Anne Tolley MP
National Party Associate Welfare Spokeswoman

20 September 2006

CYF removes babies in increasing numbers

In the past year CYF removed 255 infants, under a year old, from their parents, double the number in 2004, according to figures released by National's Associate Welfare spokeswoman Anne Tolley.

"This is in line with the rapidly increasing numbers of abused children CYF are caring for, and the escalation of abuse notifications which are putting CYF staff under pressure.

"The ugly truth is that half of these children have brothers or sisters also under the care of CYF, in the worst case 8 other siblings in care.

"Eight children were removed within 24 hours of birth, and 33 within the first week. The remaining 214 were taken into care sometime in the ensuing 11 months.

"CYF staff are responding to the crises in these families, but it is becoming very clear we urgently need to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of programmes dealing with violent families.

"If half the children removed into care are already in the system, we are not making the necessary changes to those families as a whole. Having to remove subsequent children is not the long-term answer.

"Labour has talked for years about multi-agency initiatives but has failed to make them work in more than a handful of cases. These figures underline that tragic failure."

ENDS

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