Judith Collins MP - National Party Welfare Spokeswoman

7 April 2005

Urgent cases waiting at CYF

National Party Welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins says the public can take no comfort from figures showing a slight drop in the number of unallocated urgent cases at CYF over the past year.

“The latest figures show we still have a critical case that has been unallocated for a month. According to Departmental guidelines, it should have been actioned within 24 hours.

“This could be another Coral-Ellen Burrows. It could be another James Whakaruru. The Minister needs to explain why, despite a big injection of cash last year, CYF is still failing our most vulnerable families.

“There are 144 urgent cases unallocated for 4 months or more when they should have been dealt with within 7 days.

“There are 1,324 urgent cases unallocated for a month or more when they should have been dealt with in a week. Altogerther there are 1,586 cases that have been unallocated for more than a month.

“What’s also worrying is that the Minister in charge of CYF, Ruth Dyson, is now telling us that the Department can no longer tell us how many cases each social worker is carrying.

“Labour claimed it would slash social worker caseloads, but now they’re refusing to give us any official verification about whether that’s true.

“When it comes to the tough social issues, when it comes to Ministerial responsibility and leadership the message is clear. You simply can’t trust Labour,” says Ms Collins.

ENDS

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