Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill

on behalf of the Minister for Social Development and Employment: I present a legislative statement on the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.

Hon Dr DUNCAN WEBB: Kia ora, Mr Speaker. I move, That the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill.

Hon Member: Hurrah!

Hon Dr DUNCAN WEBB: An excellent committee. At the appropriate time, I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 24 August 2023, and that the committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions, during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House, and on a Friday in a week which there has been a sitting of the House, and outside the Wellington area despite Standing Orders 193, 195, and 196.

The Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill will amend the Social Workers Registration Legislation Act 2019—no surprises there—to extend the experience pathway for social workers’ registration from 28 February 2024 to 28 February 2028. This would be an extension of the current practice for four years. Again, no surprises there.

Social workers play a critical and mana-enhancing role in their communities. They provide much-needed support for some of our most vulnerable people and whānau. In recent years, more so than ever, social workers have been critical to supporting New Zealanders through tough times—for example, through the COVID-19 response and in the weather events earlier this year.

As a Government, we want to ensure that the social work workforce is supported and empowered to meet the needs of those they work alongside. We passed the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill in 2019, which required every practising social worker to register with the Social Workers Registration Board under the Social Workers Registration Act 2003. Prior to February 2021, registration was voluntary for people working as social workers. The change was about giving greater protection for some of our most vulnerable people and increasing competency in the social work sector.

To be eligible for registration, applicants must have a prescribed qualification. However, section 13 of the 2003 Act provides an alternative pathway to registration for people with extensive practical experience. The Social Workers Registration Board uses the following assessment criteria for registration through the experience pathway: that the applicant has enough practical experience to compensate for not having a prescribed qualification, usually around 10 to 15 years; that they have demonstrable competence to practise as a social worker; and that they have competence in working with Māori and ethnic and cultural groups more broadly. All applicants for registration must also pass the fit and proper person test to practise as a social worker. This provides the basis for determining the safety of social workers to practise.

Currently, this experience pathway is set to expire on 28 February 2024. This delayed repeal date was intended to support the social work sector to transition from voluntary to mandatory registration by allowing unregistered social workers time to either complete a prescribed qualification or to apply to register under section 13. Initially, this date was set based on a view that a qualification would provide the main mechanism for professionalisation of the workforce and an assumption that there would be sufficient workforce supply.

Since then, there have been several significant shifts in the operating environment for social workers, which contributed to the Government bringing this bill to extend the pathway. COVID-19 has exacerbated need amongst some communities, creating an increased demand for social work services which cannot be met by the current workforce. Social worker vacancies are growing nationally. Indicative data from the Social Worker Registration Board’s Annual Social Work Workforce Survey 2022 suggests an estimated shortfall of around 700 social workers. This bill will therefore ensure that by retaining an experienced pathway to registration, we don’t limit the pipeline for social workers into the workforce.

On top of this, the Government recently announced a pay equity extension for social workers in the Government-funded sector, and it’s estimated to lift the pay of around 5,000 employees and will help to correct disparities in access to professional development between Government and NGO employees. It also removes some of the cost barriers of maintaining registration. The extension includes payment for annual practising certificates, professional development, and supervision costs. We know that these costs can prohibit a social worker’s ability to maintain their mandatory annual practising certificate. The pay equity extension is likely to create an incentive for people doing substantially similar work to social workers to apply for higher-paying social worker roles, which they need to become registered for.

We heard directly from social service organisations that the pay equity settlement will be a major change for them and that they believe people working in the social sector who meet registration requirements may now register formally as social workers as a result of this.

Delaying the removal of the experience pathway will therefore support the social sector to transition to this major shift in its operating environment. Another important shift is that there has been an increase in recognition of the importance of indigenous knowledge in the social sector more broadly to reflect the range of communities they serve. The Social Workers Registration Board has made changes to the experience pathway in recent years to ensure that it is more culturally responsive and inclusive of kaupapa Māori approaches, and we’ve seen the number of Māori registering through the experience pathway increase since 2020.

We have heard from sector representatives—the Tangata Whenua Social Workers Association—that they support an extension of the experience pathway in order to ensure that tangata whenua kaimahi, and iwi and social services have the opportunity to register as social workers, and there is more time to further consider indigenous knowledge and practices in social work training before the experience pathway is repealed.

It’s also important to note that the experience pathway to social work registration has shown to be a useful mechanism for social worker registration without diminishing the safety or competency of the workforce. There is no evidence to suggest that experienced social workers without a prescribed qualification, who otherwise meet the registration requirements, are less safe or competent than academically qualified social workers.

The Social Workers Registration Board and social work sector partners have identified that there’s likely to be a long-term place for vocational pathways to social worker registration, but more work is needed to explore what future pathways need to look like. They are also working with education sector and social work sector partners on improving the accessibility of social worker registration, training, and qualifications. Delaying the repeal of section 13 will enable this work to be further developed before the experience pathway is removed.

Social workers provide an essential front-line service to individuals, whānau, and communities. Having a social work workforce that is responsive to increasingly complex and diverse needs is crucial. This bill ensures that the experience pathway can continue for a further four years so that we do not exacerbate workforce shortages in the coming years, can leverage benefits of the pay equity settlement, and enable better recognition of indigenous knowledge and experience in the workforce.

I want to acknowledge the social work representatives who reached out to the Government in support of this extension and advocated for their workforce. I want to end by thanking all of the social workers for doing the mahi. You undertake difficult and challenging work with people who are often highly vulnerable, and this is an incredibly valuable service for our communities. I commend the bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I want to thank the Hon Dr Duncan Webb, the Minister resuming his seat, for outlining some of the intent behind the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill, but what was clearly lacking in it was the explanation of why a four-year extension is required.

So I just want to take members of the House, and those who are following the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill debate, back a bit, because improvements in social work have been something that has crossed over Governments of both persuasions over the years; in effect, starting back in 2003, when the legislation was first put in. It’s all around ensuring the safety of the public and enhancing the professionalism of social workers, and then, during National’s time, when Anne Tolley was the Minister in charge, it then moved towards mandatory registration. So it has been a long time in coming. The legislation introduced by Anne Tolley was introduced in 2017 and it passed in 2019. But I want to bring back to the House some of the reasons why this mandatory registration was seen to be so important, because that is a big part of my questioning around why it is an extension of four years.

We do know that social workers across New Zealand work in health, work in justice, work in education, work in social services and child protection—they work with some of our most vulnerable New Zealanders, and the work they do is just so critical. So part of the move to make social workers’ registration mandatory was recognising that it was about lifting the skills and the professionalism of the sector. Actually, having spoken at the Social Service Providers Aotearoa conference last week, the common feedback is just the level of complexity that New Zealanders are presenting with now, and I think that reinforces why that requirement is for mandatory registration. Increasingly, social workers are dealing with children, young people, adults, and families with complex high needs. That was identified when the legislation was introduced in 2017. I think that if you roll forward from there, over the last couple of years, and now what we’re seeing in recent months—and this is currently being faced by some parts of the country today—are weather events that are providing even greater challenges.

So there is a need for social workers—full stop. I accept the fact that there is a challenge in terms of the supply of social workers but also we must hold fast to continuing to increase the skills and professionalism. One of the things that was enabled by the mandatory registration process is ongoing development, and I want to also acknowledge the Social Workers Registration Board. They did significant work at the time when the kind of registration deadline approached, and that was 2021.

The law was introduced in 2017, it was passed in 2019, then the voluntary registration expired and became mandatory in 2021, and then there was the experience pathway available up until 2024, and so I haven’t heard a sufficient argument yet in terms of why there is an extension of four years. I have some suspicions. One of the suspicions one of my colleagues, perhaps, wouldn’t be surprised about, and that is the state of vocational education and the massive reform that’s under way. I wonder if that’s had an impact. I wonder if that’s been a contributing factor in terms of those not taking that pathway for the qualification route. So I might keep my suspicion for another day on that way—my colleague Penny Simmonds is nodding.

But while we always accepted that the experience pathway is a valid and important pathway, I’m not sure why—even if it did require an extension—it needs to be for four years. That’s a very long time from now, and I think there are still multiple challenges that aren’t addressed by this legislation. The pay equity, I think, will be a significant step, but it does feel as if it’s taking for ever, and I know that for those who are working in the sector—I think about some that I met with just last week—they are tired and they are feeling very under pressure.

One of the things that is adding extra pressure is the ongoing red tape and bureaucracy that the current Government is imposing upon them, and so I wondered if part of the conversation, instead of just pushing out the deadline for this pathway for four years, would be to actually look at some of the things that get in the way. It was a shocking figure: 55 percent of social workers’ time is spent doing admin—55 percent. Now, if I think about it, and I’m picturing a whole range of faces of social workers that I know in my electorate and across those that I come into contact with in my portfolio responsibilities—man, they provide magic. They do magic in their communities. To spend 55 percent of their time doing admin does seem quite a waste.

But, anyway, this pathway being extended for four years is, I think, concerning. I wonder if some of it is just another element of non-delivery where the Government didn’t get on and do what they needed to do, and that may well have been to encourage and support more to take the academic route or to look at a more vocationally based, blended training model for apprenticeships, which we know work so well in other areas.

Instead, what we have is the request of the Government to extend it for four years, and it says, basically, that it’s because of the pay equity settlement, of which we have no idea. Does that mean the pay equity settlement will be four years away? Goodness, I hope not. It’s only at stage four of 10 stages, so four years does seem a long way away.

The social worker workforce supply and demand pressures—the comment in the statement from the Minister was that it’s been exacerbated by COVID-19. I think it’s fair to say that it existed before COVID-19. It’s not necessarily a new problem, and even if you said, “OK, it’s exacerbated by COVID-19.”, then maybe the logical extension would be for two years. But, again, the extension that the Government want to put through today is four years. The other one is this—and I do want to acknowledge the work that kaimahi do around the country, but I wouldn’t have thought that it was a new issue in terms of ensuring equitable pathways for kaimahi to be registered social workers.

So, again, it seems as if this issue has been blown up a bit. It was an issue when the legislation was introduced in 2017. Part of having the experience pathway in place was to absolutely recognise the people that have worked in our communities not just for 10 or 15 years but for 20, 30, 40 years, in many cases, and to make sure that through the mandatory registration we didn’t lose them from the social work profession.

But it is important also that part of that mandatory registration is having all social workers having to meet appropriate standards and undertake ongoing professional development as part of renewing their annual practising certificate. So it’s not just kind of getting to the line; it’s actually making sure that the social workers are supported, and, as I’ve said before, given the complexity that many of the social workers are increasingly facing, I think that those elements are incredibly important.

So I do think the four-year extension case hasn’t been put to the Parliament today. We will be supporting this legislation, with reservations, and the other obvious reservation—which we will get to—is: why on earth, yet again, is Labour ramming through another piece of legislation with a shortened report-back? If the extension is for four years and the deadline for this expires in 2024, why is it that they insist on ramming it through and doing it without the full process?

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a real pleasure to stand and speak on this bill. The Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill is something that I have been really delighted to read. It’s a very short bill, and it just changes the date, as we’ve heard from the member the Hon Louise Upston, who has resumed her seat. It gives an extra four years for the ability to apply under section 13 using experience.

Now, the reason I’m delighted to stand and speak to this bill is that, no, I’m not a social worker, but I have spent a large proportion of my work life working alongside social workers, and what I can say is that there is a number of extraordinary practitioners out there who do not hold qualifications. They do not hold qualifications, yet their work is lifesaving, their work is incredibly professional, and their work is absolutely strength-based and empathetic, and the thing about that is that it is also safe practice. So I’m really delighted that this pathway remains for another four years.

It’s actually quite a difficult process to become qualified in this manner, and, in fact, I have helped and supported and mentored a number of people into this pathway, and it has taken them up to two years to do that, to gather the evidence. So I am delighted that we have a four-year window for this.

I just want to very quickly say, as well, today we have got some really nasty adverse weather events happening. We’ll have our emergency services in there on the front line—I acknowledge that—but after that, it will be our social workers who are in those homes. It will be our social workers who are there in the community, in the emergency accommodation, and all of the places that they need to be in order to help and support our community. So with that very short speech, I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise to speak in support, but with reservations, of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill. Just to be very clear: the bill is seeking to delay that repeal of the experience pathway as a means of registering to have a qualification prescribed by the Social Workers Registration Board; repealing that to a further four years, to 2028. The current law allows for that experience pathway, and it’s not an unusual thing to have that recognition of prior learning being given the recognition that it should have. The bill is seeking to have that four-year extension, which my colleague has questioned the need for it being quite that far.

So the National Party actually introduced the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill in August 2017. It was particularly important in that it did the following: made the registration for social work compulsory, protected the use of the title “social worker”, and ensured that social workers were competent and fit to practise. It was entirely appropriate for those matters to be introduced in that bill, because, as Dr Webb said earlier, our social workers are often working with the most vulnerable New Zealanders, and it’s absolutely important that those vulnerable people are kept safe. It’s not unusual when a profession is going through a transition period of going from unregulated to regulated to have that ability to recognise the experience of workers in that industry who may not have undertaken a formal qualification.

I do at this point want to acknowledge all our social workers, whether they are formally and academically qualified or have had their registration recognised by the board because of the experience that they have amassed over many years. So I want to acknowledge those social workers and I want to acknowledge the challenges and the emotional toll that their work has on them.

I also want to acknowledge those in the tertiary sector who teach the social worker qualifications. Many of these qualifications are in the vocational education sector. I want to comment a little on the thoughts of my colleague the Hon Louise Upston, who was concerned that some of the upheaval in the vocational education sector may well be impacting on the numbers that are being taken into those training programmes. So I acknowledge the anxiety that many of those tutors might be feeling in those social worker qualifications now.

The other point that the Hon Louise Upston made was that 55 percent of social workers’ time is doing admin. I’m almost certain that social workers with a passion for working with the most vulnerable, with helping people, do not have an equal amount of passion for doing administration. So that is something that I am sure must be weighing heavily on a number of social workers.

I think of Awarua Whanau Services, who I visited last week, who do wonderful work in Southland, and I want to acknowledge them. They have, of course, nurses and midwives and other health workers, but they also have a number of social workers who are under considerable stress and pressure at the moment. Many of their comments aligned with that fact that we just talked about before, of 55 percent of their time being spent on admin.

So I’m very pleased that the Hon Duncan Webb outlined how the process is undertaken for social workers to get their registration recognised through the experience pathway, and that it is in no way inferior to a pathway of a formal qualification. For anyone who might be listening, it is quite a formal process: portfolios have to be submitted; the story of the pathway of the social worker; how they got into social work; their relevant employment history, and, often, that is of a really significant period and often actually predating when there were formal qualifications; and any other qualifications that they might hold—and I’m aware that many of them might hold ancillary qualifications, but qualifications that, none the less, are very important to the work that they do. I think of things like level 2, 3, and 4 in Te Ara Reo Māori—qualifications that many social workers have undertaken. They must have details of professional development they have done, and also be able to demonstrate that they have the competence to work in the social work field. So it is not a simple process; it’s a very complex process, and one which if they are recognised as gaining the experience pathway to being a registered social worker, that they have demonstrated considerable skills, experience, knowledge, and ability. So I just want to reinforce what the Hon Duncan Webb said about the importance of that pathway.

So this extension really is largely—as I can see it—in part due to the Government’s inability to make progress in that pay equity settlement. So it’s of real concern that the length of extension that is being asked for is four years. When we have a look at the Public Service Commission website on the pay equity settlement, it’s currently at the stage of data cross-checking, which is the fourth stage of 10 stages. So, unless the next six stages are incredibly quick, it does assume that that process has a long way to go. So I assume what the Government is looking for is a safety net of a time frame through this legislation. I’d have to say that four years is probably pushing things, really, further than, I’m sure, a number of social workers would want to see. Look, it’s not unusual in that sort of transition phase of a vocation or a profession becoming more regulated, to have a period where those with experience are being recognised. But another four years seems an extraordinarily long period, and given that most social workers now would be coming to the registration process through having a qualification, it does really beg the question of why the Government feel that they need to give themselves this length of time.

The other thing that is of concern—and the Hon Louise Upston commented on it as well—is: given the legislation goes through until 2024 now, the extension is for four years to 2028, why on earth ram it through with a shortened consultation period? Why not take the full consultation period and why not give respect to this vocation, this profession of social workers, to have a full consultation period, rather than trying to ram it through, given the time periods that we are looking at, 2024 and being taken out to 2028?

So we are supporting this at this first reading. We are supporting it with reservations. In doing so, though, we acknowledge the wonderful work that our social workers do out in the community—both those who are formally, academically qualified, but also those who have gone through the experience pathway. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Kia ora, Madam Speaker. Social workers play a mana-enhancing role within our communities. They play a transformational role within many families in our communities, and they are so necessary and continue to be necessary.

Now, in my adult years working with young people, I’ve experienced and worked alongside social workers in places like school classrooms and in my home or, at other times, in police cells—sadly, in prison cells, at times, as well—as well as down the streets, and in other parts of our society. Social workers have had to step in and work and walk alongside me and young people that we have been working with. For me, it’s seeing the crucial and the important role they play, and therefore we need to get this piece of legislation through to ensure that we can extend this piece of work, that we can ensure we have good social workers working within our communities.

It’s around enhancing the professionalism. It’s enhancing the safety, not only for the social workers but for those they are working with, and for those within their communities. This is important legislation. I just want to say thank you to the social workers throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, who do such a coalface piece of work in terms of supporting our most vulnerable. I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to stand on behalf of ACT and speak to the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill. When I first read this, I was a little bit concerned. It appeared that we’re just kicking the can down the road because we can’t meet an obligation by a certain time frame. People have known that this time frame has been coming and we’ve known that this was going to be repealed in 2024 for quite a while, and it just feels that the Government has not come to the party to make sure that we have filled this gap in the time frame that they wanted—especially seeing as, since 2021, the requirement was made that it was compulsory to be registered with the Social Workers Registration Board.

So we knew this was going to cause an issue for people who were working within the industry from 2021, who didn’t have a formal qualification, and who were working with life experience—which is on board with the educational process but, unfortunately, now you are required to register with the board and you must have this qualification. And so going through this experience pathway seems like quite a convoluted process. It can take a very long time, from what I’ve heard. Sometimes they can get quite far through the process and can be denied anyway, and then may have to go through the education sector to become qualified.

My concern is that according to—well, how I see it is, since 2021, these people haven’t been able to work within the sector, in social work practice. So that’s two years already. And then we’re going to extend this out to 2024, so we could have people that have not worked within the sector for up to six years. Things change very quickly within the sector. I spoke at a panel last week, the social workers’ panel. The concern is that social work practice has got quite bureaucratic-al. There’s a lot of processes to follow, and now a lot of red tape, and it’s quite complicated. Unless you know what you’re doing, you can actually get yourself into quite a bit of a pickle. They’re spending a lot of time doing paperwork and doing admin, rather than actually doing their jobs. The admin side may be something that social workers who haven’t practised for four or five years may not have the knowledge of, and they may need to go through their educational sector to build up their skills.

I’m glad that we’ve been doing the pay equity within the social services sector, because these people do amazing jobs. They’re out there and they’re in our communities, and they’re dealing with, sometimes, the most vulnerable people within our communities. But they’re also dealing with some of the most volatile situations, where they can walk into quite dangerous environments and have to have the skills to know how to cope with that and how to de-escalate situations and how to work with families and with children and with the sector, and make sure that they’re following all these complex rules in the background as well. So I feel we need to be making sure that they’ve had this option.

But there comes a time where kicking the can down the road isn’t actually going to make much of a difference. Is the education sector ready to take on board the new people wanting to go through the social worker qualifications, and, if not, is that something we also need to acknowledge—that this may be a problem, that we’re not set up within the educational sector to bring on the 700 shortfall of social workers, and that by just looking at having these experience pathways coming in isn’t actually going to fill the gap of the 700 shortage? I’m not quite sure it will.

The prices to actually go through this experience pathway are quite high. I was looking, and you’re looking at around $3,500, and that’s a lot of money coming out of someone’s pocket to go through a process where there’s actually no guarantee that you’re going to get to the end of that process and have this qualification. So the educational sector pathway deal we need to be promoting a bit more, upskilling people a bit more. In the modern era of where social work has gone—because it may not be the same as it was 10 years ago—are we actually making sure that these people are prepared and ready and we’re not setting them up to fail, going into an industry that they may not be able to cope with now?

We have gone through some of the hardest times in the last few years, where families have been through turmoil times. We have communities now where mental health services are not available, and social workers are going into situations that sometimes could be quite dangerous for them, could be quite dangerous for the people working alongside them. And we need to support the whole sector. In the education system, we have children that just aren’t coping anymore; that are socially behind about three or four years. In the health sector, we’ve got people that can’t find a bed and that can’t find a home. And these social workers are actually going further than what they had been for quite a while. So we need to make sure that they do have the skills to cope with these new issues that have come forward. And with the floods that are happening in the Hawke’s Bay and Auckland and Northland, and just the devastation that we’ve seen over the last few years, this sector really needs to be backed a lot more than what they have.

The four years just seems a long time to push this along. I’m looking forward to hearing from the select committee and hearing from the sector as to why we’re looking at the four years, and hearing from the sector about why this has become an issue and why it’s taken so long for some of these people to actually go through the experience pathway. What were the barriers? What’s going to change now that’s going to make a difference, that those barriers aren’t actually there anymore? And are there other things that we need to actually be looking at and hear from the social sector to hear what the problems actually are to getting registered through that experience pathway?

ACT will support this bill, with reservations, but I’m really looking forward to hearing from the sector and hearing from the people that were working on the ground, have had years of experience, but haven’t gone through that experience pathway. I’d like to know why they haven’t done that and why this will make a difference for them to do that in the future. So thank you, Madam Speaker.

Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to support the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill, which, in effect, will delay the repeal of the experience pathway for social worker registrations for four years until 2028. As has been canvassed, this pathway has existed since 2003 and it was meant to be repealed in February next year. I guess it’s worth noting that this pathway was intended to provide people who have experience in relevant social work practice—for them to become registered. It’s important to note that there has been a huge range of benefits to this pathway in that it also has created the conditions for about 25 percent of people coming in being Māori, and increasing the number of Māori social workers that we have, where the community has given really, really strong feedback.

As somebody who, prior to being an MP, acted as a field educator training incoming social workers—and shout-out to the students from Unitec and Massey University—I can see why this pathway is really important, because we would have registered social workers who would often come to my previous workplace of Auckland Action Against Poverty, who themselves had very little relevant knowledge of how, for example, Work and Income worked, and yet we have members of our community working not necessarily as registered social workers but who had a depth of knowledge and experience in doing advocacy for members of their communities, who actually could become incredibly competent registered social workers, yet there was no pathway for them to be recognised prior to this. Sometimes, re-entering university was simply not a feasible option for them.

I take the point that previous members have made regarding some of the challenges in the sector. Those are all really worthwhile challenges for us to throw at the Government, regarding pay, regarding just general uptake of social workers, the social workers themselves feeling valued, and the cost of entering this experience pathway. But I think, at the core, what this bill is aiming to do is to protect a pathway that has had benefits, and I do also look forward to submitters then being able to unpack what else there is that we need to do to ensure that this pathway maintains its relevancy and that it continues being fit for purpose, acknowledging that it would now be 20 years old in terms of, for example, the requirements that we ask people and the sort of criteria that we set for people coming into that pathway.

But it is important that we do build a valued, well-paid, and resourced social worker workforce, because they’re key to ensuring that our communities are able to access their legal entitlements, to support them feeling connected, and that we have a diverse workforce as well so that our migrant communities, our Pacific and Māori communities, feel like they can access support in a way that is culturally competent. So we look forward to the submissions from the public, and the Green Party will be supporting this bill.

Kia ora, Madam Speaker, and thank you for the opportunity to speak on this legislation.

I just want to say a couple of things. Social workers are hugely important and to work with some of the most vulnerable people in our community—and I know we’ve got a couple of social workers in the House whose experience and knowledge will speak directly to this—it’s really important that we support them in their work by ensuring that they are safe to practise, and that’s the whole point of registration in the first place.

However, in saying that, we all know lots of people who have worked in the social work field, very competent, compassionate, and capable people, who, for one reason or another, have not gone through a formal education process but have all the skills and hallmarks of good social work practice to their core and have this opportunity through the experience pathway to then become recognised as a registered social worker. We should provide them with that opportunity, because it is important for us to have competent social workers and it is important for us to grow the pool of social workers.

However, in saying that, at the same time we are sending a very strong message that this experience pathway will at some point no longer be available and we really want to encourage people to take the opportunity that our institutions can provide in terms of that skill set and those qualifications. They are a hugely valuable workforce to us, and I can’t say more so than in recent times when we as a country have gone through some very difficult times. I support this bill to the House.

Tēnā tātou katoa i te pō nei. E te Māngai, koutou ko ngā ruahine, ruanuku, rua rangatahi, o tēnei Whare ataahua, tēnā tātou katoa.

[Greetings to all of us tonight. To the Speaker, and also the sage-like ladies, the enlightened men, and enlightened youth of this beautiful House, greetings to all of us.]

It gives me great pleasure to speak briefly to the first reading of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill. I’m reminded of a great man called Taina Pohatu, who used to spend many days in the Māngere campus of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, down there at Canning Crescent, just around the corner from the KFC, who was a doyen of social worker methodology and pedagogy; someone who was a real visionary in the Māori education space around social work.

I acknowledge that the social workers that I’ve met are huge contributors to our hapori, to our communities, and that good social workers generate very positive outcomes in health, especially mental health, family health, whānau health. People like my wife’s niece, Jannica Clark, and her colleagues in Hamilton West—actually down there on Collingwood Street—working in tough situations like Melville, Bader, and, my personal favourite, Fairfield.

The bill extends the time of the experience pathway as a means of registering for the Social Workers Registration Board, and the delay is sought for four years. I acknowledge the comments made about the need for this. Some of you might recall that the National Party, Te Rōpū Nāhinara, introduced the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill way back in 2017—different time and place. So we support this bill—tautoko. E tautoko ana te Rōpū Nāhinara i tēnei pire [The National Party supports this bill] at this first reading.

Now, the experience pathway requires the board to be satisfied of an individual’s experience and whether it’s sufficient, instead of having a recognised qualification. The main criteria, of course: the story of one’s pathway into social work—and some people have quite an intrepid journey into social work, through sports, some through culture, some through addiction. They get there with those experiences, and take those experiences with them, and are able to actively engage and listen to those people that they seek to help—their employment history and herstory, other qualifications held, and competence.

Retaining the experience pathway, in my view, allows for the continued demand—high demand for social work—to be better met for the kaimahi that are working in this space, and credentialises those who have the clear work experience, and, actually, the life experience, in order to help those people in need, to help those people that need that tautoko, and to practise as officially registered social workers.

Clearly, and my colleagues may have socialised this, the issue that we have is that the context of the proposed delay is that we’ve got an ongoing challenge to make progress in the pay equity settlement. Reading through the Public Service Commission’s website, there is an implication that the work required to sort this matter will not be completed in the foreseeable future. So there is some mahi to be done, there is some mahi to address those outstanding pay equity issues, but it’s one that I look forward—ultimately—to closure around.

There probably aren’t enough good social workers out there, given the great demand for kaimahi hauora, but we agree that a delay of four years seems safe, and, more importantly, gives the Government time to address the settlement issues that remain outstanding. I want to take my pōtae off. Ka tangohia taku pōtae ki a [I take my hat off to] Taina Pohatu me tōna momo—Taina Pohatu and those members of his ilk in the academic and practice professions of social work. Tēnā tātou katoa.

Tangi Utikere—five-minute call.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise and take what will be a brief call on this bill. I want to add to the chorus in acknowledging the work that social workers do in communities all around this country. I certainly do not disagree with any of the comments and contributions that members have made in the House this evening in that regard.

This amendment bill is about ensuring that there is some certainty for those who have a pathway to registration for social work based on the experience route. Sure, there are opportunities for qualifications to be gained—that is one particular way in which a professional in this field may gain registration; ensuring that there is some certainty within the experience pathway is another. It’s interesting to note that the things that are taken into account are largely based around experience—for many, that’s many, many years working in the sector as a social worker—but also that they’re able to demonstrate some competence. So it’s not just about the number of years that a social worker may have been in the job or doing the role but ensuring that they maintain competence as a practitioner but also ensuring that the whole various range of different cultural competencies are there as well.

This is a bill that is not about lowering the bar; it is about ensuring that there is certainty for a period of four years to those who currently have a route to registration within the social work field, that being experience. I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. In my time in the hospital system, social workers were a crucial part of the team, and what their role was was to work with patients and their whānau, who were often in very difficult circumstances, and connect them through to the services that they needed, but also to make sure that they had a safe place to return to when we discharged them home.

But it’s also crucial, given the important role they play in people’s lives, that social workers have the relevant training and experience. And this is why the Government passed the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill in 2019, which required everyone practising as a social worker to register with the Social Workers Registration Board. But it also recognised that there was a number of people practising as social workers in the community who, while they didn’t have the relevant academic qualifications, had had experience over a number of years. And so, basically, what this bill also recognised was the need for something like the experience pathway, which was in the original Social Workers Registration Act. And so that was retained for a period of time, which would allow people in this situation to register with the Social Workers Registration Board based on their experience.

But as we’ve heard in the House tonight, the experience pathway is due to be repealed on 28 February 2024, and what this bill will do is extend that for another four years so that people in this situation have that pathway available to them for that period. So it’s a very simple bill, but it’s an important bill, and I’m happy to commend it to the House.

Kia ora, thank you. I’m the last to take a call for the National Party on the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill at the first reading. My colleague the Hon Louise Upston has expressed that the National Party does support this bill, although there’s some reservation. That reservation is associated with the timing or the timeliness where the process is being expedited to take it through to select committee, and being opened up for public comment with scrutiny but being delayed in terms of the repeal being extended out by four years from 28 February 2024 to 2028.

The commentary or the debate that’s been expressed in the House this evening—there’s a sense of rationale for that around pay parity issues for social workers. On that point, I want to do a shout-out to our social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand. I’ve had the distinct privilege, in some years past in my life, of having served alongside a number of social workers in the days when we worked together in Child, Youth and Family Service. That was back in Whanganui, and I’m going to do a shout-out—because I often correlate relationships back to bills that I have the privilege of standing and speaking to, addressing the House and the public on—to social workers back home in Whanganui. Tasi Sua, who was probably the longest-serving social worker in the history of Whanganui social work. Tasi has probably given a good 40 years of dedicated service in this space, and he’s well-known in the community for the good work that he has done intergenerationally. Shout out also to Christina Gush. Christina and I, we started out together—where it just happened to be in my former life as a lawyer—working in Child, Youth and Family Service. I taught the legal component to the social work bachelor’s programme back in Whanganui, and this bill, in part, is looking at the importance of social worker competency and registration. And that’s for those who went through the institutions of a Bachelor of Social Work or social work diplomas. So I worked with social workers in that space, and we had that journey of experience towards their registration as social workers.

This bill is addressing an alternative in terms of experience pathway for those social workers who come from life practice and experience of not having gone through the bachelor or the diploma or the formal tertiary education institution system for that training. And so it’s very important that there is that avenue, particularly when our nation is in crisis mode with all the fallout that, effectively, social workers are having to pick up the pieces and try and band-aid or mend. And so with this bill, as has been heard in the debates before the House, there is that formal pathway, but this is recognising those social workers registered by way of an alternative experience pathway meeting or satisfying competency and requirements that are assessed by the Social Workers Registration Board. And again, the chair of that board is Shannon Pakura. Shannon was the chief social worker of Child, Youth and Family Service in the days when I served in the office back in Whanganui. Shannon whakapapas to Whanganui too, relationships. And importantly, Shannon has taken her vast lifetime of commitment and service as a social worker, as a former chief social worker with the organisation now known as Oranga Tamariki, and, applying her skill, her analysis, her experience, and her service in that role of chair of the Social Workers Registration Board.

The National Party does support this bill. We value social workers and the valued work and commitment that they give to our people and our communities of Aotearoa. But it seems that the reason that this bill—in terms of the experience pathway that has been extended out for another four years, is because the Government has been a bit slow on the pace in picking up and addressing the pay parity issue to value our social workers. That’s been done now, but it’s not happening quickly enough. Like everything else, slow on delivery. Where there’s value, there needs to be recognition, and the timeliness of that.

So the issue that the National Party has is we value our social workers and valued them to the extent and the point of not dragging and delaying necessary matters that need to be put before this Government and passed into law. So, also on a final note and commentary, I did a little bit of research and I saw that on 21 March this year, which was World Social Work Day, the Social Workers Registration Board published its findings of a 2022 workforce survey. And that survey identified that the biggest challenge for the sector is recruitment and retention. Thus, the importance of the experience pathway where there haven’t been enough social workers go through that formal institutionalised tertiary level - type training. And that the other challenge is followed closely by pay parity.

So the point is the National Party supports this, but, the Government: get on and deliver. Stop dragging the chains on this. Value the people who need to be valued, most importantly, for the contributions that are being made, particularly at this time when Aotearoa New Zealand is in a state of crisis. The National Party commends the bill to the House.

Noa’ia e te Mana Whakawā. It’s always a privilege to speak in this House, but particularly on this bill, the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill, because, I am a registered social worker and I know what it’s like to be a social worker, to manage social workers—and I know what it’s like.

So, before I get on to that, I want to acknowledge the weather event in Auckland, and as the Labour list MP based in Papakura, I want to thank the Papakura Marae, who have opened up their door to accept people in tonight. So, please, do go out to Papakura.

Social work is a calling, and I want to thank everyone that has chosen social work to be their calling, and, if you think about social work, I want to invite those who are interested in social work to, please, enter into social work. In 2003, the legislation came in. I was a youth justice manager in Ōtāhuhu at the time, and it took me four years to register. And that’s how long it takes for someone in the field to think about registration, to fit it within their workplace, and to support others to do that. So one of the reasons why I registered as the manager was to encourage social workers to register. The year 2025 is when the Social Workers Registration Board will put in their review of the Act, so having an extension to 2028 makes sense, because if they make recommendations from the review of the social workers registration, then we can take these four years into account.

I would love to speak about the work carried out by social workers, but I think we’ve heard enough from the House today. But I just want to say to social workers who could be probation officers, who could be working at Oranga Tamariki, who could be at the hospital, and who could serve the community and its most vulnerable people, thank you for what you do in the community.

This bill is an important one, and I commend the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill to the House. Mālō.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a first time.

The question is, That the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill be considered by the Social Services and Community Committee.

Motion agreed to.

Bill referred to the Social Services and Community Committee.

Instruction to Social Services and Community Committee