Rich Katherine: Social Workers Registration Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Rich Katherine: Social Workers Registration Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4873] 
KATHERINE RICH (NZ National) 
: 
 The Minister of Social Services and Employment said he was looking for some steady debate and some good questions so I will rise to that challenge on the proviso that I hope he will rise and answer a few of the pertinent questions that the Opposition has raised about this bill in earlier parts of the debate that have not been answered. Unlike what the Minister said these questions are not rhetorical. We are hoping for some answers and some clarity. 
One thing I would like to know is why recommendation 3.5 of the Judge Mick Brown report has not been followed. It was received 2 years ago and clearly stated that the introduction of social worker registration should be given urgency but that has not happened. It has been a couple of years. 
John Carter 
: We’re in urgency now! 
KATHERINE RICH 
: Yes but it is 2 years down the track. It is happening a lot later than many people thought it would. 
The second thing Judge Mick Brown recommended was that by mid-2002 social workers should not be able to exercise statutory powers except when co-working with registered social workers and/or members of the police. Why was that not implemented? Judge Mick Brown said that the department should set an agreed percentage of registered staff as a goal that must be realised by mid-2002. Once again why did that not happen? There was certainly an expectation that it would happen. The Minister wholeheartedly endorsed that report when it was received. 
We have not heard an explanation about why the Government has backed away from asking the Department of Child Youth and Family Services social workers to register. We have not heard the Government’s explanation as to why it has backed away from that. We have a few ideas as to why the Government has decided not to include all Government social workers as was the original intention. The Minister even went to the trouble of getting it approved by Cabinet only for it to be rescinded some months later once further homework was done. I think it is extraordinary that things would go as far as that only for a total about-face then to occur. We have not had any explanation for that. 
At the moment the country faces a huge shortage of social workers. It will be a real problem for this country if we do not work out better ways to support social workers to undertake social work in this country. There are two reasons for that shortage. The first reason is the number of social workers who leave the country after they have graduated. I come from Dunedin and I know that there is an English group that comes in every year to actively recruit New Zealand social workers and take them over to the UK. We are also pretty dependent on immigration on overseas social workers coming in to plug a lot of the vacancies that cannot be filled. 
If I look at the parts of this bill relating to overseas-qualified social workers I realise how difficult we are making it for them to come here and practise. We are asking overseas-qualified social workers to clarify whether they are competent to practise social work with Maori. A very experienced social worker from the UK who has perhaps practised in London will have worked with a wide range of cultures and peoples. I do not think there are any social work courses in the UK that specifically deal with the Maori culture but I doubt whether that has anything to do with the quality of a social worker or his or her practical ability when working in this country. It is an unnecessary hurdle. The principles of social work apply equally regardless of the nature of the client. Yes a social worker has to be able to react and tailor his or her service to a wide range of people but to ask overseas-qualified social workers to go on a specific training course is quite unreasonable at a time when we do not have enough social workers to fill vacancies. 
The second provision is that someone from overseas is required to live and practise social work in New Zealand. Social work is becoming a very specialised profession and there will be some occasions where someone who has a specialist interest in a certain area may not choose to live in this country. That person will come over and just work with specific cases. For example somebody dealing with Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy might live in Sydney and travel to this country.