Rich Katherine: Urgent Debates — Department of Child Youth and Family Services 
Rich Katherine: Urgent Debates — Department of Child Youth and Family Services 
[Volume:613;Page:9637] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance 
. After 4 years of a Labour Government the Department of Child Youth and Family Services is in crisis mode. That is something that the National Party has been saying for the last 2 years. After years of denying Opposition concerns the Government has accepted that and it has recently been confirmed in the Treasury baseline review. It is quite clear that social workers are overworked morale is at an all-time low caseloads are growing at an alarming rate notifications are rising well above predicted levels and a waiting list of children has not been cleared. The unallocated case list which 2 years ago Judge Mick Brown said should be reduced to zero within 6 months has been— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member and this will not come off her time. I know that select committees are meeting. Members will leave the Chamber quietly if they have to go to those meetings. I want to hear the member concerned. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: During the last 4 years we have seen review after report after blueprint after review after task force and basically all the reports state the same thing. They state that the Department of Child Youth and Family Services is underfunded that there is low morale and that social workers find it difficult to undertake quality social work in what are extremely difficult situations. 
I say God help the children of New Zealand because at the moment we cannot guarantee that the department can do so. I had believed that when a notification was made to the department every notification and every call would be logged. What we have seen in the last couple of weeks is that a 21-minute call from Ron Burrows somehow or another could slip through the cracks. When a distraught father rang to talk about things that would concern most New Zealand parents—things like safety concerns for a 6-year-old girl who was soiling herself and wetting her pants because she was distraught about the situation she was in—I would have thought that those sorts of things would be important enough to warrant an official notification. We saw that one fall through the cracks and we look forward to seeing the review of that. When Phil Goff appeared before a select committee and said that there could be a situation whereby a child was kicked out of a whole range of schools but his or her behaviour was not deemed significant enough for the intervention of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services something is wrong. Obviously the threshold for intervention is far too high. 
Some incredibly alarming comments have been made in that review of a sort that I have not read in reviews previously. They were comments like “the entire CYF system is unbalanced and unstable”. The children of New Zealand deserve a department that can predictably look after them in times of need. It is clear that the Government’s handling of Child Youth and Family Services has been incompetent at best. Let us remember that 2 years ago a report from Judge Mick Brown stated exactly the same things that were included in the baseline review. I tell that Minister that there were 57 recommendations in his report not 53 as she told the House today. The last time I checked only a mere handful had been implemented so it is quite obvious the Government is in a bit of a panic to get through the others. 
Judge Mick Brown’s report too highlighted problems with regard to the overwork of social workers and problems with the risk assessment processes and the unallocated case list. One of his key recommendations was that the unallocated case list which is basically a list of children waiting to see a social worker be reduced within 6 months to zero. That does not mean that all incidents would be dealt with immediately. It just means that once the risk is assessed they would be dealt with within 1 day 3 days 1 month etc. The Government has not done that. Sure at the time the Government signed up to the recommendation as being one that it would implement but the recommendation was diluted down was put into the blueprint and the specific nature of that particular recommendation was suddenly and conveniently forgotten. The last time I checked 1780 children were waiting to have their case assessed by a social worker. 
One of the things Judge Mick Brown said was that when a case was on the books things could escalate over time and we have certainly seen that prove to be correct. Members should just remember the names Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson. Those girls were known to the department. In fact one of the girls had written in her textbook that she was concerned that her stepfather could potentially do her harm. What did the department do? It sent out a letter that we believe was intercepted by Bruce Howse. Again and again the names change but the facts are basically the same. They are facts of incompetence and of a department that is struggling and under-resourced. 
It is quite clear that some of the things that have been brought up about Child Youth and Family Services would not be tolerated if we were talking about individual parents. Let us imagine that an individual parent did not know how many kids were in his or her care. Let us think about a situation where we asked an individual parent whether his or her child was enrolled in a school and that parent said that he or she was not sure. Basically that is the situation Child Youth and Family Services is in. I am absolutely gobsmacked to read that the department does not know how many kids are in its care how many kids are on its books and whether those kids are enrolled in a school. I say that school enrolments should be fundamental. They should be one of the basics that are ticked off by every single social worker. The department should know basics like that. 
I look back at Labour’s 1999 election policy concerning Child Youth and Family Services. I see it stated Labour was going to “ensure that all State agencies kept accurate statistics relating to their services for families and that this information would be publicly available”. Well there is something pretty fundamental about whether children are in school. There is something pretty fundamental about knowing how many kids are in one’s care. The failure to know that is simply not good enough. But Labour has tried a number of tricks. What it does is to change the Minister and conveniently it gets the chief executive to resign during the week that a damning report is expected on Child Youth and Family Services’ handling of the Bruce Howse case. Yes the Government has given Jackie Pivac the sandbag treatment and it has left no bruises but the situation she was put in is quite clear. A chief executive cannot work in a situation where the Minister fails to express confidence in her work where credibility is at risk and where she has three other Government departments babysitting her work. It is no wonder Jackie Pivac decided that the writing was on the wall and it was better for her to resign. But what a week it was to resign in. I wonder how useful our financial review process at the Social Services Committee is going to be when we look down to the end of the table and see not one person whom we can hold accountable for what has been going on in Child Youth and Family Services over the last year. Everybody will be able to pass the buck and say he or she is sorry but he or she is not able to answer that question. It is just all too convenient that Jackie Pivac takes off for a holiday in what is quite an important week for Child Youth and Family Services. 
In terms of denying Opposition protestations it is interesting how quiet members are on the Government side of the Chamber. I think they know that we are bringing up a lot of pertinent points and they have no answer to them. After 4 long years Child Youth and Family Services is actually in a worse position than it was 4 years ago; 4 years ago the unallocated case list was not as bad as it is now. It is interesting to hear the Minister blame National’s underfunding of 4 years ago for that. I think that is just a lame excuse at best after that period of time particularly when the Prime Minister has said that the issue is not about money but is about leadership and about running a department. I say to members on the Government side of the House that they can try to distract attention and can call together new reviews new blueprints and new committees. Let us remind them of the child abuse committee that Steve Maharey drew together. It was supposed to be a high-profile committee. I cannot find any evidence that it actually met to discuss a very important issue. All the written questions that I asked about it were delightfully fudged. 
It will be interesting to see the results from the reviews as they come out this week particularly in the case of Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson. The member over there on the Government benches can yawn. I say that all the yawning in the world will not bring back those two girls to this world. They were betrayed by Child Youth and Family Services. I think they deserve greater respect given that we are talking about issues of such great importance than just a casual yawn and a quick retort from members on the Government side of the Chamber. There are a whole lot of names tattooed on the brains of many members here—Craig Manukau Delcelia Witika “Lillybing” James Whakaruru—and no amount of yap from the Government side of the Chamber will bring back any of those children. 
It is important to talk about some solutions. Quite clearly we need to see better leadership from that department. It can commission all the reports it likes but if they are not implemented all that they will do is to gather dust on a shelf somewhere and postpone what really are some important decisions to be made in that department. No amount of funding and no amount of postponing the inevitable will make things any different for children in this country. They deserve better than that. Children cannot vote so perhaps that is why members on the Government side of the House are not quite so interested in them. But if children are in need are vulnerable and are being abused they deserve a department they can rely on. Parents also deserve to have a department that when they ring up they know will take their views and their concerns seriously. When a 21-minute call can go unheard unlogged and not acted upon it makes all parents in New Zealand feel concerned about Child Youth and Family Services. It makes all people—all parents neighbours grandparents and citizens of New Zealand—worry about the service that is there to protect our nation’s most vulnerable. 
I suspect we will hear a whole raft of excuses. The Minister had better not dare to say that it is National’s fault because after 4 long years that does not wash any more. Nobody believes that. Nobody outside this House believes that. When people get into Government and aim to change some of the processes and operations after a certain amount of time blaming the faults on someone else just does not work any more. We look forward to hearing the excuses from members on the Government side of the Chamber. I have to say though that I think the financial review process will probably be a waste of time because the Government has conveniently put a whole range of people down at the bottom end of the table who will be totally unable to answer our select committee’s questions. The Government tries to change the faces and tries to change the Ministers but ultimately the problem is the fault of the Government. It should come out and explain its 4 years of inaction.