Dyson Ruth: Children Young Persons and Their Families  Amendment Bill (No 6) — First Reading 
Dyson Ruth: Children Young Persons and Their Families  Amendment Bill (No 6) — First Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14584] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I move  
That the Children Young Persons and Their Families Amendment Bill (No 6) be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the Children Young Persons and Their Families Amendment Bill (No 6) be considered by the Social Services Committee. 
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 to give better effect to the Act’s objectives and principles. It will update the Act in line with best practice today and strengthen the application of its principles in the family decision-making model that underpins it. When the Act was passed in 1989 it was recognised as world-leading legislation. It has positively impacted on the lives of thousands of children young people and their families. It has empowered families in the formal process of resolving issues of child abuse and neglect and of youth offending. 
Our Government is committed to improving child welfare and reducing offending by children and young people. It is now 18 years since the principal Act was passed and we owe it to New Zealanders to ensure it continues to provide the most effective legal framework for safeguarding our vulnerable children and young people and promoting their well-being and that of their families whanau and family groups. In those 18 years there has been rapid practice development. Many countries have adopted key elements of New Zealand’s legislation. 
The Act pre-dates significant developments such as the Victims’ Rights Act 2002 the Sentencing Act 2002 the Care of Children Act 2004 and New Zealand’s obligations under international conventions. In April the Ministry of Social Development released a discussion document for consultation. It outlined ideas and suggestions from stakeholders for updating the Act. As part of the robust consultation process 98 submissions from key stakeholders practitioners and academics from across the care and protection disability and youth justice sectors were received. 
One of the key messages from those submissions and the various workshops and discussions held since was that our Act is fundamentally sound. Many expressed support for the overall intention and framework provided by the Act and there was no feedback that opposed the general framework. Practitioners were passionate about improving and strengthening the legislation. A significant number of proposals to update and improve it have resulted from that consultation and further policy development. 
Madam Assistant Speaker it is a pleasure to be the first member of Parliament to be given the call by you in your new role and I congratulate you on that. 
These proposals together amount to the most substantial and far-reaching improvements in child welfare law since 1989. To realise the benefit of all the changes in a timely manner and because they cover both discreet policy changes and significant redrafting I am proposing to amend the Act in two distinct phases. 
This bill represents the first phase of the suite of amendments required for updating. It contains the important additions and discreet policy changes that can and should occur at the earliest opportunity. It includes important changes to the general application of the Act and the care and protection child offending and youth justice provisions. Phase-two amendments will include redrafting and other procedural amendments so that the Act is expressed in plain language wherever possible and any unnecessary complexity is removed. Those changes require some time to draft and do not form part of this bill. 
So the changes that impact across the principal Act are firstly to increase the upper age in the definition of a young person to include 17-year-olds. This change will have considerable operational impact and the bill proposes that the upper age for care and protection and youth justice provisions can be brought into effect at different times. In youth justice this will ensure that we can tailor responses to offending by 17-year-olds and involve their families in addressing their behaviour. 
Research indicates that our youth justice system is better than the adult criminal justice system at stopping reoffending. The change of course also means that the Act will be consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which New Zealand ratified in 1993. The second point is that the bill will make clear when Government and non-Government organisations can appropriately share information about the safety welfare and well-being of children and young people and it will strengthen the participation of children and young people in all processes especially in family group conferences planning processes court proceedings and reviews. 
Thirdly the bill requires the chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development to prepare and implement policies and procedures to promptly and appropriately address and resolve individual complaints by children young people and their families. Fourthly it ensures that the chief executive prepares and implements procedures for reviews of professional best practice. This amendment will support Child Youth and Family to rapidly and accurately identify areas for practice development or improvement. Fifthly it ensures that at all times an employee is appointed or designated as the chief social worker and it sets the functions of the chief social worker which will include providing professional leadership and conducting practice reviews. 
These changes are consistent with contemporary international improvements to child welfare legislation and with our Government’s desire to support professional practice and increase accountability and transparency in our child welfare system. Within the care and protection provisions the bill proposes to reinforce the important role of service collaboration and information sharing and to protect people who assist with inquiries about children under the care and protection provisions. It will also improve responsiveness to the needs of children and young people when concerns are reported. That includes the ability to undertake an assessment of child and family needs rather than a statutory investigation. This change enables children and families to access the support they need in a timely and appropriate fashion. It will ensure family group conferences are timely and well informed to achieve the best outcomes. 
The bill will improve support for young people leaving the care of the State as they move towards independence. It also contains changes to the provisions for the care of disabled children and young people. The amendments will ensure that other options are properly explored before agreements for long-term out-of-family care of disabled children and young people can be entered into. Where agreements for out-of-home care are required the changes will ensure more regular family group conference review and monitoring of placements. These amendments will align the disability provisions better with the principles of the Act. 
The Government believes that the provisions relating to child offending in the Act can be difficult to understand and overly complex. The proposed amendments simplify the process and the documentation required in responding to child offending. They provide greater commitment to the interests of victims and communities affected by child offending as well as asserting the importance of ensuring that offending behaviours are addressed. 
With regard to serious or persistent offending by children we need to ensure that measures are effective to reduce further offending. The bill proposes to improve the child-offending provisions by consolidating and simplifying them. It clarifies the applicable principles and options available for holding offenders accountable. It increases the flexibility of the Family Court in making custody orders and reviewing plans; it addresses the role of adults in child offending; and it strengthens victim provisions. 
The bill enhances Youth Court options by introducing two new Youth Court orders—an extended supervision with residence order and an extended supervision with activity order. These orders will support more intense programme involvement for serious and persistent offenders. It also reinforces our Government’s anti-tagging strategy. The bill enables the Youth Court to make orders when discharging proceedings against a young person and will subject the remission of supervision with residence orders to further conditions relating to the young person’s behaviour and adherence to his or her plan. It strengthens the role of victims in the youth justice process. 
These changes provide an important balance of accountability safety and assistance. They will help to better address and prevent offending and so achieve more effective outcomes for the young people involved their families and of course their victims. This Act determines how the State intervenes to stop child abuse and neglect and to prevent and address child offending. It also demonstrates how our society cares for and supports vulnerable children and young people. 
This bill ensures that we continue to provide an up-to-date and effective legislative framework for improving our response to victims and the well-being of children young people and their families. I commend the Children Young Persons and Their Families Amendment Bill (No 6) to the House. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: I call the honourable member—sorry I forget—Anne Tolley.