More social workers needed

The Green Party is pledging increases to funding for front line social workers in the wake of a review showing that frontline child protection staff can’t keep up with the number of children needing help.

A joint Public Service Association and Child Youth and Family review has found social workers are weighed down by paper work and there are not enough of them to deal with the current demand.

“The report shows that CYFs is not able to look after the children who are currently on its books, let alone the extra work the Government wants it to do through its vulnerable children’s action plan,” Green Party children spokesperson Holly Walker said.

“Much more effort and money is needed to support social workers in the work they’re already doing.”

The report also recommended CYFs adopt a national data collection system.

“At the moment there is no ability to gather national data either on caseload, or on the number of children abused in CYFS care. That’s not acceptable. With good data, we can then make better decisions about where to deploy extra case workers.

“It’s very concerning that there are simply there not enough trained social workers to deal with the current number of kids who need help and that those that are there spend too much time on paper work,

“If the Government really was interested in helping at risk kids it would hae given front line staff what they need to do their job of looking after these children.

“The National Government is allergic to employing more public servants, but for the sake of at-risk kids it must get over that, and employ the people they need to be kept safe.”

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