Rich Katherine: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Rich Katherine: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:613;Page:9923] 
3.  
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
 to the  
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment (CYF) 
: Were the Department of Child Youth and Family Services’ policies and procedures followed in the case of Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
 on behalf of the 
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment (CYF) 
: There are clear departmental and inter-agency policies and tools to guide every social worker in his or her work and both the Commissioner for Children and the chief social worker found that those policies were and are fundamentally sound. In this case however these policies and procedures were not followed by the social worker and the supervisor involved. 
Katherine Rich 
: When Ron Burrows’ concerns for Coral Burrows’ safety were not judged by the department as worthy of being a notification and when Olympia Jetson’s note that “My dad is going to kill me.” was not treated as a separate notification why should the people of New Zealand have any faith that other heartfelt calls to the Department of Child Youth and Family Services will be dealt with effectively? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: These were tragic situations—there is no doubt about it—but people around the country need to know that around 27000 notifications are filed with the Department of Child Youth and Family Services each year. The number of child deaths remains much the same each year—as tragic as that figure is. People need to know that we have not yet heard in full what happened in the case of Mr Burrows’ phone call to the department one of many hundreds of thousands that have been received— 
Katherine Rich 
: 21 minutes! 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The phone call lasted 21 minutes. I repeat that the member knows nothing about social work. That is not an unusual time to spend on the phone with a social worker about a case. We need to wait until we get further information on that case. 
Moana Mackey 
: What has been done to ensure that social workers have clear processes and procedures in place and are able to follow them? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Protocols and practice guidelines have been developed and implemented for social workers to assist them in their duties partly as a result of the death of James Whakaruru in 1999. These include clear processes in the case of suspected child abuse whereby the social worker is required to use the risk estimation and sexual abuse protocol. These are specifically designed to lead to appropriate action. Social workers are required by departmental standards to inform the police of sexual abuse allegations and to work cooperatively with them. We have also put in place more resources to support front-line social workers including practice managers and more supervisory staff. These processes have been put in place for a reason—to protect children. Tragically it appears that in this case they were not followed. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: In light of yet another damning report on Labour’s child welfare agency what responsibility does the Minister for Social Development and Employment accept? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: When one is a Minister one takes full responsibility for what goes on in one’s department and I am sure the Associate Minister feels that that is exactly the way things should be. I point out that there would not be a person in this country who would not want the Department of Child Youth and Family Services to be in the hands of this Government with the resources it has put into it rather than in the hands of the previous Government which cut its resources year on year. 
Katherine Rich 
: While the Whakaruru report of June 2000 Judge Mick Brown’s report in December 2000 and today’s Aplin report all raise serious concerns about social workers not using the tools provided to assist them in determining the level of risk to children why under the Minister for Social Development and Employment’s watch is the current recorded use by social workers of the risk assessment tool only 80 percent nationally? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: It is tragic that James Whakaruru died in the 1990s. One of the things Labour has done on our watch is to ensure that the recommendations of the Whakaruru report prepared by the previous Commissioner for Children are implemented. Part of that has been to ensure we have protocols across the country. But the member points out something that both the commissioner and the chief social worker have pointed out: we have good policies and fundamentally sound policies. Tragically in this case they were not followed by two people who of course no longer work for the department. 
Katherine Rich 
: When Saliel Aplin had voiced fears that “Bruce will kill us.” and Olympia Jetson had written “My dad is going to kill me.” and Howse had threatened to do a “Ratima” why were none of those cries for help classed as notifications? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I think the member knows that that is the subject of the two reports that have been released today. It is up to the two people involved to explain fully why they did not report the allegations made by the children leading to their deaths. It is a tragedy. Those social workers clearly did not follow the practices that were in place. Our challenge as a department is to make sure they are followed by every social worker in every circumstance in the future. 
Katherine Rich 
: When cases like these ones often are first assessed as being at the lower levels of urgency in terms of rankings within the Department of Child Youth and Family Services how can the Minister sleep at night knowing that 3132 children in the lower urgency rankings are currently waiting to see a social worker? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Not only do Ministers at times lie awake wondering about these kinds of issues; there is no doubt that every social worker in the country who is involved in these circumstances lies awake at night too. We have in this country a highly professional group of people working within the Department of Child Youth and Family Services and I repeat: there would not be one person in this country who would not want to see this department in our hands because we are increasing resources and working with it rather than in the hands of that member’s Government which cut resources almost every year it was in office.