Pressure mounting on CYFs staff
The coroner’s inquiry into the Kahui case comes as data from CYFs reveals a child protection service in crisis, Labour’s Spokesperson for Social Development and Children Jacinda Ardern says.
“Garry Evans’ report shows just how important it is that the people who look out for these children are trained, in the right place, sharing information and intervening at the right time.
“Unfortunately what we have at the moment is a system that potentially leaves more of our most vulnerable kids at risk.
“Over the last four years the number of child protection notifications coming into Child Youth and Family has increased by almost 70 per cent to over 60,000.
“While changes to the way cases are reported may go some way to explaining those numbers, it puts massive pressure on staff involved in determining which require further action, and which don’t meet their threshold,” Jacinda Ardern said.
“The number of cases deemed serious enough to warrant CYFs intervention has also risen, up 42 per cent since 2008 to almost 58,000.
“Despite that the number of frontline staff has flat-lined with just 50 extra social workers being taken on over the same period.
“Given 21 of these have been placed in hospitals, and rightly so, it still means there are not enough social workers to deal with the huge increase in demand for their services.
“I am told new staff - who previously would have had supervised time on the frontline before acting as independent social workers - are now being thrown in the deep end.
“Those working with CYFs are also reporting the turnover of social workers they’re dealing with is high.
“Social workers work with our most vulnerable kids. They do an incredibly tough job, and deal with issues every day that would shock many people. Loading them up with more and more cases helps no one.
‘Let’s not wait for the next tragedy. If social workers are struggling with unmanageable caseloads we need to be asking questions and finding solutions now, not when it’s too late,” said Jacinda Ardern.