Turner Judy: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers  
Turner Judy: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers  
[Volume:615;Page:11012] 
10.  
JUDY TURNER (United Future) 
 to the  
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment (CYF) 
: Does she have confidence in the Department of Child Youth and Family Services’ ability to manage the approximately 4700 children in its care at any one time? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
 on behalf of the 
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment (CYF 
): In general yes. However there have been some cases where high-quality social work practice has not been happening consistently. They have been acknowledged by the department and a range of initiatives either have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented to ensure a consistent quality service nationwide. 
Judy Turner 
: In light of the fact that the Department of Child Youth and Family Services failed to follow the established procedure of ensuring bimonthly visits to the caregivers of 3-year-old Tamati Pokaia—who later died from massive internal injuries inflicted by the man whom the department had chosen to care for him Michael Waterhouse—does the Associate Minister agree that the department simply does not have the capacity to provide adequate monitoring of children’s safety while in care which is a core component of its operation? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Trying to anticipate the cases that might be raised I did familiarise myself with others but not with the particular case that has been raised. So let me answer in general that what I said in my initial answer on behalf of the Associate Minister was that there have been cases where plans have not been put in place in the way that we would want. The particular case that has been raised is clearly one of those and that is why for example we have just put an extra $119 million into this organisation to lift its capacity to carry out that core function. 
Georgina Beyer 
: What specifically is the Government doing to ensure that public confidence in the department is further restored further to what he has already answered? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Since this Government was elected in 1999 we have been committed to improving social work practice. We have recruited more staff increased baseline funding by more than 50 percent instituted professional social work registration and strengthened regional management. The department is implementing initiatives to improve care management practices with the implementation of the baseline review. We have continued those improvements with the new investment I have just mentioned of $119 million. 
Katherine Rich 
: Will the Associate Minister confirm in relation to the Department of Child Youth and Family Services’ confirmation that there were 3132 unallocated cases of abuse last November—a 76 percent rise in 4 months—that uncounted at the time were hundreds of backlogged notifications waiting to be entered into the department’s computer and in effect creating a waiting list for children to get on to the department’s waiting list; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: One of the issues has been the rising number of unallocated cases and we know that that has at times meant that staff have been under pressure to put their notes into the computer so that we can come up with the number of unallocated cases. My understanding is that as of now all the cases are accounted for as they should be. 
Sue Bradford 
: Has the Department of Child Youth and Family Services actually employed the 112 extra social workers and 28 other frontline staff provided for by the Government 4 months ago as a result of the baseline review; and do the three babysitting Government departments also appointed have confidence that this “unbalanced and unstable department”—as it was then described by the review team—is now functioning at at least an adequate level? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: My understanding is that the department is still in the process of employing social workers but one of the pleasing elements of this is that more people than were anticipated have applied for jobs with the department. Many are returning to the service which is a very good sign indeed. The three departments that conducted the baseline review rather than the “babysitting review”—it was not called that; it was called the baseline review—are still involved in ensuring that the department does live up to its obligations during this transition period while a new chief executive is found. 
Judy Turner 
: Does the Minister agree that the failure of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services social workers in the Pokaia case to provide “a coherent explicit and documented case management strategy” which resulted in little Tamati being passed through eight placements from 2000 to his death in April 2002 is symptomatic of the findings of the baseline review that “on average children in CYF care spend 2.5 years in care experience 10 different placements and are allocated to four different social workers” and points to a department that is unable to provide the quality care services that our children deserve? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The statistics reported by that member do point to the problems with this department that we have been trying to get on top of. But I want her to acknowledge that in many cases children move for very good reasons during the time that they are with the department. They may well be moving between family members for example during that period of time. We should not take the fact that they move as an indication that things are not working for them. 
Judy Turner 
: In light of the chief social worker’s findings in the Kelly Gush review of December that the caseworkers involved “minimised or failed to recognise and acknowledge the level of violence” not to mention reports that staff ignored the grave concerns of both counsel for the child and specialist mental health services for the children’s safety under the care of their stepfather Darren Mackness how can the Associate Minister have any confidence that her overworked front-line staff will make the necessary decisions to prevent other children from being kicked to death for throwing up while they eat their dinner? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I would stress—and can I say I am answering on behalf of the Associate Minister—that I did try to familiarise myself with cases but I could not anticipate every case that might be raised and I did not look at this particular one. The important point here of course is that the social workers themselves did no harm to this child at all; the harm was done by people to whom the member pointed in her question. But we would also say that this service is an emergency service. Just as the police and hospital staff are placed in very difficult situations so too are social workers and they have to make difficult judgments. This Government is committed to giving them resources. We have acknowledged as has the department that mistakes have been made. We will keep going until we get it right.