27 August 2015

State of Care Report 2015 -SSPA

SSPA is encouraged by the State of Care 2015 report released today by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner which has brought the voice of children and their expectations from state care into the public domain. It affirms the New Zealand public’s expectations, made widely known through the ten thousand submissions to the 2012 Green Paper, for high standards in statutory care and a culture of respect and valuing of our tamariki.

“Many of the members of Social Service Providers Aotearoa (SSPA) are involved with the care of children. Their practice is concerned with and impacted by the practice of Child Youth and Family. We welcome a report that has highlighted the strong front-end systems of CYF that protect children from immediate harm,” says SSPA National Manager Tara D’Sousa. “And while we note the report’s finding of inconsistent vision and direction to ensure that the 5,000 children in care have improved life outcomes, SSPA providers are all too aware of pressures that impede practice. CYF staff are extraordinarily challenged by the dual expectations of managing both political risk and the risk of abuse to children.”

The State of Care 2015 Report also gives voice to the aspirations of Māori who are disproportionately represented in the numbers of children in care, and recommends improvement in cultural and wider capability. SSPA is heartened by the recommendation for better interagency, NGO, iwi providers and community engagement.

It is in New Zealand’s long-term interests that all child-services, state and non-state, do more and work together to place children at the heart of all we do. “This is complex work and needs adequate resourcing for all the agencies involved, and this is not the case,” says Ms D’Sousa. “Child-centred practice must be well funded in order to have a developmental approach and wrap whānau and community around our most vulnerable children for them to thrive and belong”.

ENDS

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