Auckland triplet Juno Mackay has had a tough 2024, dealing with deaths and serious illness among family and close friends.

She credits her Fruitvale School counsellor in New Lynn with helping her handle the pain and even look forward to going to school.

So when the 11-year-old and her sisters, Olive and Elba, found out their counsellor, Chloe Moore, wasn’t returning next year because of government funding cuts, they were shocked.

The Mackay triplets started a petition to try to keep their school counsellor after the service was lost due to Oranga Tamariki funding cuts. Photo / Supplied

“They were asking what they could do to help and if there’s someone we can approach who knows how government works,” said their dad, Stuart Mackay.

The girls have been busy since, writing letters to members of Parliament and government departments as well as the Herald.

They also donned high-vis vests and manned a table at the school’s Christmas markets where they collected more than 100 names on a petition to send to local and central government.

“Our counsellor is part of the Fruitvale School family, she gets us through hard times and keeps us in class,” the petition states.

The Mackay triplets wrote letters to MPs saying how much they had benefited from the counsellor at Fruitvale School in New Lynn. Photo / Supplied

Yet the girls have found themselves swimming against strong political currents.

The loss of Moore from their school was part of the funding cuts to more than 300 providers announced by Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children in June.

At the time, some organisations spoke out against the cuts and their potential impact on vulnerable children.

Others said Oranga Tamariki had ended their contracts with little-to-no notice and scant explanation.

The ministry said at the time the cuts would save $22 millionby re-prioritising funds away from underperforming, duplicated or under-utilisedprogrammes.

Oranga Tamariki continues to fund organisations to run a large range of programmes, including counsellors and social workers in schools; units for teen parents; support for foster parents; and family and sexual violence programmes.

The Mackay girls have been busy writing letters in support of their school counsellor. Photo / Supplied

The Mackay triplets’ counsellor was funded at Fruitvale School by Presbyterian Support Northern (PSN), which had about $1.5 million of its funding cut by Oranga Tamariki.

PSN said in September the cuts equated to the loss of 14 jobs affecting 800 clients.

A spokeswoman for Oranga Tamariki told the Herald PSN would still receive more than $10m from the ministry for other contracts in the next financial year.

She said the funding changes were allowing Oranga Tamariki to invest in its core responsibilities, including funding services for high-risk children and young people, and statutory services such as Care and Protection, Youth Justice, Transition Services, and family and sexual violence services.

Collecting petition names at the school Christmas market. Photo / Supplied

Fruitvale School principal Donal McLean said his school rated the work counsellor Moore had done so highly, it had decided to replace her by employing a counsellor next year itself.

“We value it enough, we’re just going to have to dig into other pots to try and cover that cost,” he said.

Dad Stuart Mackay said he’d heard one of the reasons for the funding cuts was to refocus on truancy. He believes his daughters would have missed many days of school without Moore.

“I seriously attribute ... Chloe’s work for keeping my kids in school probably one out of every 10 days,” he said.

“Our counsellor Chloe has helped me survive primary,” Juno said.

Mackay said the key was the fun and safe environment Moore created where students could open up to her, saying there was no stigma attached to getting counselling.

It wasn’t as if it was only five children going to Moore for her play therapy, rather it was a significant portion of the school’s students, he said.

That’s why his children started their petition and were continuing to speak out, Mackay said.

“It seems counterintuitive if you want to tackle truancy to be removing support services like these,” he said.