Turner Judy: Budget Debate 
Turner Judy: Budget Debate 
[Volume:618;Page:13616] 
JUDY TURNER (United Future) 
: 
 The well-publicised baseline review of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services was very clear regarding the issues that that Government agency needs to be addressing if it wants to clear its in tray of the literally thousands of notifications that are unallocated at present. The Government however has not been mean-spirited when it comes to throwing money at that organisation. It nearly doubled the funds to the organisation in the first 4 years it was in power and since the baseline review has offered at least another $109 million to that end. 
We are pleased that more social workers have been employed across the nation although we are concerned about the number of those who are yet to be registered. But we are still unclear about what is being done to address the systemic issues highlighted by the review. 
In the important issues of child protection child placement and prevention work in this area the choice should never have to be between quality and quantity. Those areas of social work are specialised and because of statutory responsibilities should be the domain of only our most competent and experienced social workers. The decision to uplift children and place them in care is one of the most serious decisions that should ever have to be made and social workers need to be actively reviewing those decisions with regularity if the department is to live up to the very clear principles in the Act that govern their work. I personally have serious misgivings about the placement of young and inexperienced social workers in the kinds of positions where they are required to make those kinds of calls about the time restraints and pressures that exist about the processes that are rushed and about the families that are often left feeling unheard. 
However I am also equally concerned about the length of time taken to allocate cases. Many of the most critical cases where children’s immediate safety is in question are second and third notifications. The evidence is clear that children’s circumstances deteriorate while those children wait to be allocated. The most tragic aspect of that scenario for me is the fact that most communities have competent non-profit agencies with qualified staff who would be well able to effectively pick up on the current 3862 unallocated cases where prevention is the required focus. United Future would like to see some of the money spent on that valuable service redirected to those agencies and the Act amended so that those agencies could be contracted directly to do that which at present remains undone. The issue is not about privatisation of social services; it is about a commonsense approach to making full use of all the resources available to us so that children are safe and when they have fallen victim to abuse that the very best help is directed their way for as long as it is needed. 
The Minister responsible for the Department of Child Youth and Family Services has assured us that the extra funds set aside for that department will not be thrown in some haphazard way towards the problems faced by the department but will be targeted towards improved delivery. With that in mind I implore the Government to consider the differential intake system proposed by United Future which would see the existing work of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services divided between a child protection agency and a more strength-based family service involving community agencies as key providers of quality support for children and their families before their circumstances deteriorate to a point where more serious interventions are needed. 
It is not enough to respond to the needs of the department by merely raising the level of resourcing. Money and staffing alone will not turn around that department. It is commendable though that in some communities agencies are not waiting for a ministerial directive but are beginning to explore ways in which they can work cooperatively to reduce waiting times. Bridges are being built and relationships are developing as Government and non-government agencies forge working models that need to be implemented across the board. Those agencies like Barnardos Plunket the Salvation Army Parentline in Hamilton the Family Help Trust in Christchurch and Te Aroha Noa in Palmerston North are not second-rate do-gooders. They already have a proven track record for honouring Government contracts. They have excellent auditing outcomes and professional development and supervision and other recognised professional standards are in place. They are already doing the work but they have key staff spending outrageous amounts of their time fund-raising for the next financial quarter.