12. Question No. 12—ChildrenHon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour) to the Minister for ChildrenQuestion No. 12—Children12. Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour) to the Minister for Children: Does she stand by her expectation of Oranga Tamariki that the best interests of our young people are at the forefront of all their decision making"?Hon KAREN CHHOUR (Minister for Children): Yes.Hon Willow-Jean Prime: How is it in the best interests of children and young people to add specialist legal work to Oranga Tamariki social workers work that they are not trained for and in an organisation where they are already 160 social workers short?Hon KAREN CHHOUR: One of the premises of the consultation document is lifting performance and accountability across the organisation whereby functional leads would have sole responsibility for delivery in areas that they own. As a result Oranga Tamariki proposed that legal services should focus on their core court-related roles and for some other functions that they are doing to be led and delivered by those who are responsible and accountable for them. Every part of this is still a proposal and no final decisions have been made.Hon Willow-Jean Prime: Does she agree with the Law Society that Oranga Tamariki lawyers and social workers have distinct specialist front-line roles and that the services these lawyers provide cannot simply be carried out by others in the organisation for example social workers who already face complex and heavy workloads; and if not why not?Hon KAREN CHHOUR: No I don't agree because front line has been defined—the advice is that front-line staff roles are considered to be children's workers as defined in section 23 of the Children's Act and the definition of front-line service is an operational matter for Oranga Tamariki. I'm advised that Oranga Tamariki considers front-line services to be those provided by staff directly to children and families. While Oranga Tamariki solicitors provide valuable support to social workers in carrying out their statutory functions they do not provide direct services to children or their families.Hon Willow-Jean Prime: Does she agree with the family law section of the Law Society who say that they hold significant concerns about the potential consequences for the safety and wellbeing of whānau and vulnerable tamariki should there be a reduction in either of those roles as well as the proper functioning of the Family Court?Hon KAREN CHHOUR: Can I just make this very clear: this is still a proposal and no final decisions have been made.Hon Willow-Jean Prime: How is it in the best interests of children to slash the Safety of Children in Care team which reports on children abused while they are in care?Hon KAREN CHHOUR: There are many departments that the work will still continue they're just being consolidated under less managers so that the managers can get out of the way so they can make better decision-making.Hon David Seymour: Is it the Minister's leadership style to see the staff that work for her department as capable and worth backing rather than running them down before a review is even complete?Hon KAREN CHHOUR: I believe and I truly appreciate the hard work and every member who goes out there and works on the ground with our young people deserves to be applauded. What we are doing is making sure we are resourcing those workers on the ground every day doing that hard work rather than resourcing more managers in the back office."