Editorial: For kids'sake, agency must act

It's disturbing to learn more than 70 children and young people were abused while in Child Youth and Family care last year. Also disturbing is news that CYF, a child protection agency, does not keep central records on the abuse.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett revealed the information in Parliament last week, in response to a question from the Green Party's Holly Walker.

Ms Bennett said that of the 71 cases of abuse, 30 were by CYF-approved caregivers and the rest by "third party" caregivers.

Thirteen of the cases were prosecuted by police, the others were not.

Even though they were substantial forms of abuse, they weren't at a level police were able to prosecute.

Ms Bennett said she had been assured that all the children who had suffered abuse were now safe and all carers who were known to be abusing children were no longer in a position of care.

It's reassuring to know that the children are now safe, but it's shocking that the agency did not know how many children and young people under its care had been abused and re-abused.

A point not lost on Ms Bennett, who said she too was horrified by the situation.

Ms Bennett asked CYF to review cases of abuse in 2010.

The review was carried out by a social worker and took seven weeks.

Ms Walker, the Greens' spokeswoman for children, said the minister must take immediate steps to ensure the collection of national records of abuse of children in CYF care.

Apparently, it will require a major IT overhaul to collect the data centrally and the Ministry of Social Development was looking into a system upgrade.

I find it hard to fathom why this IT overhaul hasn't already been carried out.

Surely, as a child protection agency, CYF should be gathering this sort of information as a matter of course.

Given that this is not the case, the department should, as a matter of urgency, be taking steps to address the situation to ensure that everything is being done to keep these children safe.