Ardern Jacinda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 18 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13459. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) to theMinister for Social Development: Is she satisfied that all relevant government departments and agencies have the funding and resources required to implement her Children’s Action Plan?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development): Yes. The answer to every problem is not to simply throw more money at it and hope like we have seen in the past. Resources are being committed by local agencies and there are ongoing discussions about future funding that might be required.Jacinda Ardern: Does she believe that her new reporting requirements will lead to an increase in notifications to Child Youth and Family on top of the 50 percent increase in cases that have required its response since 2008?Hon PAULA BENNETT: No and we are currently looking at those reports that are coming from the police. I just want to give a bit of an indication of that. At the moment we have a total of 70503 family violence reports referred to Child Youth and Family from the police. Of this number 12737 were actual notifications that required some form of statutory response meaning that 57766 of them did not come anywhere near the threshold for Child Youth and Family to intervene. So what you actually have is a whole lot of notifications coming that do not come anywhere—Grant Robertson: No action.Hon PAULA BENNETT: No that is what the Children’s Teams are about. One of the members said “No action.” Well that is why we are forming the Children’s Teams because what we actually have right now is a whole lot of kids who are not getting anything. Instead what we will see is them actually having somewhere to go so that they can get a response. That is what we need: a much better response that is commensurate to what the need is.Jacinda Ardern: Is Child Youth and Family adequately staffed to deal with an increase in reporting given that an area like the central North Island which she considered an area critical enough to give a Children’s Team has 60 fewer social workers now than when she came into office?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Well that is not actually correct. It is the way that the member has chosen to interpret the numbers. What I want to say is that we have got 96 more social workers on the front line now than we had when we came into office. They have had a 15 percent increase in their budget. But what I want to explain to the member which is what is really important is that we have literally as I have just explained tens of thousands of notifications that are going to Child Youth and Family that get nowhere near its threshold. So if you want to actually ask the real question the question is what the threshold of statutory intervention should be. We think the threshold is about right. I actually do not want Child Youth and Family in homes where it does not need to be. That is a very serious intervention so what we need to do is have better local interventions that have the help coming on the ground through our community organisations and iwi.Jacinda Ardern: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister implied—well actually she said that my calculation was incorrect. I wonder whether she could table the evidence for that answer—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not a legitimate use of a point of order. It is now a means by which the member is questioning the answers she has been given. If she has further supplementary questions that is the way that she should question the Minister.Jacinda Ardern: Has workload played a role in the 128 percent increase in the number of Child Youth and Family staff who have received counselling for work-related issues since 2007?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I am actually thrilled that those staff are getting the support that they need in the counselling. In fact the message that I have sent out to them in the last 5 years is that there is no stigma in getting counselling and that they are dealing with some of the most complex and the most tragic cases day to day on the front line. Our Christchurch staff have received more counselling and actually I think that that is entirely appropriate. I will stand next to those staff and support them in getting it. Quite frankly I find it quite ironic that it is that member who thinks there is a problem with it.Jacinda Ardern: If caseload is not an issue for Child Youth and Family why did Howard Broad state in the report that she commissioned into Child Youth and Family that there were doubts over whether social workers were checking on children in care and that “The reason given for non-compliance is the high level of caseloads of social workers”?Hon PAULA BENNETT: As the member knows we currently have a review going on into caseloads and that threshold. If it comes to light that we do need to put more staff on then I am completely open to looking at that. But one has to see the bigger picture. That is why we have the Children’s Action Plan. We have literally tens of thousands of children notifications at the moment that are coming through that are not getting dealt with. I think we have got a much bigger picture that we need to deal with. If part of that is actually looking at the caseloads of those social workers—Jacinda Ardern: It is.Hon PAULA BENNETT: —that is what we are currently doing. Well there is a review going on. The member should wake up and get with the programme. There is already a review that is happening and the results will be made available to her.