Time CYF outsourced screening

June 26, 2012

It's time Child, Youth & Family outsourced the screening of potential caregivers to professionals, says the CEO of Big Buddy - a mentoring programme that has successfully screened over 500 men since 1997.

Richard Aston’s call follows the latest case of a 16-year-old Taranaki girl placed in the care of her uncle – a convicted rapist who spent six years in prison for taking part in a gang rape. The 2001 placement resulted in the girl being sexually abused by both her uncle and one of his friends, who has since died of AIDS. The woman and her new-born son are HIV positive.

Ministry of Social Development deputy chief executive David Shanks says criminal checks for CYF placements only became compulsory early this year. He says the assessment process has been strengthened in more recent years “with staff expected to do police checks if there were any concerns around family/whanau placements”.

But criminal checks are simply not good enough, says Richard Aston. "A police check is just one part of a much bigger screening process. We have spent considerable time and effort developing a robust screening process to ensure the safety of the children we work with. Our Innovative 360-degree screening process allows us to identify potential and active sex offenders and ensure they are not allowed contact with children."

New Zealand First spokesperson on Welfare/Social Policy & Corrections, Asenati Lole Taylor, says in her experience of working in Youth Justice, background checks for youth offender placements are often rushed by under-resourced staff under time pressure.

“A screening check will not necessarily bring up all the previous convictions of people you are looking at,” says Asenati Lole Taylor. “Often we discovered things later on that were not included in the police check when we asked for it.”

Richard Aston says Big Buddy feels so strongly about this issue it made a submission to the Government's Green Paper on vulnerable children suggesting the implementation of a rigorous national screening programme for all cases where children may be at risk.

"The government is talking about monitoring children, mandatory reporting and information sharing but we are saying 'let's start where the problem is - with the abusers - not the children'. Let's get serious about protecting our children."

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