Rich Katherine: Social Workers Registration Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Rich Katherine: Social Workers Registration Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4877] 
KATHERINE RICH (NZ National) 
: 
 The National Party gladly votes for the third reading. We think the bill is an important step forward for the social work profession as a whole. However it is important to inject a bit of reality into the discussion about what this bill will be able to achieve once it is enacted. 
We agree with a lot of the comments that the Minister has made. Social workers should work towards the aim of delivering a better quality service increasing the discipline within the profession and increasing the protection of those people who use the service as well as themselves. If members look at all those objectives they will see that the bill in its present form will not be able to enhance the quality of the profession. Certainly it will not make a difference to the discipline of the profession or increase protection because this bill states that registration is voluntary. Anybody who does not want to take part and be registered does not have to. I suspect that some of the less professional social workers—some of those more likely not to follow best practice regimes—are less likely to register. I do not think the cowboys of the social work world will go through the process and register. They will just continue to call themselves social workers and basically not change their practice considerably. 
Yes the Social Services Committee did a good job with this bill and I commend the previous chair Taito Phillip Field. In terms of our side of things we did our job in a timely fashion and we listened to a wide range of groups interested in the social work sector. However I have to say that out of all the advice those groups gave us and the recommendations they made this bill took most of their aims and objectives and basically gutted what they were trying to achieve. They asked for the majority of social workers to be required to register. On the first reading of this bill it was thought that at least State social workers would be asked to register. That sadly is not the case. It is the role of Government to be a leader in the social work sector. With nearly 1000 out of the 10000 social workers being employed by the Government or working within some kind of Government agency it is important the Government works to ensure it is putting the best foot forward for the profession. 
At one stage the Government was going to put expectations for registration in place. It had even done the work and taken the recommendations through Cabinet but some 3 months later the objective to include Child Youth and Family Services and other social workers from Government agencies was rescinded. That was a real shame. It is a shame the Government did not do its homework to try to find out whether it was realistic prior to putting that in place. Somebody within the ministry did not tell the Minister that the recommendation had gone through Cabinet and been rescinded because even a few months later he was happily telling the House that he was pleased that the bill would specifically require all social workers carrying out statutory functions to be registered. A certification model was supported by two-thirds of those who participated in the consultation process; that is true. Perhaps it may even understate the support for that particular requirement when it came through the Social Services Committee. So it is a shame. 
The pace of this bill has been unreasonably slow. It was supposedly a priority-3 piece of legislation. The aim was to get this bill through by the end of 2001 and here we are years later just ending the third reading now. However I am glad that at least there is a framework. It is really important that the sector has a framework to enable it to start looking at what the important issues are—that is the quality of the sector issues to do with training and getting the board under way. We will watch with interest to see who the appointments on that board will be. We will want to know that there is a balance on it and that it will not be just a whole set of political appointments. I am disappointed that Child Youth and Family Services being such a significant part of the sector is not able to put someone on that board. It is a shame that that recommendation too was rescinded by the Government. Being such a large employer of social workers it would have been good to have someone on that board representing that sector. 
I suppose that ultimately what all of us in this House want to know is where the service will progress from here. As many members in this House will know we often hear some pretty sad stories from constituents particularly those dealing with Child Youth and Family Services probation and others areas of social work where things have not got as well as the public expects. Social workers work under immense pressure and I can see why many have decided to leave the country. Certainly when we look at their salaries coupled with the pressure they are under we can see that their job may not be as rewarding as some other jobs they could potentially spend their time doing. With notifications skyrocketing over the last couple of years it is important that we address the problems of shortages of social workers. 
Social workers are being asked to take much higher caseloads than they had to take previously when we were in Government. The caseloads have increased dramatically in an attempt to get the unallocated case lists down. Those lists are shameful. Certainly in Southland today where there are over 200 critical cases the Minister has to take a long hard look at the service. This is his fourth year of managing Child Youth and Family Services and there has been little change. Little progress has been made on unallocated case lists and still children wait while their files are sent to social workers. 
The Mick Brown report released at the time was excellent. It made a number of recommendations but the Government has paid lip service to putting them in place. Of the 57 recommendations made I understand that between 13 and 15 have been implemented. We will hold the Government to account and work with the social services sector to ensure that we can progress its objectives from here.