CYF spending priorities in disarray
Judith Collins
National Party Welfare Spokeswoman
8 January 2006
CYF spending priorities in disarray
National’s Welfare spokeswoman, Judith Collins, says the Department of Child, Youth and Family is spending up large on conferences for management while frontline staff are struggling to deliver positive outcomes for our most vulnerable children.
Answers to parliamentary questions show that in the 2004/05 financial year CYF spent more than $300,000 sending senior staff to conferences, including conferences on accounting and property management and others which were held in Australia, South Africa and the United States.
The $300,000, which is an increase of 75% on that spent in the previous financial year, does not include the cost of travel and accommodation that CYF says it cannot calculate.
Ms Collins says this massive increase in spending and the creative accounting around it is an insult to the families of children who have fallen through the cracks of the stretched child welfare system.
“It seems very strange that CYF staff are attending some of these courses at all. It is a bit excessive to send two staff to Australia to learn about property management at a cost of more than $7,500 when property management is a whole different ball game in Australia.
“But it seems even more strange that the department can’t provide costs for travel and accommodation. What does Ruth Dyson have to hide?”
Ends
Inquiries: Judith Collins 021 957 440
Attached: breakdown of CYF expenditure on conference attendance, excluding airfares and accommodation – 4 pages.
2002 / 03
Available records show that the Department spent $76,712 on conference costs (excluding airfares and accommodation), as detailed in the following table.
Name Attendees Costs (excluding Airfares &
Accommodation)
ACC & OHS Conference 1 1,695
ACCN
Conference 1 993
AIFS Conference 1 658
ANZASW
Conference 4 480
Australian Evaluation Society
Conference 2 6,762
CFSS Conference 1 960
Child Abuse &
Neglect Conference 2 1,560
Child Law
Conference 3 2,985
Children’s Issues
Conference 11 20,355
CLANZ Conference 1 311
Drugs &
Young Persons Conference 2 949
Film & Videos
Conference 1 275
Foster Care
Conference 12 2,951
Gartner
Symposium 1 3,857
Gathering Momentum
Conference 27 5,339
Governance & Accounting
Conference 1 1,695
IAFYJM Congress 2 2,457
ICANZ
Conference 1 250
IFRS Conference 2 1,990
NNSVS
Conference 2 720
NZACAP Conference 2 300
NZATD
Conference 2 1,670
NZCCP Conference 5 1,440
NZPS
Conference 1 76
QUGAP Conference
(Melbourne) 1 2,247
SPRE Conference 10 1,161
Youth &
Family Congress 1 440
YSS 5 5,284
Other Conferences
(not identified) 12,230
2003 / 04
Available records
show that the Department spent $173,992 on conference costs
(excluding airfares and accommodation), as detailed in the
following table:
Name Number of Attendees Costs
(excluding Airfares and Accommodation)
Supervision and
Practice Managers 31 13,539
ACCN
Conference 12 11,991
Adoption Conference
(Adelaide) 2 725
AES Conference 1 3,280
AIC
Conference 2 1,694
ANZATSA
Conference 32 12,910
Attendance Counselling
Conference 1 311
Child & Family Support Services
Conference 9 1,547
Child Abuse & Neglect
Conference 3,558
Child & Family Law
Conference 7 7,124
Children’s Issues
Conference 1 413
HRINZ Conference 3 3,235
Human
Resources Conference 1 1,720
HR
Summit 1 608
International Adoption
Conference 1 1,295
NZ ACAP Conference 1 382
NZ ACSAS
Conference 5 645
NZ CCP Conference 1 666
NZ
FFCC 19,944*
NZ FFCA Conference 1 295
NZ FWW
Conference 1 44
NZ Property Institute
Conference 3 2,134
NZ PSSM Conference 1 523
OZIRIS
Conference 2 4,301*
Pathways Leadership
Conference 1 303
Recovery
Symposium 3 10,204*
Resiliency Approach to Intervention
Conference 8 880
SMSP Conference 3 1,500
Te Rau Tipa
(MMH) Conference 3 331
Youth Justice
Conference 37,399*
Other (not
identified) 30,491
*Note that the department also co-sponsored these conferences and, included in these totals, are sponsorship costs, as follows:
NZFFCC $19,944
OZIRIS $4,289
Recovery
Symposium $9,137
Youth Justice $36,083
2004 /
05
Available records show that the Department spent
$304,461 on conference costs (excluding airfares and
accommodation), as detailed in the following
table:
Name Location Number of Attendees Costs (excluding
Airfares and Accommodation)
Supervision and Practise
Manager 5,418
Team Leader Conference 2,245
ACCN
Conference 40,000*
ACSC Conference 1 450
ACWACS
Conference Sydney 1 1,449
AJJA
Conference 1 433
American Humane
Conference 1 578
ANZASW Conference 2 1,472
Asian
Health Conference 1 295
BTTB Marketing
Conference 2 707
Child & Family Law
Conference 1 1,990
Child & Family Policy
Conference 3 8,818
Child Summit 12 1,173
CISMFA
Conference 1 693
eGovernment
Conference 1 2,366
Foster Care
Conference 1 53,104*
Future Search
Conference 1 2,544
Global Social Work
Congress Australia 1 2,084
Harakeke
Conference 3 572
Industrial Relations
Conference 2 3,590
IPSCAN Conference Brisbane 22 30,340
IQPC Conference Australia 1 1,458
IQPC Property
Conference Sydney 2 5,703
IQPC Better Practice Financial
Management for Government Canberra 2 8,414
Leading with
Delegation Conference 1 1,150
Millenium
Conference 1 6,113
NZ CSS Conference 1 140
NZ FC
Conference 13 2,185
NZ Law Society
Conference 1 2,395
NZ ACAP Conference 1 219
NZ FFCF
Conference 9 2,135
NZ Institute of Management
Conference 2 78
NZ LS Youth Advocate
Conference 1 484
NZ PS Conference 3 1,471
Office
Safe Conference 1 295
Official Information Act
Symposium 5 1,700
Oscar Conference 4 20,564*
Pegasus
Conference Boston 1 6,480
PMA Conference 1 337
Power
Summit 1 1,895
Property Management
Conference Australia 2 7,525
NZ PSSM
Conference 32 14,311
QSP User Group
Conference 1 2,111
Risk Management
Conference 2 3,590
Severe Conduct Disorder
Conference 32 18,413
Social Policy
Conference 16 6,485
SOPAC
Conference Australia 1 2,356
Stopping Violence
Conference 4 1,383
Strengths
Conference 53 8,939
Understanding Trauma
Conference 3 626
Violence Free
Conference 21 4,756
Vision Conference 1 4,790
What
Works Conference 1 266
World Congress on Family Law &
Children’s Rights South Africa 1 1,647
Youth Justice
Conference 2,000
Other (not
identified) 3 1,726
*Note that the department also
co-sponsored these conferences and, included in these
totals, are sponsorship costs, as
follows:
ACCN $40,000
Foster
Care $50,778
Oscar $18,365