Fluoride independent inquiry 2022

The inquiry found:

• Fluoridation wasn’t a priority for Wellington Water 
• Drinking water has been safe but not optimally fluoridated
• Fluoridation was stopped to ensure the safety of the drinking water and operators, with no plan to turn it back on
• There were long-standing challenges to providing fluoridation safely
• There was good awareness of these issues within the organisation at operational levels, and attempts to address them, albeit slowly
• There were organisational issues to raising and addressing issues
• The Board didn’t have the technical expertise to realise that they needed to be asking questions about fluoride in relation to oral health 
• Escalation and communication of the decision to stop fluoridation took too long
• The complexity of the Wellington Water model makes service delivery challenging 
• The prospect of reform appears to be challenging for Wellington Water’s performance 

The inquiry has made five recommendations, which have been accepted by the Wellington Water Board:

1. Maintain a relentless focus on effective fluoridation in both the short and long term
2. Make sure the Board has the right collective experience and knowledge to govern effectively 
3. Provide greater clarity of roles, responsibilities, and processes for managing fluoridation issues within Wellington Water 
4. Improve the standard of asset management 
5. Continue to strengthen the regulatory function at Wellington Water 

We have implemented the recommendations from the inquiry. This work was completed by 1 October 2022 and in November 2022 the Board formally closed out the inquiry.

To implement the recommendations, we:

• built on the communications and increased transparency that was put in place throughout the inquiry to ensure we continue to give our Board, stakeholders and public the assurance that we’re doing our job effectively;
• developed and implemented a policy which ensures that the Chief Executive and the leadership team are advised of issues of significance so that events that were under inquiry do not occur again and we can address them speedily; 
• continue to improve our asset management systems, which may require us to seek additional funding from our councils in the longer term; and 
• continue to strengthen our regulatory and compliance function. We have also reviewed the focus of the role of risk and assurance in the organisation. This ensures we are providing our Board, stakeholders and the public with the right level of assurance that we are managing risks appropriately.

Our detailed implementation programme plan can be read here.