Turner Judy: Financial Review Debate — Procedure In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Turner Judy: Financial Review Debate — Procedure In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11870] 
JUDY TURNER (United Future) 
: 
 The Government’s willingness to get it right when it comes to the Department of Child Youth and Family Services is certainly reflected in the additional amount of funding given to this essential service. However with the number of notifications increasing at a rate of 15 percent per year with the recent 40 percent increase in what seems like a community response to the Coral Burrows case and with the very concerning findings of the baseline review United Future believes that more needs to happen than merely funding. 
The preventive side of work is as much a statutory requirement as the child protection work yet if the department’s social workers are drowning in the high number of notifications and are tied up responding to the most critical cases this fence at the top of the cliff continues to fall into disrepair. The baseline review puts the priority function of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services as preventing recurrence of abuse but when 99 percent of the 4595 unallocated cases as at 31 January this year are at the bottom two criticality levels it is clear that the department’s function of preventing first occurrence of abuse is just not happening in a timely way. 
As volume takes precedence over quality cases rated as low urgency wait and situations deteriorate re-notifications occur and the rating goes up. Meanwhile non-governmental organisations including voluntary agencies that are well equipped to respond with the necessary help and interventions are powerless to do so. The public perception of the department deteriorates to the point that in some areas agencies like schools mental health specialists and general practitioners are reluctant or unwilling to make notifications because they no longer trust the department to act in a timely or appropriate manner. This poor public perception is very discouraging for everyone who works for or relies on the department in some way and it is making it harder to recruit and retain experienced staff. 
For every Coral Burrows or James Whakaruru there are dozens of children who are waiting for their cases to be reviewed so that they can be returned to the safe care of their families. Parents who have complied to the letter with every demand the department has made to facilitate the return of their children are yet left waiting literally for years for someone to have enough time on his or her schedule to review their case. In the middle of this crisis are a band of largely competent social workers who are frustrated by the workload and by the fact that they are dealing with serious cases that are second and third notifications that could and should have been addressed in the first instance. 
The pressure that has placed on workers has seen a 15.8 percent turnover in staff. In fact on six sites staff turnover has been as high as 25 percent. These figures must also thwart the Government’s intention to have a fully registered social-work staff in the next 5 to 6 years. United Future agrees that more social workers are needed but the fear we have is that all that will happen is that the urgent will be better managed and families needing minimal but essential help will have to wait until they become critical before getting attention. 
We are also concerned about the potential reduction in non-departmental output class funding as the department reviews which contracts with community agencies doing preventive work will be renewed. If preventive work gets cut down is that not simply the department shooting itself in the foot? More and more demand for services will result. 
The problem is not particular to New Zealand. Other countries are struggling with resourcing the agencies that deal with a large number of families where there are multiple notifications. United Future believes that much can be learnt from the very good work that overseas concerns are considering and that we need to be always mindful of international examples if we want to be solutions-focused in this very important area. 
We are concerned that the current culture of the department being responsible for parents’ failings needs to change. If New Zealand is to be the best place in the world to raise a family we need to tidy up our work with families at risk because we seem to be very hesitant at this stage to make that claim.