Let's Not Waste Work Already Achieved For Children, Says Jigsaw

Jigsaw Family Services is strongly urging the Government not to throw away all the work that has been achieved so far for children and towards preventing child abuse and family violence.

The comments follow an announcement from Associate Social Development Minister Tariana Turia late on Friday night that the ongoing Child Advocates for Child Witnesses of Family Violence initiative would end on 30 June.

Jigsaw’s chair Tim Metcalfe says 45 people around the country, who have been working for children by educating community groups about family violence prevention, will lose their jobs as a result of this decision.

Tim Metcalfe says he understands the Minister’s wish to have front line services that effectively engage families and realises that funding is limited under the current economical climate.

But he says the Government owes it to taxpayers not to waste resources that have been built up over the past six years. The child advocates programme costs $4.1m a year.

“Jigsaw has built up a valuable infrastructure of skilled workers, contacts in the community, training resources and learned a lot of lessons about how to protect children,” he says.

Tim Metcalfe urges the Government to make use of this knowledge and infrastructure in other ways, before it’s lost on 30 June.

“Let’s not waste this important expertise. All the money that’s been spent will go down the drain unless some attempt is made to tap into our resource. It’s incredibly frustrating,” Tim Metcalfe says.

Over the past year Jigsaw has urged the Government to formally evaluate the Child Advocate programme, before deciding on its future he says.

“Now we’re starting yet another programme for families and Whanau without having evidence of what works and what doesn’t.”

Child advocates have a very different role from social workers in that advocates work on prevention and by educating people on the impacts of family violence on children and how to respond.

The advocates also help to link services and organisations with a clear focus on ensuring that children are kept safe and looked after.

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