More children are safe

Too many children have lives that make it unlikely they will thrive, belong and achieve. We help build stronger families and support parents to do better for their children. For those children who need it, we provide care and protection.

Green and White Papers for Vulnerable Children

On 27 July 2011, the Government launched the Green Paper for Vulnerable Children. The Paper stimulated public discussion to gain a national consensus on how New Zealand can help prevent child abuse and neglect, and prevent children from becoming vulnerable.

Questions asked in the Green Paper included:

• whether government should intervene in families
• how communities can be supported and encouraged to take more responsibility for the wellbeing of children
• if government spending should be reprioritised towards early intervention
• if monitoring of vulnerable children and their families should occur.

For the first time we used social media to engage with the public. We also co-ordinated 17 meetings for the Minister, from Kaitaia to Invercargill, and a campervan tour that visited 34 towns to engage with the public between July 2011 and February 2012.

We received nearly 10,000 submissions on the Green Paper. These have been used to develop the White Paper, which will be released in October 2012.

Murray Edridge (previous Chief Executive of Barnardos New Zealand), children’s lawyer Sandra Alofivae and former All Black Norm Hewitt supported the Minister for Social Development to lead the public conversation on the Green Paper.

Themes which have emerged include the need for greater information sharing, support for parents, monitoring children from birth and mandatory reporting of suspected abuse and neglect.

Communities keeping our children safe

Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families

The Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families is made up of key decision-makers from government, non-government organisations, the judiciary and Crown entities. Its focus is to promote the elimination of family violence in New Zealand.

Key achievements over 2011/2012 include:

• The third phase of the It’s Not OK campaign - It is OK to Help. The results from the campaign show that:
  • across the country, one in three people have taken some action against violence (up from one in five in 2008). Of those who took action 50 per cent are Māori and 45 per cent are Pacific.
  • 83 per cent believe they could influence someone's violent behaviour, up from 57 per cent in 2008.
• The launch of the Pacific Conceptual Framework for Family Violence, Nga Vaka o Kaiga Tapu. This will be used to guide the development of family violence training for Pacific practitioners.
• The development of a Service User Involvement Guide to help agencies, non-government organisations and service providers to plan, manage and deliver services.

The Ministry provides secretariat support to the Taskforce.

Results from the It’s Not OK campaign show nine out of 10 people believe change is possible.

SKIP – Strategies with Kids, Information for Parents

This year we distributed over 1.6 million resources to provide parents with a range of practical solutions to support positive parenting. To help families learn more about positive parenting, SKIP supported 49 community projects through its Local Initiatives Fund, and helped local initiatives to deliver innovative projects to increase the use of positive parenting.

SKIP offers a range of free resources to support positive parenting.

Family Start

This year we funded 33 providers through Family Start (including one Early Start provider) to deliver services to 6,074 families. As at 30 June 2012, there were 5,304 families receiving services through Family Start or Early Start.

The Family Start Directorate works closely with all 32 Family Start providers to improve their performance against set objectives for the vulnerable families they serve. This has resulted in many of the providers making tangible and positive progress towards meeting our expectations.

Family Start is a home visiting programme that focuses on improving children's growth and health, learning and relationships, family circumstance, environment and safety.

Teen Parents

Vulnerable teen parents frequently have high and complex needs requiring wraparound support. Over the year, Intensive Case Workers supported more than 400 teen parents with a range of issues by helping them stay in education, prepare for future employment, prevent further unplanned pregnancies, and link to the support they need. Support can include antenatal care, housing, budgeting and parenting services, and early childhood education.

Following changes to the welfare system, there are new obligations for teen parents. With their benefit comes the requirement to enrol their child with a primary health care provider and complete Well-Child/Tamariki Ora checks. A Guaranteed Childcare Assistance Payment for children under five will also be provided so childcare costs do not prevent teens from studying.

Community speaking up

Notifications

In 2011/2012, we received 152,800 notifications of child abuse or neglect, including Police family violence referrals, a small increase from 150,747 last year (1 per cent). Of these, 277 notifications (0.2 per cent of total notifications) related to an incident of smacking with no other concerns. This is compared to 223 in the previous year.

In 2011/2012, 61,074 notifications (40 per cent) required further action to determine the type of response and the social work services needed. In 2010/2011, 57,949 (38 per cent) required further action.

There were 21,525 findings of substantiated abuse in 2011/2012, compared to 22,087 in 2010/2011. Of the substantiated findings in 2011/2012, 12,114 (56 per cent) were findings of emotional abuse, 4,766 (22 per cent) were neglect findings, 3,249 (15 per cent) were physical abuse findings, and 1,396 (7 per cent) were sexual abuse findings.  There has been a modest reduction in the proportion of substantiated abuse/neglect findings within six months of a previous abuse/neglect finding.

• A correction has been made - please refer to the Erratum

Care and Protection Family Group Conferences

Care and Protection Family Group Conferences are a way of formally bringing family/whānau and professionals together to talk about the concerns held for a child or young person’s safety or wellbeing. This year, we held 8,246 Care and Protection Family Group Conferences, compared to 7,870 last year.

• A correction has been made - please refer to the Erratum

Our frontline

Protecting children is our priority. In October 2011, the Government announced an increase of 96 frontline Child, Youth and Family social workers to do the intensive ongoing work needed with increasingly complex families and to better support foster parents. 

As at 30 June 2012, we had recruited 16 new social work supervisors and 47 new social workers were in place to deal with care and protection matters. A further 33 social workers will be in place by June 2013.

Social Workers in Schools (SWiS)

In 2011/2012, the recruitment of an additional 149 full-time social workers for schools began. This will increase the number of deciles 1–3 schools involved in the programme from 285 to 673, and means around 131,000 children will be reached by our service by the end of 2013.

SWiS supports children to be healthy, engaged in school and well socialised with a strong sense of identity.

Children in care

All children belong in families that love and nurture them. When adults do not care for and protect their children, we step in to ensure these vulnerable children and young people are looked after.

We support foster families to provide care for as long as a child needs it, and to help prepare them to return home. We undertake checks on all prospective caregivers to ensure the safety of the children and young people in care.

In July 2011, we started a new training curriculum for Child, Youth and Family caregivers, developed in partnership with Fostering Kids, to promote excellence in foster care.  This training consists of 11 one-day workshops covering topics such as child development, attachment and resilience, and understanding and managing behaviour. In 2011/2012, 1,452 participants attended these workshops.

In 2011/2012, 23 children and young people who were in the custody of the Chief Executive and placed with Child, Youth and Family-approved caregivers were found to have been abused by their caregiver. This represents 0.4 per cent of all children and young people in custody[1], placing us at the lower end of the international scale. Twenty-two Child, Youth and Family-approved caregivers were involved in these cases. This compares with 30 children and young people and 26 Child, Youth and Family-approved caregivers in 2010/2011.

At 30 June 2012, there were 3,406 Child, Youth and Family approved caregivers.

More services for children in care

Gateway assessments give children and young people coming to the attention of Child, Youth and Family a full assessment of their physical health, mental health and education needs so we can link them to the right services. We have targeted assessments at up to 2,200 children entering care, 500 children already in care, and 1,500 children identified through a family group conference.

Throughout 2011/2012, Gateway assessments were rolled out to 36 Child, Youth and Family sites and 13 of the 20 district health boards. Gateway assessments will be rolled out to all district health boards by December 2012. During this period, we referred 1,187 children to district health boards for a Gateway assessment and 630 assessments were completed.  

Budget 2011 provided more than $15 million over four years for the purchase of mental health services to address the mental health or behavioural problems of children coming into our care. Primary mental health services have been established in the Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waitemata, Lakes, Mid Central and Nelson Marlborough District Health Board areas. The roll out of these services across the remaining 14 district health board regions will be completed by the end of 2012.

At the same time, more than $11 million was provided over four years to subsidise the cost of early childhood education for all children aged 18 months to three years in the custody of the Chief Executive. As at 30 June 2012, 221 children in this age group were in early childhood education. This represents 68 per cent of those eligible.

Home for Life

Home for Life is a package of support aimed at encouraging families to bring a child into their home permanently, giving the child the stability and security they need.

In 2011/2012, 489 children in care achieved a Home for Life. Of these 235 were aged under five years.

Stable and continuous care is important for healthy child development as this helps meet a child’s need for safety and support.

The future

Our work to deliver against this outcome in 2011/2012 has positioned us well to co-ordinate the cross-sector response to achieve Better Public Services Result 2: Increase participation in early childhood education, Better Public Services Result 3: Increase infant immunisation rates and reduce the incidence of rheumatic fever, and Better Public Services Result 4: Reduce the number of assaults on children.

2011–2014 Statement of Intent Performance Indicators

More children are safe

•  A correction has been made - please refer to the Erratum

[1] This result includes findings that may relate to historical events before the child or young person came into care. As a child or young person can have more than one finding, the number of findings is not an indication of the number of children or young people.

[2] A Home for Life placement occurs when a child is placed by Child, Youth and Family with a caregiver who is approved to offer a permanent home. The child remains in the custody of the Chief Executive. Achieving a Home for Life is when the Chief Executive’s custody is discharged in favour of a permanent caregiver.

[3] Individual transition plans include actions to address health and education needs.

Erratum

The Ministry of Social Development has identified data errors in Child, Youth and Family’s official data that require correcting in the Annual Report. Whilst the errors are not material, the Ministry considers it prudent to release corrected versions of the relevant sections and these are set out below.

Community speaking up

Notifications 

In 2011/2012, we received 153,407 notifications of child abuse or neglect, including Police family violence referrals, a small increase from 151,109 last year (1.5 per cent). Of these, 277 notifications (0.2 per cent of total notifications) related to an incident of smacking with no other concerns. This is compared to 223 in the previous year.

In 2011/2012, 60,330 notifications (39 per cent) required further action to determine the type of response and the social work services needed. In 2010/2011, 57,783 (38 per cent) required further action.

There were 22,172 findings of substantiated abuse in 2011/2012, compared to 22,291 in 2010/2011. Of the substantiated findings in 2011/2012, 12,454 (56 per cent) were findings of emotional abuse, 4,970 (22 per cent) were neglect findings, 3,330 (15 per cent) were physical abuse findings, and 1,418 (7 per cent) were sexual abuse findings. There has been a modest reduction in the proportion of substantiated abuse/neglect findings within six months of a previous abuse/neglect finding.

Care and Protection family group conferences

Care and Protection Family Group Conferences are a way of formally bringing family/whānau and professionals together to talk about the concerns held for a child or young person’s safety or wellbeing. This year, we held 8,809 Care and Protection Family Group Conferences, compared to 8,087 last year.

2011-2014 Statement of Intent Performance Indiciators

More children are safe

[1] The result includes findings that may relate to historical events before the child or young person came into care. As a child or young person can have more than one finding, the number of findings is not an indication of the number of children or young people.