By Lloyd Burr and Dan Satherley, with additional reporting from NZN
The Government has unveiled its blueprint for tackling child abuse which includes a multi-agency database that automatically notifies when a child may be at risk.
Seven Government agencies will be responsible for the care and protection of children and will jointly be accountable for reducing New Zealand’s high child abuse record.
Currently, between seven and 10 children are killed every year by the person charged with their care and in 2010, more than 200 kids were hospitalised after being assaulted.
In the last year, there were 4,766 cases of neglect, 3,249 cases of physical abuse, 1,396 cases of sexual abuse and 12,114 cases of emotional abuse.
The Government’s White Paper for Vulnerable Children plans to dramatically change these figures with an early detection and prevention system.
Those on the frontline working for professional and community agencies will enter information into a ‘Vulnerable Kids Information System’.
The information entered into the system can include a child’s exposure to family violence, change of address or simply engagement with a Government service provider.
High-risk adults with a history of abusing or neglecting children will also be traced and monitored and the system will raise the alarm if a single mother moves in with them.
School principals can also enter information if they have concerns about a child.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says the proposed measures will fundamentally change the status quo.
“We must have the courage of our convictions and take these bold steps. What we’re doing now clearly isn’t working well enough,” she says.
The Government will not be legislating for mandatory reporting of child abuse because of concerns about child protection agencies getting involved in the lives of innocent families.
Instead agencies that work with children and frontline staff at all Government agencies must know how to recognise and report suspected abuse.
“This White Paper is bigger than politics," says Ms Bennett. "It is bigger than any one individual. It is not only for this generation of New Zealand children, but also for their children and their grandchildren."
Ms Bennett's Green Paper for Vulnerable Children, released last year, received almost 10,000 submissions, more than 2000 of them from children.
The plan includes:
- A phone line, text message service, email service and online system called 'child protect' will be available for anyone who has concerns about a child;
- A new vetting and screening process for people wanting to work with children in a bid to prevent known abusers from doing so;
- Introducing minimum standards of competency for different jobs that involve working with kids;
- Investigating the curtailing of guardianship rights of parents who present an ongoing risk to their children;
- Establishing a list of pre-approved iwi and hapu which are guaranteed to provide a safe home for tamariki who have been taken from an unsafe home;
- An adulthood transition process for people at the end of their Child, Youth and Family care programme.
The Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the police and Te Puni Kokiri will all be part of the plan.
The multi-agency system is planned to be up and running by the end of 2014.
WHITE PAPER 'IGNORES' CAUSE OF ABUSE
“The White Paper on vulnerable children and the Children’s Action Plan, released this morning, failed to address the single most dangerous thing in a child’s life – poverty,” says Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei.
“It beggars belief that the Government could write a plan to help vulnerable children without addressing the one thing that makes them more vulnerable than anything else.
Ms Turei says the Government is "allergic" to helping those in need, and has parked an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff instead.
“Nothing in this paper relieves stresses on families that can’t afford decent food or warm dry homes for their kids.
“While the Green Party supports parts of the action plan, including moves to make more Government agencies responsible for at risk children and for better information sharing, we are disappointed by what is not in the plan.
“Children need their parents to earn a living wage, and if their parents can’t work they need benefits adequate enough to afford healthy food."
She calls the phone line a "dob-in line", and says Plunket's suggestion of a national child health database was ignored.
“This narrow approach to what it means to be vulnerable is a lost opportunity to prevent child abuse at its source and is a tragic disappointment for children and everyone working with them," says Ms Turei.
Labour is also calling the White Paper a "lost opportunity", though admits it has some good ideas.
“The plan includes some common sense ideas on identifying abuse, including training frontline staff and improving information sharing," says social development spokesperson Jacinda Ardern.
"But these initiatives will only succeed if they’re properly resourced. As a nation we spend more on pet food than we do on child protection."
Ms Ardern says without tackling poverty, the scheme won't work.
“The longer we ignore child poverty, as the minister has done, the more it will cost us. We spend roughly $6 billion a year picking up the pieces when children do not get a good start in life."
POSITIVE REACTION, WITH A FEW CONCERNS
Leaders from children's organisations said the White Paper is a step in the right direction.
Jigsaw's national project manager Sally Christie says the information-sharing database and phone line will make a real difference.
"In every case (that) a child's horrendously hurt or dies, there's always people that have concerns and know things, and it's not joined up, so to us, that's a really important start.
"The detail of how we do that is still to be implemented but as a basis I think that's really, really important."
Ms Christie says the government will face a challenge to resource the White Paper objectives without taking away resources from other services or making more children vulnerable.
Every Child Counts manager Deborah Morris-Travers says the White Paper has definite strengths, but she is concerned about its narrow focus.
"If you target too hard, there will be children who are vulnerable but who sit just outside the threshold or the criteria, and if we don't have a universal approach, we miss the opportunity to prevent those children from being abused or becoming more vulnerable."
She also wanted to see the White Paper address issues like child poverty, mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse, which can make a child more vulnerable.
3 News / NZN