Media release
3 December 2003

Child, Youth And Family’s Social Worker Recruitment Drive Attracts Over 900 Applications

Child, Youth and Family (CYF) has received over 900 applications in its recruitment drive to appoint approximately 90 more social workers early in the new year. The campaign followed a Baseline Review of the Department made public at the end of October, which found that it needed more social workers to meet the existing level of demand for its services.

Around 125 of the total number of applications were from people who already have a social work qualification, approximately 220 were partly qualified in social work and a further 220 applicants were qualified in related disciplines.

Of the 900 applications, over 200 came from the Northland and Auckland region, around 140 from the greater Wellington region, 220 from the South Island and the remaining 340 from the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, East Coast, Taranaki and the central North Island.

The Acting Chief Executive of CYF, Brenda Pilott said: “Child, Youth and Family has been heartened by the response to its recruitment campaign. The campaign was more high profile than usual as we felt that that was the best approach to take in order to succeed.

“It is encouraging to see the large number of people interested in working for Child, Youth and Family. We are hopeful that we can fill the 90 vacancies we have and be able to provide better quality social work for the children, young people and families we assist.”

The total number of visits to the recruitment section of CYF’s website was 15,424 in the two week period from 8 November, when the first job advertisements appeared in newspapers nationwide. The theme of the campaign was ‘Change Their Lives, Change Yours,’ reflecting the rewarding and challenging elements of the social work profession.

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.

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Notes to Editors

- At the height of its high profile recruitment drive, the Department’s website was getting over 1,200 visits per day.

- During the campaign, CYF dealt with over 1,900 phone calls and over 220 email requests for information.

- More than 2,500 application forms were downloaded from the website and almost 1,030 application forms were sent out.

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