Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 26 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3276. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
5. 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development 
: Have Police CYFS medical and referee checks been carried out for all current placements by CYFS under referral by the Youth Court; if not why not? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development) 
: 
 To clarify with reference to this question which is quite detailed and quite complicated the Youth Court’s role is not to refer young people into placements. The Youth Court is a specialised criminal court. Aside from the most serious offences where the Youth Court might place a young person into Child Youth and Family custody—generally a placement in a residence—the custody of the young person remains with their parents or caregivers. As a result of offending a family group conference may come up with a plan for the young person. This may include whom they live with. This is not a Child Youth and Family placement. However under a recent policy change criminal checks are now done after a youth justice family group conference. 
Metiria Turei 
: Can the Minister assure the public that the full suite of checks are now mandatory for all referrals that come from family group conferences through the Youth Court given that her deputy chief executive said on Sunday that staff were expected to do police checks only if there were concerns with the placement? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I am told that because of the policy change that went through earlier this year mandatory checks are now being done on all family group conference placements for youth justice and not just police checks but also Child Youth and Family checks and follow-ups. It is part of our strengthening that process and taking a higher level of responsibility I think for the outcomes of those family group conferences. 
Metiria Turei 
: Will the Minister commit to undertaking full police checks for all current placements via family group conferences where those police checks have not been done? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I would have to seek advice on that as to what kind of resource that would need and how that would look going backwards. As I say it has been happening since the policy changed this year but I would have to take advice on what the capability and the capacity are to do that. 
Metiria Turei 
: What is the Minister doing to identify young people who have experienced abuse as a result of this gap in the policy? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: What we have done is greatly increase our monitoring. I would say that particularly with the youth justice side it has not perhaps been as tight as we would like it to be or as consistent so we have now gone back and we are making sure that that monitoring into homes is a lot tighter. What we have also done is really increase our resource both financially and in people resource into historical claims. For example since 2008 this Government has actually settled 272 claims. Prior to that only 54 had been done. So I do say to anyone who thinks they might have historical cases of abuse against them to bring them to the State. We want to hear their story. We want to do everything we can to settle that to help them move on in their lives. 
Metiria Turei 
: Is the Minister confirming that compensation is available to young people to help mitigate the long-term effects of abuse that they may have suffered while in State care? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Yes and we put more money aside for historical claims of abuse in the previous Budget as well. I cannot remember what that number is but it was a significant amount of money put in for historical claims. 
Metiria Turei 
: Will the Minister now ask Child Youth and Family to fully evaluate the effectiveness of its mandatory checking processes both for the custody cases and for Youth Court family group conference referrals? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Constantly. I must admit that I asked the officials before I came down whether I could give an assured guarantee that everybody is. They have told me that the policy is being changed. It is the expectation and there are checks that are done through the system to make sure that it is being done at 3-monthly intervals as it is done anyway. 
Metiria Turei 
: What guarantee can the Minister give to New Zealanders to assure them that children in Child Youth and Family placements or those processed through Child Youth and Family will not suffer abuse and neglect at the hands of those whom Child Youth and Family place them with? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: On the case that has been brought up in the last couple of days I do have to make a clarification that the young person was not placed by Child Youth and Family. It was very much a family group conference. That young person was not under the care of Child Youth and Family. However—rightly so I think—Child Youth and Family has stood up and said that the abuse of this young person by their uncle was absolutely horrific and that systems could be changed and it has done that. But actually there were nine people in that family group conference. She herself said on TV that there were family members who knew the man was a convicted rapist and did not speak up and as such kept those kinds of checks and balances from being done. So I would say that yes Child Youth and Family most certainly has a role to play but so do extended whanau and the community themselves.