Ardern Jacinda: Urgent Debates — Office of the Children’s Commissioner—State of Care 2015ReportText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: Urgent Debates — Office of the Children’s Commissioner—State of Care 2015Report[Sitting date: 27 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6257. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACINDA ARDERN (Labour)on behalf of Carmel Sepuloni (Labour—Kelston): I move That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance. The report that we have before us today is an absolute indictment and it is only right that this House give its time and consideration to what can only be considered some of the most important issues that we have a responsibility to address as members of this Parliament. There is no statement in this report that captures the seriousness of the issues more than the statement by the Children’s Commissioner that “We don’t know if children are better off as a result of State intervention but the indications are not good.” To hear from the representative and advocate of children in this country that we cannot even guarantee that a child who is potentially being abused and neglected and who is subject to an intervention by the State will be better off necessarily as a result of that intervention—what an absolute indictment it is on this country that we are in this situation.The commissioner lists a range of areas specifically where we are failing our most vulnerable and they are our most vulnerable. More than 50 percent of these children are under the age of 10 and 5000 of them are the care and responsibility of this State. The State is their parent. The State has become the only stable thing which the Government has determined needs to take over so that the safety and security of those children can be assured. Yet what is happening to those children after that intervention? We have the case of one child who had up to 60 different placements. What message do you send to a child who has experienced abuse and neglect at the hands of their own family or caregivers if you then shuffle them around into up to 60 different placements? We have got records of caseworkers constantly changing and of a lack of stability care and support for those children—a lack of support when transitioning not only between care but also out of care. Let us remember that “out of care” in this country means to be 17 years of age. This is one of the youngest ages in the developed worldat which to exit care. And even then we are not supporting those young people. There is the horrific number of more than 100 children who are experiencing further abuse and neglect even once they are removed. What long-term hope do they have when only 20 percent of those children are then reaching National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 or higher. All of this paints a damning picture not only for the State but also for the children who are experiencing this.It is true to say that we have had issues arise before in an area such as this where you have wickedly complex problems. Labour members had to deal with this when they came to office in 1999 and what did they do? Straight away we recognised the under-funding and under-resourcing of the department. We increased the baseline funding for that department by more than 50 percent. I will say that again: when Labour last took office we increased support for baseline funding for Child Youth and Family Services by more than 50 percent. But even then as the years went on we recognised that we needed to do more particularly with the workforce. We undertook a baseline review. That piece of work was completed by the Hon Ruth Dyson. And before that we also made sure that we started the registering of social workers and now we say that it is time that that becomes mandatory. We improved relationships with the community sector and our 10-month baseline review resulted in $111 million in operational spending going into Child Youth and Family Services. Why? Because it did not have the resources that it needed in order to do its job.When that happens you have got to have the courage to stand up and acknowledge that you are in Government and that is what we are calling on this Government to do. As much as the Minister for Social Development stands up and says “We can’t just throw money at the problem.” well Minister the last time that we looked at whether this department was sufficiently resourced was 13 years ago. The last time that a baseline review was done of Child Youth and Family was 13 years ago and a lot has changed since then. Reviewing these issues again is not “chucking money at an issue”; it is good practice to check whether your social workers have the support that they need to do the work that they are doing.What has changed? We do not have a static picture when it comes to vulnerable children in New Zealand. Let us just look at the numbers. During the year to 30 June 2014 Child Youth and Family received 146657 notifications of possible abuse or neglect—146657. That is enormous. That is 17 percent higher than just 5 years ago—80000 notifications were made back then. That is just a massive increase in a short space of time. The Minister will claim that not all of those notifications are substantiated that we might have false reporting and that it is just a case of more people knowing about the vulnerability of children. Some of that will be true in part but not all of it. In fact we know that roughly a third of those notifications are coming from police who know that those children are witnessing domestic violence and we know the impact that that is having on those children.We also know from the police that a lot of those notifications are in fact substantiated. In fact the recorded number of cases where children have been abused has gone up to 5397 offences. That figure is 56 percent higher than it was in 2009. So in that short space of time the workload on Child Youth and Family and the increase in harm against children has absolutely been documented. And what has happened to staff? What have we done to make sure that they are able to cope with those dramatic jumps? How many more social workers would you expect to be dealing with 66000 more notificationsin 5 years? How many more staff? Well in that short space of time there have been 76 new fieldworkers—76 new fieldworkers. Crudely that is 877 cases per new social worker. That is phenomenal. There is no way anyone in this House can claim that that is sufficient to deal with the extra demand that this department is dealing with.Yes some issues in Child Youth and Family have cut across Governments—absolutely; there is no denying it. But there is no denying that right now in the period of time that this Minister in this Government has had responsibility for the changes to Child Youth and Family have been enormous. The Children’s Commissioner put it like this: “The ability of CYF’s current workforce to improve the outcomes experienced by children in the care system is constrained in various ways: limited resources high caseloads … and the need to invest in training …”. The Minister cannot put her head in the sand. She must support her department as part of answering these issues. I wonder whether the Ministercould in fact respond even to the body who represents social workers when they said and I quote from the Public Service Association: “The Government must address these issues of underfunding and capability otherwise there will be no improvement for those most in need.”I do not want to hear a contribution from the Minister that says that chucking money at this problem is not the answer. No one has said to chuck money at anything. We said: “Invest in the people that you have charge of. Make sure that they are equipped to do the job.” It is a hard job and at the moment all of the indications are that the cracks are showing in what they are having to deal with. No one knows this better than the Children’s Commissioner. Even he has had static funding so much so that he has closed his Auckland office. He cannot do an annual visit to all of the residences that he is meant to monitor—that has moved to every 18 months. He is struggling under the weight of an under-investment in this sector. He will not say it so we will say it on his behalf.The one area that the Children’s Commissioner has said that Child Youth and Family is doing a good job at focusing on is that first intervention—the moment when it is first told that there is a potential issue with the safety of a child. In fact this is how he states it: “Our analysis is that Child Youth and Family is very focused on keeping children safe and managing the intake and assessment processes at entry to the system.” I will say that again—at entry to the system. He said: “They’ve lost sight of what children need while in care and what they need to receive to ensure they thrive once they’ve left. That concerns me.” That beginning is incredibly important. It is the triage phase. It is the point where we make sure that a child is not in immediate danger. Interestingly it is also where the political risk exists. As Social Service Providers Aotearoa stated in its response to the report: “CYF’s staff are extraordinarily challenged by the dual expectations of managing both political risk and the risk of abuse to children.”Very few social workers ever speak out of turn—they are very professional. But I will never forget when I had a Child Youth and Family social worker who retired and came to see me and said that they are required to keep a political risk register—not a register of harm to children not a register of risk to family; a political risk register. We all have to take responsibility when a department starts focusing on politics instead of focusing on children. That is an absolute indictment and it is part of the problem. It is part of what must change if we are to focus on outcomes for kids.What have we lost sight of? The Children’s Commissioner put it clearly: transition into placements support for caregivers and focus on residential care. I want to touch on residential care. The Minister knows that she has had problems with residential care—that is Children Youth and Family residences including youth justice residences run by the department. How do I know that? I have Official Information Act information to prove it. I have never used these statistics in the House or anywhere in fact but there is a youth justice facility in Christchurch that the Minister has been briefed on almost continually for a couple of years. And why? Because based on the Official Information Act information that I received that facility had more than 600 dangerous incidentsbetween July 2014 and April this year.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: How many?JACINDA ARDERN: I will say that again. Between July 2014 and April this year a Christchurch-run Child Youth and Family facility had more than 600 recorded serious incidents including serious assaults drug use and self-harm. The police have been called to the centre numerous times and in the past 2 years as the Children’s Commissioner pointed out as part of the problem it has had 16 temporary staff and five different residential managers. I have briefings that show that the Government knew about the problems at this residence and indeed it knows about the problems within Child Youth and Familymore broadly. What have we had from that Government in response to these kinds of issues? We have had a white paper we have had a green paper and we have got a Children’s Action Plan. The Minister places a lot of weight on children’s teams for instance. Apparently they are going to help 20000 kids. Where is that resource going to come from? I will tell you where—from Family Start. The Minister is reprioritising resources that are already in the field of early intervention and is shifting them to her new action plan.That whole exercise had the goodwill of the community sector behind it but it did not address the core issues. What we should be looking at is putting children at the heart of all of the decisions that we make around them. We should be focusing on early intervention. This means that Ministers and the Government will have to look at deprivation poverty and inequality in our communities. That is at the heart of many of these issues that we are dealing with. It needs to join interventions in the home and continuity of careback together because they have been separated. It needs to focus on ensuring that its department is resourced properly trained properly and supported properly. It needs to guarantee that it will not privatise the bits of the system that it is scared are falling over and causing accountability issues for it. We have all heard rumours about Serco sniffing around youth justice facilities. We need the Minister to rule out that that will be her answer and her way of getting this issue off her plate.What we also need to do is ensure that young people who are in care and protection right now—the kids who are in the facilities the kids who are in care and the kids who are in foster care—are used in order to come up with the answers. They should be part of this discussion. Not only did the Minister’s expert advisory panel not even include a social worker but also it did not include a young person who knows care and protection better than anyone and those are the kids who are in it.Labour will use those voices. Labour will use the voices of social workers. Labour will use the community sector that works in this space. Only collaboratively will we come up with solutions and that includes Māori and Pasifika as well. Yes some of these issues go beyond just the past 7 years but this report absolutely has to be taken on board by this Government and responsibility has to be taken by this Government right now to repair the damage that has been done to children’s lives. We should expect no less.