11. Children in State Care—Abuse Data and ReportingJAN LOGIE (Green) to the Minister for Social DevelopmentChildren in State Care—Abuse Data and Reporting11. JAN LOGIE (Green) to the Minister for Social Development: Is she satisfied that according to her answer to written question 1048 she could not say how many children were reported to have been seriously abused in State care in 2015/16?Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister of Justice) on behalf of the Minister for Social Development: Yes. As was explained in the answer to the written question the methodology for the reporting of the abuse of children in care is changing quite dramatically from previous years. The approach for 2015-16 is that all types of abuse across a larger population will now be considered and the manual work required to create this data set has not yet been completed but will be publicly available in the second half of this year. I would also like to note that it was only under this Government that reporting began on these numbers in 2010-11. I would also like to add that the previous Child Youth and Family now the Ministry for Vulnerable Children Oranga Tamariki puts the safety and well-being of children in its care above all else and it has clear policy and guidelines in place for responding to any complaints or allegations including safety assessments and referral to police when warranted.Jan Logie: Does she share the concern of former social development Minister Paula Bennett who in response to questions from the Green Party about why the Government was not reporting in 2011 said: It quite frankly horrified me that we didn't know how many children and young people in our care were abused and re-abused." particularly at this time of restructuring when potentially mistakes might be made that could result in more children being hurt?Hon AMY ADAMS: We absolutely recognise the need to know and understand how many children in care have been abused which is why we are now taking the opportunity to count larger numbers of abuse types across a larger population—because while this Government started the collection of that data we now want to go even further and ensure we have the fullest possible picture of the abuse that might happen in any type of State care. That work is taking time but it is absolutely being collected and will be reported.Jan Logie: Why is she not adding extra reporting criteria to the previous one instead of creating a new one which will make it impossible to track whether more or fewer kids are experiencing serious abuse in care?Hon AMY ADAMS: We are adding further criteria but what we have to do is go through the files manually and if we had gone through them manually on the old set it would have taken even longer and duplicated the work. So to get to the answer the decision was made by the Ministry of Social Development that rather than duplicate the repeat of the narrower set it wanted to go through those files once and get the most comprehensive answer. We are not going to be losing visibility. That information is being collected and will be reported in the second half of this year.Joanne Hayes: What work is the Minister doing to ensure that current and future children in care are able to raise any concerns or complaints?Hon AMY ADAMS: As part of the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children Oranga Tamariki—which was launched on 1 April—changes have already been made to ensure that children and young people have increased visibility and access to a feedback and complaints mechanism that listens and responds to their voices. The feedback and complaints response is a crucial component of the support we wrap around our most vulnerable children to help ensure their safety and support them to thrive. Work is also under way to establish an oversight of the ministry's feedback and complaints mechanism. Also launched from 1 April was VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai an NGO that provides children and young people in care with a network of contacts and peers that will support them and ensure their voices are heard.Jan Logie: When the last available figures showed that a child in State care was being seriously abused every 9 days—a 25 percent increase in the very short time that her Government reported—how is it OK to stop reporting this information?Hon AMY ADAMS: I repeat again that we have not stopped collecting the information. We are in fact going through the process of building a much more comprehensive way of reporting counting a wider scope of abuse across a wider population because in this Government's view all abuse in any form of State care is insidious and unacceptable and we want to have visibility of it all. That data is being collected and will be reported this year.Jan Logie: Is the Minister hiding an increase in the number of children being abused in State care?Hon AMY ADAMS: I am really not sure how I can put this any more clearly. The information is being counted and will be released and it will be more comprehensive than any information that has previously been put out. I think I have made it very clear that we want to see the widest range of analysis of all types of abuse in all types of care. That work is being done now and will be reported. There has been no stop in collection and there has been no hiding of data. We are getting the information now and it will be reported in the second half of this year."