Fewer children are vulnerable

Too many children have a childhood that makes it unlikely that they will thrive, belong and achieve. We help to build stronger families and support parents to do better for their children. For those children who need it, we provide protection.

Notifications to Child, Youth and Family

Through Child, Youth and Family (CYF) we provide statutory care and protection services for the most vulnerable children and young people, including family group conferences, out-of-home care placements and residential services.

In 2013/2014:

• CYF received 146,657 notifications of child abuse or neglect, including Police family violence referrals – this is a 1.3 per cent decrease from last year although notifications have grown in the previous five years
• 54,065 notifications (37 per cent) needed further action to determine the response and social work services needed (in the previous year, 61,877 notifications (42 per cent) required further action)
• of the notifications received, 133 related to an incident of smacking with no other concerns, compared with 177 in the previous year
• as a result of further action, we identified 19,623 findings* of substantiated abuse. This is compared with 22,984 in 2012/2013.

*These numbers differ from the numbers of children experiencing abuse because a child may experience more than one incidence of abuse in a given period.

A co-ordinated cross-agency approach

Ministers have been clear about the shared responsibility of multiple agencies to get better results for vulnerable children. During the year, the Government continued to progress significant changes to the way agencies collectively respond to the needs of at-risk children.

The Vulnerable Children Act, which was passed in June 2014, and changes to the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 are aimed at protecting and improving the wellbeing of vulnerable children. We began work to implement new obligations under these reforms, including child protection policies and standard safety checking of the children’s workforce.

We continued to host and support the Children’s Action Plan Directorate. The Children’s Action Plan will help us maintain our focus on our core business of caring for and protecting our most vulnerable children and young people.

Children’s Action Plan

The passing of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014 was an important milestone for implementing the Children’s Action Plan. The Act forms a part of comprehensive measures to strengthen the child protection system, including making Chief Executives from the Ministries of Health, Social Development, Education and Justice and the Police Commissioner jointly accountable for implementing the plan to protect our vulnerable children.

Social worker caseload review

The range and complexity of the needs of the children and families we work with are increasing. Notifications have grown steadily over the past six years and the size and demands of social workers’ caseloads have increased as a result.

In order to better understand the pressure that this was placing on the service, the Chief Social Worker undertook a qualitative review of social worker casework, caseloads and workloads during 2013/2014.

The review was reported in May 2014 and made a number of recommendations to improve the way we undertake our statutory responsibilities of caring for and protecting our most vulnerable children and young people.

In response to the findings of the review, we have started work to ensure that:

• there is clarity about our statutory role in working with our most vulnerable children and young people
• there are effective working partnerships with other agencies
• social workers have the capacity and capability to work effectively with children, young people and their whānau.

Children in out-of-home care

At 30 June 2014, 5,188 children were in the custody of the Chief Executive and, of these, 4,129 were in care and protection placements outside of their home.

In 2013/2014, 39 (0.7 per cent of the total) children and young people in the custody of the Chief Executive were found to have been abused by their caregiver.

Any abuse of a child is unacceptable. We will always act immediately to ensure the safety of the child or young person whenever there is an allegation of abuse by a Ministry caregiver.

All caregivers must undergo a thorough series of checks before being approved.

Modernising Child, Youth and Family

The Social Worker Workload and Casework Review, the implementation of the Children’s Action Plan, and the Vulnerable Children Act provide a clear direction for the Ministry’s role in caring for and protecting the most vulnerable children and young people.

As a result, Child, Youth and Family is beginning a modernisation programme of work that will support New Zealand’s changing landscape of services for vulnerable children. This is about:

• improving outcomes for children and young people through what Child, Youth and Family does and the way it works
• focusing on the right children and young people to deliver the outcomes we want
• working actively and productively with our partners where we know it will make a difference
• balancing Child, Youth and Family transactional activity with meaningful engagement needed to transform young lives
• enhancing the quality of social work practice and response to cultural needs.

Gateway Assessments

Children and young people in our care are often disconnected from regular health and education services. They are more likely to require physical, behavioural and emotional support.

Gateway Assessments are an important response to our most vulnerable children, and are part of the Children’s Action Plan multi-agency strategy for children and young people in care. Every child or young person entering care receives an individualised and comprehensive health and education assessment to identify and address unmet needs. Children and young people at risk of coming into Child, Youth and Family care or already in care may also receive a Gateway Assessment.

2013/2014 is the first full year in which Gateway Assessments have been available in all 20 District Health Board areas. During this period, a total of 3,461¹⁵ children and young people were referred for a Gateway Assessment, an increase of 9 per cent from 2012/2013. Of these, 2,247 received a Gateway Assessment during the year. At 30 June 2014, 71 per cent of children and young people in care¹⁶ had received a thorough health and education assessment.

Supporting more children to experience good parenting

As well as providing statutory care and protection of at-risk children, we fund a range of programmes to help parents develop skills to provide a safe and supportive environment for children to grow up in.

Family Start is a child-centred, intensive home visiting programme to improve children’s growth, health, learning, relationships, whānau circumstances, environment, and safety.

In 2013/2014, 5,114 families received services through Family Start. Of those families:

• 96 per cent were enrolled with a primary health organisation or GP
• 71 per cent of children above the age of 18 months were enrolled in early childhood education
• 81 per cent were up to date with immunisations.

This year we supported Family Start providers to further strengthen their collaboration with health, education and child protection providers and agencies. This includes immunisation health initiatives with the Ministry of Health’s Well Child/Tamariki Ora service and Family Start workers attending Child, Youth and Family workshops.

The Parents as First Teachers (PAFT) programme educates and supports parents. It helps them understand how their children develop and learn, so they can help their children reach their potential. At 30 June 2014, 6,024 families were enrolled in the programme.

The Strategies with Kids – Information for Parents (SKIP) initiative strengthens community support for parents so that children are safe and nurtured, through funding, training, mentoring and capability building.

This year we worked with parents to create tools to encourage them to spend quality time with their children. This included the creation of ‘Tiny Adventures’ activity cards, and the development of the smartphone and tablet apps ‘Peekaboo’ and ‘Story of Maui’, which weave brain development, tikanga and parenting tips.

How we demonstrate our success

Note: Result changes below 1 per cent between 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 are considered not statistically significant.

Footnotes

15: This includes children and young people referred prior to or following a family group conference who may not be in the custody of the Chief Executive.

16: This includes orders made under section 139 of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989.

17: Repeat findings may relate to historical events before the child or young person came to our attention.

18: A home for life placement occurs when a child is placed by Child, Youth and Family with a caregiver who is approved to offer a permanent home. Achieving home for life occurs when the Chief Executive’s custody is discharged in favour of a permanent caregiver.

19: Orders made under sections 78, 101, 102, 110 and 114 of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989.