PSA MEDIA RELEASE
27 July 2011
For Immediate Use

Greater resources needed to keep our children safe

The PSA, the country’s biggest union, says any changes proposed in the ‘Green Paper on Vulnerable Children’ need to be adequately resourced if New Zealand is to reduce its shocking child abuse rates.

“The PSA welcomes the opportunity for public debate on developing initiatives that keep our children safe,” says the public sector union’s National Secretary Brenda Pilott, “but any new actions will only succeed if they are adequately supported.

“Greater public awareness of child abuse has seen a significant growth in the number of cases being reported to Child Youth and Family in recent years.

“A move towards mandatory reporting where professionals like teachers, social workers, GPs, the police and therapists can share information about children they work with would lead to a huge increase in the number of investigations that would need to be carried out. Undoubtedly this would require additional resourcing.

The PSA questions the report’s claim that getting good services for vulnerable children may not need new money, but rather a reprioritising of funds and making better use of the resources we already have.

“This is nothing more than Government spin and a rose-tinted view of reality. Clearly we’re in tough financial times and all Government departments are under huge pressure to find savings, but we know from our members at Child Youth and Family that workloads are getting heavier and heavier and this is putting a strain on service delivery,” says Brenda Pilott.

“Reprioritising resources that are already thinly spread will not address the fundamental causes of child abuse.

“We owe it to the thousands of children that suffer neglect and abuse in this country each year to invest more in keeping them safe,” says Brenda Pilott.

ENDS

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