Anne Tolley MP
National Party Associate Welfare (CYF) Spokeswoman

16 April 2007

Same problems different day for CYF

Fifty-one critical notifications that a child was at immediate risk were not activated within the specified timeframe at Child, Youth and Family last year.

"Child, Youth and Family protocols say that critical notifications should be activated within 24 hours, but this didn't happen. Why?"

National Party Associate Welfare spokeswoman Anne Tolley is commenting on answers to the Social Services Select Committee.

"Fifty-one critical notifications were left for more than 24 hours, 96 very urgent notifications took longer than 48 hours to be activated and 10,386 urgent cases were left to languish on the books for more than seven days.

"It doesn't take a genius to know that a child's situation can change rapidly. How would CYF react had one of those children been seriously injured after the notification but before they investigated?

"When CYF receives a notification that a child is in immediate danger, they must act quickly. This is not a new problem yet the Minister is repeatedly assuring us the problem has been fixed," says Mrs Tolley.

"After all Labour's talk about preventing family violence and child abuse, this department is not delivering, and it will only get worse once the notifications start rolling in from the $14 million family violence prevention campaign.

"It's little wonder that last year CYF was telling the police to stop passing on so much reported child abuse - they are struggling to cope with the workload they already have," says Mrs Tolley.

ENDS

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