Turner Judy: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Turner Judy: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10187] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I was very interested in some recent comments from the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner. The office highlighted the fact that it had very few complaints from the disability side of its mandate compared with the health side. It became apparent that because people in the disability sector have a long-term ongoing dependence on the people who work for them there is a greater reluctance to come forward—and even sometimes a fear of doing so—with a complaint in case the services that those people rely on are jeopardised in some way. It is an issue that the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner plans to do something about and I commend it for that. 
It highlighted for me a parallel situation that I see with Child Youth and Family whereby people who are on the receiving end of an intervention by that department—particularly when it uses the statutory powers it has to uplift and remove children from the home and then determine the level of contact parents and family members are to have with those children and the conditions under which they are able to see their children—have the same fears regarding laying a complaint. In fact they are right to have those fears. I have seen case notes from Child Youth and Family where parents or relatives have gone in and complained about the way their case was handled and it has been written into the case notes and they are now seen as troublemakers. United Future is now deeply deeply concerned about the fact that currently there is no proper complaints procedure in place for adults who have concerns at the way their case is being handled. 
I think that this needs to change and that two things need to be put in place. United Future believes that first of all there needs to be a complaints authority—we think something similar to the Police Complaints Authority—that is independent from the workings of Child Youth and Family so that those who have concerns know that when they lay a complaint it will not be added to their case notes. That is the first thing that we believe sincerely needs to be put in place. 
The second thing we have noticed is this. Most members in this House will have received tragic emails phone calls and letters from members of the public who believe that they have a grievance against that department. None of us is in a position to know how credible those complaints are. We do not have the investigative powers or resources to check out those stories. But I do understand at a very gut level what it must be like for mum and dad to find that their children have been removed and that they are no longer considered fit and able to care for their children regardless of how much truth there is in the accusation. One of the common threads I have become aware of from the families that have contacted me is that these people are in desperate need of a calm sensible rational advocate to hear their story to write it down and to give them advice as to how they should then proceed. 
This is not about naming shaming and blaming Child Youth and Family social workers; that is far from what we want. We want to set up a system that is similar to the health concept of quality assurance activities that feeds into professional development. We need a complaints authority that sends messages to the Minister about the developing trends of the complaints it receives. 
The Minister acknowledges that currently most of the complaints are about the quality of social work. We need to understand what aspects of social work are falling short of international standards. Child protection work is cutting-edge social work and it should be the domain of our most qualified and competent social workers. Yet due to the high staff turnover and to training and workforce issues sometimes we see very young and newly trained social workers having to work in this extremely difficult area—yes with some professional supervision but certainly with very little feedback because the very people whom they need feedback from are too scared. They are blind terrified to go in and lay a complaint. 
As we move through into the next financial year and beyond United Future would call on the Government and on the National Party too to consider very seriously what they will do about the missing ingredient in this important Government department. We want to see both advocacy and opportunity for those cases to be investigated thoroughly in order to make sure that good social work practice is happening that families are getting the fairest outcomes and that children are well protected. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Members are advised that the next speaker has 5 minutes.