Maori women's smear history at enrolment:

• one to three years since last smear
• more than three years since last smear
• never smeared
• smear history not specified.

Confidentiality

In releasing approved data, the NKG will ensure that such releases protect the confidentiality of Maori women on the NCSP-Register.  Very small numbers that might identify individual women will be aggregated into bigger groupings.

Data release

Approved information will usually be released to applicants on hard copy (on paper).  However, it is possible for data to be released in an excel spreadsheet format.  Applicants requiring this form of response should provide a disk to NCSP-Register staff to assist this process.

How to apply

Please contact the NKG Secretariat on NKG@moh.govt.nz for an application form or for further information