Darroch Ball MP

Spokesperson for Social Development
20 MARCH 2015

Vulnerable Children Not Guaranteed Registered Social Workers

The Government continues to blatantly ignore calls for mandatory registration of New Zealand’s social workers, says New Zealand First.

“Social workers deal with our most vulnerable children and we want to be 100 percent sure these children are safe,” says Social Development Spokesperson Darroch Ball.

“It makes absolutely no sense that mandatory registration of social workers is missing from the Vulnerable Children Act when the Government is insisting that one of its priorities is to ensure a safe children’s workforce.”

The Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB) agreed this was an oversight when questioned by Mr Ball in the Social Services Select Committee this week.

“The SWRB Board has been calling for mandatory registration for 9 years,” says Mr Ball.

“They have told Social Development Minister Anne Tolley that their main concern is the number of unregistered social workers among more than 1400 currently working for Child Youth and Family.

“Mandatory registration will ensure minimum standards of integrity and conduct and enable members of the public to lodge a complaint if other avenues are not effective.

“The SWRB is also concerned about the number of social workers employed in the Government’s Social Workers in Schools programme who remain unregistered.

“Around 6000 social workers needed to be fully registered and there could be different levels of registration for different types of social work.

“What are we waiting for?”

ENDS

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