Dyson Ruth: Urgent Debates — Department of Child Youth and Family Services 
Dyson Ruth: Urgent Debates — Department of Child Youth and Family Services 
[Volume:613;Page:9640] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment (CYF)) 
: 
 It is a bit rich for that member to come into this House and say that the National Party has no responsibility for the situation in the Department of Child Youth and Family Services. In talking about neglect and abuse I tell the House that in October 1999 when the Labour-led Government took over responsibility for the Children Young Persons and Their Families Agency that organisation had been through seven restructurings and five changes of name. It was described by one of their outgoing chief executives Griff Page as the most demoralised organisation he had ever seen. So for that member to come into the House and say: “We care so much about children; it would never have happened in our days.” is frankly gobsmacking and beggars belief. It is just incomprehensible. 
National when in Government totally starved services for children and young persons of resources. Its funding in the 1990s completely failed to accommodate growing workloads. It underfunded the agency continually slashed over $30 million of its budget for the 1990 to 1993 term and then wondered why it was so dysfunctional in the way it delivered its services. In 1999 the agency became a stand-alone department—just prior to the change of Government. It was a rush job by Roger Sowry and his colleagues to create a stand-alone department with the community funding organisation and with less funding and infrastructural support than it had had in the past. We knew that the department was fragile at that time but until we became the Government we did not know that not only had National underfunded thrown two departments together with less money and said: “Hope you make it buddies; we are out of here.”—which is what it did—it also had a significant amount of child youth and family funding as time-limited funding. 
What did Roger Sowry as Minister think would happen to the needs of children young people and their families in New Zealand? Did he think they would all magically disappear and there would be no future needs? Why was there time-limited funding for a department that had a statutory responsibility for the care and protection of our young people and families? What has Roger Sowry got to say to this House in response to that question? Absolutely nothing! There is no response at all from the former Minister who should come to this House and explain why he did that to a department with the statutory responsibility that in my view is more important than any other—that is the care and protection of our children. 
We were left with an organisation that was underfunded that did not have the infrastructural support or management systems it needed and that had been operating for only a few months. That is why significantly more resourcing was put into that department. It got the money that our Government considered was needed to do the job that we as Government and the public expected it to be able to do. In Budget after Budget the department has had significant amounts of more money. In fact it had the most significant increase in funding it had ever received in the entire history of that department—whether as an agency or an entity within the Department of Social Welfare—but it kept having to come back for more. 
When Steve Maharey was Minister he asked Judge Mick Brown to undertake a review of the care and protection system which is a critical part of the work. It is very appropriate that that review was called for and then the recommendations were put into place. That made a significant difference in the way the department was able to operate in the most critical area of care and protection. 
For example Mick Brown’s recommendations improved the relationship with the community’s social services sector. The department does not perform the functions it is required to on its own. It is vital that it has a strong relationship with the community’s social services sector and that improved immeasurably because of the actions taken as a result of the Mick Brown report. That report stressed how important it was to improve the front-line capacity of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services. That information informed bids to fund record increases in front-line numbers—record increases in the number of people actually doing the work within the department—and to ensure that quality social workers were both recruited and then retained. 
The unallocated case numbers were a focus of that report were a focus of the previous Minister and were significantly reduced. I retain my commitment to that ongoing work. Children received faster service and community liaison social workers were funded thus improving the network with foster carers and others who work in our communities to support the care and protection of our children. 
In anyone’s language and informed view of the department the quality of its work significantly improved in the time from when the Labour-led Government took over at the end of 1999 to now when those recommendations from the Mick Brown report have been put into place. Social worker numbers were increased to their highest level ever and social workers received a pay increase as part of a major recruitment and retention package. They finally got an entirely new computer system based on casework needs and realities rather than the antiquated rubbish that had been passed on to them by Roger Sowry and the National Government of the time. 
That Government had expected social workers with increasing caseloads to operate with reduced numbers of workers no infrastructural support fewer resources than they had ever had and not even a computer system that responded by looking at their casework needs. That was what the party opposite when it was in Government expected of that department. The baseline reviews and events since have made some obvious recommendations. That is where we as members of a responsible party have to look. 
The Department of Child Youth and Family Services has acted on the themes from Mick Brown’s report such as the fact that the department has to work with communities and not be apart from them. Initiatives like the Stronger Community Action Funds in everyday communities have enabled the department and communities to work together to build stronger families where children are kept safe. That is a critical message that this House and the public of New Zealand need to hear. The best place for children to be kept safe is with their families. In order to ensure that that can happen we have to work constructively together to build strong families who can give our children safe lives. 
The department’s chief executive who announced her resignation from that position yesterday has led a number of those significant improvements particularly that of relationship-building with the sector. More funding was provided for programmes like Social Workers in Schools which has been a resounding success around the country. The call for so long has been that teachers are able to observe children in a way that very few others of us have the opportunity to do. They understand when children are unhappy distressed angry or not functioning to the best of their abilities and they know when something is wrong with either the children or their relationships with their families. But teachers are not trained nor do they have time to make the interventions that are necessary in order to help those children. The Social Workers in Schools programme has filled that gap—a gap that was known but ignored for over 9 years by the National-led Government but that this Government moved very rapidly to address. 
That is why I am very happy to look at the investment and achievement of the department in the last 4 years under a Labour-led Government compared with 9 years of literal abuse and neglect under that Opposition party when it was in Government. The baseline review was called for and agreed to by Steve Maharey when he was Minister and supported by Michael Cullen as Minister of Finance because it was clear that the department had had 3 years to settle as a stand-alone department that it had had time to get itself organised and that anything we discovered from the review would not be mistaken for teething problems which are inevitable in a new organisation. So after 2 full financial years and at the start of the third year they said that it was the right time to have a baseline first-principles review. 
Are we confident that the department understands its functions and responsibilities and does it have the structure and resources to be able to deliver those responsibilities in a way that is satisfactory to this Government? The response from that baseline review team whom I want to commend for the highly professional collaborative and supportive way that they worked made it clear to us that urgent action needed to be taken and that is exactly what we took. I also commend the way my colleagues Michael Cullen Steve Maharey and Trevor Mallard have worked with me in a collaborative and supportive way because we all agree that the work of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services is too important for us to underfund and treat with the same neglect as has been the case under the previous administration. 
So we took the decision not only to have the baseline review but also to give it the consideration that it needed and then to act on its recommendations. The department has enjoyed the collaboration of the other three ministries—the State Services Commission Treasury and the Ministry of Social Development. Frankly I find it offensive to have the sort of criticism aimed at that review team as has been made by the current spokesperson on social welfare for the National Party Katherine Rich. It is totally unfair to undermine in the way she did the quality and the huge amount of energy and effort that went into the review. 
The Opposition should think about the comments that Mick Brown used in his report. In fact members opposite might want to think about the title. Mick Brown called his report  
Care and Protection is About Adult Behaviour 
 because he knew better than anyone that no matter how good the department’s social workers are they cannot be in every New Zealand home 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Ultimately for every New Zealand child to be safe every New Zealand family has to make that its top priority. In fact it should be its only priority—for its children for its neighbours’ children for its community’s children. For all New Zealand children to be safe they have to have strong and safe families. So instead of suggesting as I have heard Dr Newman suggest that the department should be ripped to pieces restructured and privatised we should all support social workers in what will always be a very challenging job. 
I want to support every staff person within the department in the work that those staff do. It is one of the most emotionally demanding and challenging jobs but it is the most important work. Ensuring that our children and young people are safe is the most important responsibility we can give to every public servant and I know that those public servants put more effort and energy into it than any member opposite ever values. It is about time we started appreciating high-quality public service instead of calling for it to be privatised or attacking it. 
Calling for the department to be restructured yet again would be a total disaster. It is time for us—and I hope that this Government has shown the sort of leadership that finally can get a positive response from Opposition parties—to get alongside and behind the department and back it in its work rather than attacking it. We must stop blaming social workers for every ill in New Zealand society. For many children the tireless efforts of social workers are the only real hope they have for peace and security in their lives. In other words I ask the Opposition spokespeople to stop playing petty politics with the Department of Child Youth and Family Services. Its job and the energy and effort of its staff are too important for that. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I call the honourable member Barbara Stewart.