Media release
7 November 2003

Child, Youth And Family Launches Major Social Worker Recruitment Drive

Child, Youth and Family is starting a major recruitment drive in its bid to employ approximately 90 more social workers early in the new year. The campaign will be more high profile than usual in order to meet the challenge, featuring four newly-developed half page print advertisements as well as online media.

The Department is to receive additional Government funding to employ the social workers following a Baseline Review of the organisation made public two weeks ago. The Review found that more social workers were needed for the Department to be able to meet the existing level of demand for its services.

The findings confirm the pressure Child, Youth and Family (CYF) has been under in recent years and the effect this has had on the department’s ability to deliver quality social work practice in the face of increasing demand.

Brenda Pilott, Acting Chief Executive said: “Child, Youth and Family is investing heavily in the frontline. Our staff have been under pressure to respond to an increasing volume of incoming work, as well as dealing with their existing clients. This has resulted in us focusing more on managing critical incidents than on ongoing case management. This has led to an inadvertent trade off between quality and quantity. The appointment of additional social workers is fundamental to stabilising the organisation and improving our services.”

The Department is targeting qualified and experienced social workers including those who have left the workforce completely, have been employed by CYF in the past or have been working overseas and plan to return to New Zealand in the new year. High quality graduates would also be considered as would those with qualifications and expertise in related disciplines such as education, nursing and psychology.
-more-
The advertising campaign features the strapline “Change Their Lives, Change Yours”, focusing on the strengths of having life experiences and the rewarding, challenging nature of the job.

All social workers receive a six week induction, regular clinical supervision, ongoing professional development opportunities, and peer support.

The Department’s in-house training programme for social workers is now NZQA-accredited, so credits count towards the National Diploma in Social Work. Currently, the organisation is supporting up to 180 social work staff to study part-time towards a social work qualification.

The type of work social workers will be engaged in includes investigating allegations of abuse and neglect, focusing on preventing the recurrence of abuse, neglect and insecurity of care and working with young people who have broken the law to reduce the rate and severity of re-offending.

People interested in working for CYF as a social worker should visit www.et-cyf.co.nz or email recruit@et-cyf.co.nz or phone 0508 732 784

-ends-

Notes to Editors

- As at the end of October 2003, the Department employed 985 field social work staff, of which 54.3% have a social work qualification.

- CYF has seen the number of children in care rise from 3,265 in 1999 to 4,480 in 2002. The yearly rate of growth of children in care is beginning to slow and during 2002/03 reached a year on year low of 2 per cent growth.

- CYF received 31,781 notifications of child abuse, neglect or welfare issues in the year ending 30 June 2003, up 15% on the previous year.
Eighty-eight per cent of these required further action by the Department.

© Scoop Media