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Child, Youth and Family is starting a major recruitment drive in a bid to employ about 90 more social workers early in the New Year.
The need for the extra workers was identified in a review of the department made public a fortnight ago.
The findings confirmed the pressure CYF had been
under in recent years, acting chief executive Brenda Pilott said in a statement today.
"Child, Youth and Family is investing heavily in the frontline. Our staff have been under pressure to respond to an increasing volume of incoming work, as well as dealing with their existing clients.
"This has resulted in us focusing more on managing critical incidents than on ongoing case management. This has led to an inadvertent trade-off between quality and quantity," she said.
"The appointment of additional social workers is fundamental to stabilising the organisation and improving our services."
The review found CYF had serious systemic problems and was struggling to manage complex services with the money allocated to it.
On the day it was released the Government announced the department would receive an extra $127 million funding over three years.
The department said in a statement it was targeting qualified and experienced social workers, including those who had left the workforce completely, had been employed by CYF in the past or had been working overseas and planned to return to New Zealand in the New Year.
High quality graduates would also be considered as would those with qualifications and expertise in related disciplines such as education, nursing and psychology.
The number of children in CYF care had risen from 3265 in 1999 to 4480 in 2002, but the yearly rate of growth was beginning to slow and during 2002/03 reached a year-on-year low of 2 per cent growth, the department said.
CYF received 31,781 notifications of child abuse, neglect or welfare issues in the year ending 30 June 2003, up 15 per cent on the previous year. Eighty-eight per cent of these required further action by the department.
- NZPA
