Integrated collaboration for whānau wellbeing
Better outcomes begin when people and systems work together.
Te Ako Manaaki is a practical framework for aligning relationships, services and systems around what matters most to people, whānau and communities.
A shared way of seeing the whole picture—and acting together.
Complex challenges rarely sit neatly within one service, profession or agency. Te Ako Manaaki helps partners build a shared understanding, coordinate action and remain focused on the person or whānau at the centre.
Developed through education and community practice in Aotearoa New Zealand, the framework can be adapted across sectors while retaining a clear set of principles.
The essential idea
Three things must happen together
Start with the person and whānau
Understand what is happening across their whole context—not only the presenting issue or one service mandate.
Build trusted relationships
Relationships create the safety, continuity and confidence needed for people and organisations to act together.
Align the wider system
Shared purpose, clearer roles, coordinated pathways and collective accountability reduce fragmentation.
The framework at a glance
Two lanes of action, three layers of wellbeing and one shared purpose
The framework connects systems-level coordination with relationship-based support, while recognising that safety and stability must be strengthened before higher-level change can be sustained.
How it works
A simple discipline for complex situations
Understand
Build a shared picture of strengths, needs, relationships, barriers and wider system conditions.
Align
Bring the right people together around clear priorities, roles, actions and accountability.
Learn and adapt
Review what is changing, strengthen what works and use operational learning to improve the wider system.
Applications
Designed to travel across sectors
Te Ako Manaaki retains consistent principles while being adapted to different communities, populations and operating environments.
“The question is not which organisation owns the problem. The question is what will create the best outcome for the person at the centre.”
Te Ako Manaaki collaborative practice principle
Evidence and impact
Learning from outcomes, experience and system change
Complex change cannot be understood through one measure alone. Te Ako Manaaki combines multiple forms of evidence to show what changes, for whom and under what conditions.
Explore evidence and impactWork with Te Ako Manaaki
Interested in applying the framework in your organisation or community?
We work with government, iwi, funders, organisations and practitioners to support implementation, evaluation and collaborative system development.
Te Ako Manaaki 