It also showed being chronically short staffed put pressure on existing staff and affected morale. There were also issues with staff retention due to people moving into different jobs within the same sector or experiencing burnout. Mr Newman said this was definitely a problem in Northland.
"Two or three years ago there was a real lack of capability of staff, no doubt," he said.
"But these days they are professional and they do care deeply but they're burnt out.
"They're snowed under with high-end abuse cases. Everything from sexual abuse, physical abuse, not feeding kids, kids roaming the streets."
While the report focused on CYF nationally, statistics on the CYF website also painted a grim picture in Northland.
In the 12 months to June last year there was a total of 1192 findings of substantiated abuse and 3696 care and protection reports of concern that required further action in the region.
"It doesn't surprise me. We've been saying in Northland there is a crisis," said Mr Newman.
Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis said he was not surprised by the report but was surprised about the statistics for Northland.
"I'm surprised it's so low. My impression was that it was higher but I mean when you look at sexual abuse only 5 per cent of cases are reported so their could be many more going unreported."
Social Development Minister Anne Tolley said the report provided a valuable resource for an independent expert panel who will lead an overhaul of CYF.
"There are no quick fixes and no magic wands that can be waved. Simply throwing resources at a system that isn't performing as it should hasn't worked in the past and won't work now."
But Mr Newman disagreed.
"At the end of the day there needs to be more training, more resources and better pay," he said.
"There needs to be something to bring people to the job."