Anne Tolley MP
National Party Associate Welfare Spokeswoman

5 June 2006

Increase in grievance claims against CYF

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of personal grievance claims against the troubled Child, Youth and Family Service, says National's Associate Welfare (CYF) spokeswoman, Anne Tolley.

"The number of personal grievances has nearly doubled in the past few years and the Minister needs to spell out how the planned merger will help."

Mrs Tolley is commenting on answers to Parliamentary questions which show there were 24 personal grievance claims lodged against CYF between August 2001 and August 2002. But between January 2005 and March 2006 that number jumped to 45.

"What is it about the planned merger of CYF and the Ministry of Social Development which will supposedly fix this worrying trend?"

Labour was initially warned by officials that the merger had the potential to destabilise the Ministry of Social Development and make the chief executive's role unmanageable, without any benefit for Child Youth and Family.

"Ruth Dyson owes the public an assurance that there'll be drastic improvement at CYF and that not one child will fall through the gaps as a result of this restructuring," says Mrs Tolley.

Note: "Recently, I've also tried to obtain the numbers relating to staff suspensions. But Ruth Dyson says they're not collated centrally. Interesting that, given this data was available in 2003."

ENDS

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