Bradford Sue: Financial Review Debate 
Bradford Sue: Financial Review Debate 
[Volume:607;Page:4151] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 Unfortunately it has been apparent from yet another financial review of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services that fundamental problems remain despite the excellent Brown report of 2 years ago and the fact that extra funding has been poured in by Government. 
It was clear to those of us sitting on the Social Services Committee carrying out this year’s review that while commendable efforts have been made in a number of areas there are still critical areas of concern. I will name just a few of them. There is an ongoing lack of experience and qualifications among departmental social workers and I can only commend to Government that the Social Workers Registration Bill should be dealt with as soon as possible. There is a rise in the number of unallocated cases and a gross failure to meet the department’s own performance standards especially in the urgent and low-urgent categories of notification. There is a clear ongoing problem of lack of support for families before during and after the traumatic process of having their children removed by the State and there is a continuing shortage of beds in youth justice facilities leading to young people being kept in police cells far too often and for far too long. 
On several occasions I have heard the Minister express confidence in the Department of Child Youth and Family Services. However I am seriously beginning to wonder whether his confidence in his department continues. My doubt on this score is not only because of these ongoing and huge problems but also because of news I have just heard that yet another major review of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services is happening. This time it is a “first-principle baseline review”. I have only second-hand information on this review at this stage but it appears that the first-principle review is looking deeply at what the work of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services actually is and how well its financial systems work. Heads of the Ministry of Social Development and the Department of Child Youth and Family Services are involved along with Treasury and Ministry of Social Development officials in looking at why the department continues to cost more and more to operate while its outputs and outcomes fail to meet anyone’s expectations. 
While I guess one can always call reviews and investigations commendable I do ask myself where this one—conducted away from any glare of publicity as far as I can see and without the involvement of the community sector—is actually going and what it says about the Minister’s faith or lack of it in his department. The Brown report was comprehensive and the subsequent New Directions strategic programme was put in place to try to implement its recommendations. Why are we having another review now and where will it lead? Why does the Government not have the capacity to understand that a demand-driven service with a capped budget will always run into big trouble whether it is the Department of Child Youth and Family Services health or anything else of a similar nature? Why has whoever called for the review not formally involved voluntary sector groups given that in 2002-03 the department will administer nearly $86.6 million in funding to the third sector? 
Whether or not it does anything else I hope that the review team will look at why the Department of Child Youth and Family Services seems to do a good job of keeping the lid on community group funding whilst not exercising anything like the same restraints on its own operations. The department was supposed to be picking up on some of the recommendations of the community and voluntary sector working-party yet funding for overheads and administration for providers multi-year funding and rises in allocations to take inflation and realistic pay scales into account do not seem to have happened. 
If the Minister the Department of Child Youth and Family Services the Ministry of Social Development and Treasury are serious about once again reviewing this organisation they should be leading the way in the template for Government - non-governmental organisation relations which they aspire to. They should be operating a fully consultative process that recognises the value and significance of what the community sector now adds to the department’s work as ignoring their voice is flying in the face of their own strategies. 
I believe that if there is to be a review like this there needs to be a thorough evaluation of the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act at the same time and a look at the whole question of how we provide adequate services in these very difficult areas. We have a system that is obviously totally under stress despite the best intentions of this Government and we need to work together to try to end that stress. I think we have to look not just at the department itself as this new review is doing but also at the Act that governs the department and at the same time take into account all the work that has happened in the years since the original Act was put into place so that we can find some really good strategies forward. We should be looking at new priorities and new ways of working that can utilise the very good experience we have had in both the department itself and the community sector in this generation.