Modernising Child, Youth and Family Expert Panel : Interim Report

In April 2015 the Minister for Social Development established the Modernising Child Youth and Family Expert Panel to oversee the development of a new child-centric operating model for CYF.

Child, Youth and Family represent our collective efforts to protect the complex and diverse interests of our most vulnerable children. It is one of the government’s most important agencies, and central to our collective aspiration that all children and young people deserve to be nurtured by loving families.

The key finding in this report is that we are not achieving this aim and we are not preventing or adequately protecting children from harm. A significant number of children and young people in New Zealand continue to experience distressing levels of abuse and neglect.

It is clear that our upfront investment in New Zealand’s most vulnerable children is insufficient, and here we propose a number of directions for how this might be remedied.

This report is the initial assessment of the issues and future opportunities.