New Zealand News - NZ - CYF admits ignoring Coral call

Child, Youth and Family

Its an important Government function - looking after children who are neglected by their family or subjected to abuse. They are there to help children back into the eduction system. They are there to help with families in trouble.

As an agency, they are not exactly popular in the media. The latest run of headlines lead a growing popular opinion that there is something wrong with the agency itself.

Every failure to act that results in tragedy will hit the headlines, but when an agency like CYFS managed to get it right, nobody gives a hoot.

How many calls for help from broken families has CYFS acted on only to find resources squandered with time wasters? Are CYFS free to act to protect children in every case or is there a serious resourcing problem that the Government should look into?

CYFS admits to being understaffed and other agencies in the Youth Jusitice System have complained that CYFS effectiveness is undermined by the way in which it is staffed. Police have also found it difficult to get social workers assigned by CYFS in some cases. Comments from officials ranged from "CYFS is staffed by idiots" to "CYFS are overwhelmed with demand and yet face budget constraints that leads to hiring the wrong people and they are paid so little that staff turnover is extreme."

CYFS has 1780 cases that have not been allocated a social worker. These cases are "lower levels of urgency".

There are valuable professionals in CYFS whose effectiveness is hampered by the burden of process and cases with a lower level of urgency are people sliding down the slippery slope, and every single case needs to be addressed. Not just family violence, but the massive wave of truancy and petty crime that leads young minds along a road that is extraordinarily hard to rehabilitate from. If these "not urgent" cases were not stuck on an endless waiting list, the tax payer would save on a large number of prison attendances over the next twenty years. More importantly, kids lives will be saved from living at the edge, committing crime or selling P or engaging in prostitution.

Kids grow up and become adults. CYFS helps those that can not help themselves, but it seems that the department needs help to function, and it is more than vital to our future that CYFS does function.

See also:
New Zealand News - NZ - CYF admits ignoring Coral call Stuff.co.nz - Opposision demands action on CYF report