Children Deserve Better

New Zealanders like to think of the nation’s children as taonga or precious. The Children’s Commissioner on the Government agency responsible for New Zealand children, Child Youth and Family shows children treated with a lack of value or respect says Major Sue Hay of The Salvation Army.

The report shows that although there is good work done by CYF, workloads, and inadequacy of training often mean very vulnerable children leave state care worse than they arrived and the longer they spend in care the worse the impacts on their future.

The report points to a service from CYF that is inconsistent, not sufficiently child centred, and unable to really determine the health, education, employment outcomes of the children it cares for.

This report points to the importance of the current panel inquiry initiated by the Minister of Social Welfare. The Salvation Army looks forward to seeing solid recommendations from the ministerial panel that completely changes the way children in care are protected and developed in New Zealand.

Monitoring of children in care should be given premier status in the range of responsibilities of any Government. We therefore note with concern that this is the first report of the Children’s Commissioner on CYF and are concerned the Children’s Commissioner does not seemed adequately resourced to undertake a comprehensive public monitoring role on a more consistent basis. We urge the review panel and the Minister to urgently resource the Children’s Commissioner to undertake regular and comprehensive reviews of all children in care both in CYF’s and other agencies. This is particularly important given the concerns raised by this report.

ENDS

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