Financial Review Debate — Department of Child, Youth and Family Services

My interest in this Government agency dates right back to way before even the infamous baseline review; it was certainly fuelled by that review. I believe that this current review needs to reflect on what progress has been made since that very important review.

The first thing I note is that the Government has piloted, in two sites, the differential response model. United Future is supportive of that. We believe that we might take some credit for it. With the assistance of the Minister for Social Development and Employment I was able to visit one of those sites and see how it is progressing. I was incredibly encouraged to see that great relationships are being built between the department and the community sector, that the medium to low risk cases are being worked through and interventions are being more speedily executed, and that some real relief is being provided to enable departmental workers to do some real, quality social work at the high-risk end of their caseloads. That is a great thing, and we would encourage the Minister to see that this model is rolled out as quickly as is practicable across the country.

We also note that there has been an amalgamation, and that the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services has come back under the Ministry of Social Development umbrella, as the Child, Youth and Family service. While we are still unclear as to why that was done, staff have assured us they see positive things in it and it will make a difference to the operation of the department.

For this brief speech, I want to focus on the call that United Future has been making for an independent complaints authority. Like most MPs—and maybe even more than some—I receive, probably on a weekly basis, letters and emails from people who have had dealings with the department and have complaints about the way their cases have been handled. As a member of Parliament I am not in a position—nor do I have the resources or the skills—to investigate these claims to determine whether they would in any way be upheld. I am sure that some of them would not be upheld; they are from disgruntled parents who have had an intervention done on them as a family and are not happy with that consequence.

However, I looked at the Police Complaints Authority. I looked at that authority because of the fact that, like Child, Youth and Family, the police enjoy statutory powers, and have great power to intervene in the lives of families and individual people. About 13 percent of the authority’s complaints—and it receives about 2,000 a year—are upheld. That represents, on average, about 343 cases. It occurred to me that if 13 percent of all the cases that come across my desk—and I am sure that is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination—would be upheld if closely investigated, that would represent a substantial number of mums and dads and their children who did not get a fair deal from this department.

Although none of us envy the work the social workers in this department have to contend with, it is still hugely important that the work that is done is quality work. I know that the Minister has acknowledged to me in the past that if and when the department gets it wrong, that would itself constitute child abuse. If children are wrongly removed and there is a failure on the part of the department to return them in a timely way to the care of their family, that would constitute abuse.

United Future has been calling for something akin to the Police Complaints Authority—an independent body where adults could go. Currently, if there are some questions as to how the department has handled a case as it pertains to a child, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner has a legislative mandate to investigate. That is a good thing, and I call on the Government to better resource that office in that role. It currently uses staff allocated to all sorts of other jobs within that office to do that investigative work, and it could do with some more resources.

We are in no way proposing to duplicate or take over the work of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. We are asking for somewhere where adults can go—either adults who have been notifiers to the department and are not happy with the way the department has responded to the notification, or people who have been on the hard end of a notification, people to whom an intervention has happened, who are unhappy with how it has been handled and feel they were not listened to.

One of the other things that I call on the Government to consider, which is related to this complaints authority, is better support for the client base. I had a really interesting question asked of me by someone who used to work for the service. That person had been a social worker and was now on the staff of a non-governmental organisation. One of the questions that person asked me was who the clients of the service were. I said I presumed it was the children. That person said, no, it was the notifier. We need to think a lot about that particular issue.

I acknowledge the member Judy Turner, whose contribution we have just heard. I have listened to her advocacy for a complaints procedure for Child, Youth and Family for several months. I did not agree with it to start with. I sought further clarification from her, she gave it to me, and I am now very happy that policy work is looking at the range of available procedures and where there is a gap, and is ensuring that we do not overlap with organisations such as the Children’s Commissioner by making any further extension of complaints procedures within the department. So I acknowledge the work Judy Turner has done in that regard.

I make passing reference to the Children’s Commissioner and say how stunned I was to hear the member for Rangitikei, Simon Power, attack the Children’s Commissioner. I do not think it is appropriate to do so. I think she does a fine job, and she should not be undermined in this Chamber.

To refer to the financial review report, I was very pleased that this year the Social Services Committee was generally positive in its financial review of the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services and gave some very good, constructive feedback. It noted some favourable improvements in the performance of the department, particularly in areas such as response rates to notifications, the benefits of the merger between the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services and the Ministry of Social Development, and the recruitment of front-line staff. However, the report posed some challenges for the department, and I think that is a very important part of the accountability back to Parliament. The select committee seems to have undertaken that task extraordinarily well.

The issues of challenge were to ensure that we look at better statistical information on substantiated abuse notifications, the reform of foster care, and the implementation of the youth justice capability review. I begin by referring to the number of notifications the department receives. It was a particular point of discussion with the select committee. Of course, as this Committee has discussed many times in the past, the ideal would be that we had no abuse of children in our country and, therefore, no notifications. But we are actually seeing increased public awareness, decreased public tolerance, and increased notifications to the department because of those two factors, amongst others.

Another thing that I particularly acknowledge, because I support it, is the initiative by the police of referring far more rapidly children who are in situations of family violence who may not be identified immediately but who have clearly been exposed to violence rather than necessarily abused themselves. The growth rate of notifications to Child, Youth and Family in the year considered by the financial review is slightly slower than last year, so I think that is a good thing in terms of the overall management of the situation. It is important for the Committee to note—and, I hope, celebrate—the fact that the department has maintained the number of unallocated cases at below 1,000 since the middle of last year, and it has a much better understanding of the drivers of demand for its services.

I touch briefly on a point Judy Turner made with regard to the differential response model. I am very pleased that she took the time and effort to visit one of our sites and look at the differential response model, and I am even more pleased to hear her speak positively of it. It is a much better way of doing things. The department is working with non-governmental organisations so that we get a community-based response, which is a far more appropriate response for families who are in crisis, in need, or feeling frustrated to the point of not being able to operate functionally on their own. If we are able to help those families earlier, without the need for statutory intervention, then we will all be better off in terms of outcome. It is my view that inappropriate statutory intervention can not only cause disruption but also actually damage a family’s situation, so the more appropriate our response, the better. I certainly give a commitment to that member and the Committee that the differential response model will continue to roll out past the sites it is currently being piloted in.

I touch briefly on the youth justice capability. It was raised as a concern by the select committee. I reassure the Committee that the youth justice capability review project is progressing well and is meeting all its milestones now. We should see a considerable improvement in the organisational delivery of youth justice through those improvements.

Finally, I just acknowledge and thank my colleague from Rotorua, Steve Chadwick, for the support she has given to Child, Youth and Family in terms of the establishment of a new residential centre in the Bay of Plenty area. It is now confirmed that Parekārangi is the preferred site. That is a very good thing. The owners of the land there have also been very supportive not just in extending to a youth justice facility but also in reaching out further into the community. Those young people will have a chance to be returned to the community with the support of the landowners at Parekārangi. That is an excellent move for all of us. Thank you, Mr Chairperson.

Report noted.

Department of Corrections