Despite concerns about a shortage of Child, Youth and Family (CYF) social workers in Dannevirke, CYF central regional director Karen Hocking is confident in the service being delivered.
"Two staff resigned from the Dannevirke CYF office at the end of last year to take on new positions in broader social service provision," she told the Dannevirke News.
"Both left voluntarily with our best wishes and thanks for their significant contribution helping our most vulnerable children."
And while sources have told the Dannevirke News families and children were put at risk when cases were closed at that time, Ms Hocking said no cases had been closed without any action.
"There have been cases closed when no further action was required from CYF, as is normal procedure," she said.
"Two staff will be joining the Dannevirke CYF team this month and both bring significant experience and skills to the office."
However, Tararua District Mayor Tracey Collis said she had heard of concerns throughout our community and she intended to write to CYF for clarification of what had happened.
"I'll be following this matter up because I'm very concerned, especially when I hear a Masterton-based family lawyer [Belinda Inglis] on Radio New Zealand highlighting these very concerns," she said.
The new Ministry for Vulnerable Children is expected to be launched next month, but meanwhile, a Massey University psychologist and family violence expert has said a holistic, collaborative approach to delivering social services was effective in bringing about long-term change.
Dr Ruth Gammon, based at the School of Psychology in Wellington, thinks the current system, which she describes as "dividing families into ministerial boxes", is failing.
For the past 30 years Dr Gammon has worked with children affected by family violence and who have high and complex mental health needs, both here and in the United States.
She said our current system's structure resulted in limited improvements to many families' well-being and future prospects.
Too many children fell through the cracks because care and funding was segmented between competing ministries, such as Justice, Education, Health, Housing, Social Development and Vulnerable Children, she said.
In the wraparound model, barriers between ministries were broken down through co-ordinated planning and delivery of care and funding.
The approach worked by identifying and trying to build on the strengths of families and their community.
"We ask 'where are the family's strengths?' The idea is to build the family up, not to pathologise," she said.
One of the principles of wraparound was: "You don't give up, you persist. Families are going to slip up, miss meetings.
"So you look at what the obstacles are and try to work through those.
"Too often, at-risk families report feeling they are not heard, that they feel blamed for their situation and then become alienated from the services supposedly there to help.
"There is a high rate of dissatisfaction, particularly with services for youth, and this is reflected in the high youth suicide rate."