Ardern Jacinda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11854. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]9.JACINDA ARDERN (Labour)to theMinister for Social Development: Does she believe that Child Youth and Family have the resources they require to care for the needs of our most vulnerable children?Hon CHESTER BORROWS (Acting Minister for Social Development):I believe that Child Youth and Family has been well resourced. This Government has increased its funding by nearly 15 percent over the last 4 years. We now have more social workers—about 250 more social workers—working with a bigger budget and investigating more cases in a more timely way. With the response-based interventions there will always be times when resources are stretched but I believe we do have sufficient resources to care for the needs of vulnerable children.Jacinda Ardern: In light of that answer how does the Minister explain her response to estimate questions which shows that the longest wait for a Child Youth and Family notification classified as “critical”—because the child was severely abused or was in immediate danger of death or harm—was 5 days when they are meant to be assigned a caseworker within 24 hours?Hon CHESTER BORROWS: It is important to note that the time frames that are referred to in the estimates questions referred to when recordings were made in respect of allocations not in respect of the time action was taken or intervention was made.Jacinda Ardern: How does the Minister explain that the longest wait for Child Youth and Family notifications that are classified “very urgent”—because the child has been abused or neglected and there is a risk of further abuse or neglect—was 31 days before a social worker was even allocated the case when it is meant to happen within 48 hours?Hon CHESTER BORROWS: I can only repeat the answer given to the previous supplementary question. I do not have specifics around the 31-day matter that the member has raised. I am happy to check it and get back to that member.Jacinda Ardern: How also does the Minister explain the fact that the longest wait for Child Youth and Family notifications that are classified as “urgent”—because although the child is protected from harm in the short term there is an allegation of abuse neglect or serious concern—was 67 days when they should have been allocated a caseworker within just 7 days?Hon CHESTER BORROWS: Again the recording of interventions and who case managers are in respect of individual cases is not necessarily consistent with when the intervention was made or when that allocation was made. We can put it this way for the member. As previously said in answer to the primary question there are 15 percent more funded allocations towards Child Youth and Family interventions now than there were before. To just make an analogy in 2006 we had 1089 unallocated cases. In 2012 there were just 95. This is out of 150000 notifications to Child Youth and Family.Jacinda Ardern: Given these waiting times and the fact that since 2008 notifications to Child Youth and Family that require further action have increased by 50 percent or more than 20000 cases will the Minister commit to review the adequacy of baseline funding for Child Youth and Family as Labour did when it was in Government; if not why not?Hon CHESTER BORROWS: It is important to note that baseline funding is reviewed annually and this Government is responding in a very positive and popular way to the care of vulnerable children. A whole new strategy has been designed and is being rolled out currently and we are returning better results than have ever been returned before from Child Youth and Family—certainly far better as illustrated in my previous answer to a supplementary question than that lot over there did.