CYFS head unhappy with Kingseat set-up

The country's child welfare boss has ordered a South Auckland trust to find better facilities for about 14 teenagers now housed in part of the old Kingseat mental hospital at Karaka.

Ray Smith, the head of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS), visited the facility run by the Tirohonga Trust last week with Education Ministry deputy secretary Nicholas Pole, who is reviewing a school at the same site run by the troubled Felix Donnelly College.

"My view about the facilities is that they don't meet the standard that is fully acceptable to me for young people," he said.

"The level of care that is provided by those providers is excellent. I back the providers absolutely. But I'm not sure that the surroundings are ideal for young people, so we are working actively with that trust to help them find better premises."

Mr Smith and Mr Pole also visited the college's main campus at Tuakau, two family homes for the college's students run by Tuakau-based Youthlink Trust, and the college's other campuses at Dingwall Trust in Papatoetoe and at Kokiri Marae and the former Bairds Rd Intermediate, both in Otara.

The college was established in 1999 for teenagers in CYFS care and had 56 students in May. The Education Review Office recommended in June that Education Minister Anne Tolley should consider closing it because of problems including bullying by staff and dilapidated classrooms. Mrs Tolley has also asked for submissions by yesterday on whether to close Waimokoia School in Half Moon Bay, one of the country's three residential schools for primary-aged children with behaviour problems.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett told Dingwall Trust director Tracie Shipton at a conference yesterday that she had discussed the future of both schools with Mrs Tolley.

"We are going to be making decisions collectively on what are the best outcomes for those young people," she said.

Mr Smith said he had made a four-point plan for the five trusts housing the students at Felix Donnelly College:

Improve the facilities at Tirohonga Trust.

A practice review at Kokiri Trust.

Ensure that the practice at Youthlink Trust is "strong".

Work with the Education Ministry to ensure that the young people get "the education they deserve".

He said the Kokiri Trust did "an excellent job" but was open to a practice review.

He said the young people at Felix Donnelly had not succeeded in mainstream education and needed "the best alternative education that can be provided".

A commissioner who has run the college for the past three years, Ross Wilson, left last week and has gone overseas.

His replacement, former Diocesan School principal Gail Thomson, was at the college yesterday but declined to comment.