Stewart Barbara: Urgent Debates — Department of Child Youth and Family Services—Report  
Stewart Barbara: Urgent Debates — Department of Child Youth and Family Services—Report  
[Volume:613;Page:9943] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 The review of the deaths of Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson is yet another devastating commentary on the ineptitude of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services. This is a further example of systemic failure where policy and guidelines were not followed and it must bring some response from the Government to recognise that the current model of Child Youth and Family Services is flawed and that much more can be done to ensure that education police and health and welfare agencies work together far more collaboratively than in the past. The price of failure is the loss of young lives as we have seen with these two young girls. It is totally unacceptable. 
Within New Zealand First we have deep concerns about the working of this particular Government department. It does need higher procedural compliance standards. I notice that the Minister said that the Government has had only 4 years in which to sort out this department. I remind the Minister that he has had far more than 4 years—in fact he has had 13 years: 9 years in Opposition and 4 years in Government. And still this department has not delivered on some of the things that it should have. We have seen many many reports—the report today is not the first—and they are damning. The issues remain the same. Many children are paying with their lives. The names that we see continually roll on. I wonder how many more lives will be lost before we have some action. It is not that I blame the social workers totally or the Government in entirety but this department does need to take stock. 
One of the things that concerns me and it became evident in question time today is that there are policies and procedures in place in the department but they are not followed. What is the point of having policies and procedures if they are not followed? Do the social workers know what is contained within their policies and procedures? Do the social workers and the team in the department need to have some revision on those policies? Time and time again in the reports we see lots of recommendations but what is the point of the recommendations and of spending time on the reports if there is no accountability and if the recommendations are not followed? Today in question time we heard that within the department the Minister has implemented a team-based approach with the police the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. But guess what? The procedure is not followed. 
How many more times will we see events like this? We know for a fact that the caseloads within the department are extremely high and that the number of social workers is lower than perhaps it should be. We know that last week an advertisement was put in all the major newspapers to ensure that social workers of a high quality will be brought into the department. What appears to be happening is that there are a lot of children but an insufficient number of experienced social workers. What happens? Children appear to be slipping through the cracks. It is not good enough. 
We have waited for this report for a long long time. Now we have some more disturbing information. I remember asking at the last financial review about this particular report and was told it would be coming within the next couple of weeks. But did it? No it did not. It is months and months late. The advertising for social workers is continual. We do not want a service such as this to be under-resourced but it always appears to be lagging behind the action. We need to have a far better situation in Child Youth and Family Services than the one we have. The families of New Zealand deserve a far better service. If we asked people today whether they had any confidence in this department unfortunately the answer would be a resounding no. That is not something that we as politicians want to hear. 
It is imperative that this department is able to perform its statutory functions well but time and time again we hear that it is falling over and not following its procedures. What is more there does not appear to be any accountability. When are the procedures going to be followed so that the people of New Zealand can have some confidence in this department? From the various reports we have seen—and I am sure that everyone else will be looking for them too—many many changes have been advised. We need to hope that they are implemented in a far better way than in the past. We will monitor them very carefully in our Social Services Committee and the individual political parties will also do that. The reports indicate ways to go forward and monitoring closely is one of those ways forward. 
I would like to state that New Zealand First believes that child protection should be a priority for the Government but the Government seems to have been diverted by its pursuit of the politically correct. Privacy issues need to be put aside and the safety of at-risk children put first. It is the birthright of our New Zealand children to have a safe environment to grow up in. These children are our future and they must be safeguarded against violent behaviour. It is time that the Government got tough on crimes towards children and the only way to do that is to ensure that the Department of Child Youth and Family Services works in the way it is supposed to and in conjunction with all other social agencies. The procedures are obviously in place but the implementation of those procedures is not as it should be. 
The way forward is clearly mapped out by the various reports. We need to follow that way forward. The price of failure is far too high for the children of New Zealand and for New Zealanders. We need to be confident about this Government department. We often see editorials in the papers decrying what is happening with our children in New Zealand. It is time too that the fence at the top of the cliff was replaced by a requirement for more parental responsibility. Extra funding for the Department of Child Youth and Family Services ambulance at the bottom of the cliff will cure nothing.