CYF head hits back at quality claims

Paula Bennett is looking into how state agencies can work together to protect children. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The head of Child, Youth and Family has rejected claims from a former staff member that social workers dealing with child abuse cases are overworked, overmanaged and often undertrained.

Last week the Weekend Herald revealed that former Children's Commissioner Dr Cindy Kiro had accused CYF social workers involved in child deaths between 2000 and 2006 of not investigating cases properly, ignoring children's needs and leaving children in families with a long history of violence.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has responded to these concerns and others with an examination of how state agencies can work together better to protect vulnerable young children.

Former CYF child protection worker Rosalene Bradbury, who responded to the article, said most of her former colleagues had less than two years' experience and suffered from burnout.

"They don't last long because the work is very difficult, the conditions aren't good and the remuneration is poor (salaries start about $35,000).

"So all of those things conspire to mean you have people who don't stay long in the job."

Ms Bradbury, who worked for the state agency in the 1980s and early this decade, said many social workers were hired without training or qualifications in the 1990s when CYF was trying to increase the number of Maori and Pacific Island staff with strong links to their communities.

As a result CYF still did not have enough skilled workers to carry out the demanding work and managers tended not to trust staff to use their professional judgment.

Everyone was "so keen to cover their tracks in case something goes wrong" that bureaucracy was over-emphasised, with up to a dozen forms to fill in for each case.

"In the main people go into social work because they want to make a difference," Ms Bradbury said, "but it's very easy to end up being totally overwhelmed by the amount of work and frustration of not having the time and resources and ... leaving children in a less than perfect situation because of the pressure of getting on to the next one."

CYF head Ray Smith said working conditions and training had improved considerably in the four years since Ms Bradbury had worked there.

The biggest change was that waiting times had been virtually eliminated so workloads were under control.

They were still high in some places, especially in South Auckland, but staff were able to concentrate on doing their jobs without worrying about thousands of unallocated cases.

Mr Smith said there had been an increased emphasis on training and qualifications in the past few years.

About three-quarters of field social workers were now qualified, and new staff did a 12-week training programme as soon as they started.

"I think we're well on the way to achieving the professional workforce that we've talked about."

The burnout rate was also lower, and only 19 per cent of all permanent field social workers had less than two years' experience, compared to 32 per cent in 2004.

A few staff would always leave quickly because of the disturbing nature of child abuse.

"Not everyone's cut out for that and that's a reality that people can only face when they start the job."

A senior lecturer at Unitec's school of social work, Gavin Rennie, said CYF had made a huge effort to get more staff trained since the 1990s.

Unitec and other social work training schools had increased the amount they taught on child protection in recent years in response to employer demand and public concern.

'STOP FOCUSING ON ADULTS' NEEDS'

Sometimes a child's right to be safe has to override a parent's right to privacy, says former social worker Rosalene Bradbury.

The ex-Child Youth and Family staff member agreed with criticism by former Children's Commissioner Dr Cindy Kiro that social workers had to stop focusing on adults' needs at the expense of children.

But she said this could lead to some tough decisions. For instance, a drug-abusing mother could ask a social worker not to tell her parents about her addiction.

Ms Bradbury said she would try to change the mother's mind. If the mother refused she would still tell the parents, for the baby's safety.

She also agreed with plans by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett to investigate whether extended families were necessarily the best places for abused children.

"They are put with those parents for both pragmatic and ideological reasons. The ideological reasons are that the child should be with the family regardless - and that requires challenge - and the second reason is where else do you put the child?"

The shocking abuse suffered by British child migrants to Australia last century showed the dangers of relying on foster homes and institutional care instead.

"But you also have situations where you have young, unprotected parents who should never be in charge of a fragile young life." - Andrew Laxon