Shaun Robinson of the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services talks of the government’s track record on keeping New Zealand children safe.
The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services scores the government’s performance as 3 out of 10 for improving the care and protection of children.
The Council is seeking meetings with the parliamentary working party on family violence and other key ministers and civil servants to discuss its views.
NZCCSS’ highly critical report “Is any progress being made in care and protection for New Zealand children?” points to five successive plans to reform or restructure services for families in as many years, and matches that with a 60 percent rise in cases of abuse and neglect and pronounces government initiatives a failure.
There has been a lot of planning, reviewing and research, but the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services feels compelled to ask, is there a plot? Are we getting any closer to an effective system of support for children and families that will put an end to New Zealand’s appalling record on care?
A lot of paper has been produced in the last five years; unfortunately a lot of children have been murdered, abused and neglected as well.
We see politicians of all parties become very animated when a high profile case arises. There is invariably a grand new plan with a fresh round of consultation and a high profile programme, and nothing really happens.
There has been a failure to understand communities and families, and this is central to New Zealand’s appalling record in the care and protection of children.
All families need support from a community of relations, friends and neighbours. When that breaks down, family members become vulnerable to violence and all forms of abuse. This can be repeated over generations. Local community people are often aware of these vulnerable families and it is only through local relationships and trust building that the situation can be turned around.
It is extremely frustrating for community agencies working with families, day in, day out. If bureaucrats and politicians saw both the hardship and hope that we see they would have a much greater sense of urgency.
There are no quick fixes, but there are some immediate actions that will help a lot.
There needs to be a continuum of services; from broad support for young families, to services to prevent vulnerable families from reaching a crisis, to crisis intervention. It is vital that all of this continuum is in place or none of it can be successful.
The preventive services constantly fall off the agenda. Significant resources must be channelled to local community-based services who are trusted by local families. These might be iwi, pan-Maori, Pakeha or Pacific-based. The key is that they are local and are resourced for high quality preventive support.
The focus of service relationships and decisions within Child, Youth and Family needs to be at the local office level so that trust and knowledge of local communities can be built. For example, the centralized call-centre should be disbanded and local intake and assessment re-established.
Local community co-operation and planning between services needs to be actively promoted. This must engage the full community including health, education and other relevant sectors.
To support these “on-the-ground” initiatives, the chief executives of Health, Education, Justice, Social Development, Corrections and Police should have clear goals for their contribution to care and protection within their annual performance agreements with their respective ministers. These should include evidence of interdepartmental collaboration.
The Prime Minister should urgently establish a joint ministerial team to improve New Zealand’s performance in care and protection.
NZCCSS challenges all political parties to publicly commit to work cooperatively to improve New Zealand’s child wellbeing and safety as a nationwide priority. This will mean:
It can be done. For our children’s sake, lets get on and do it!