Social Service Providers Aotearoa

Systems and resources need to match ambitions

SSPA’s submission on the Children, Young Persons and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Bill is being presented to the select committee today by the organisation’s chair Shane Murdoch and national manager Brenda Pilott.

Social Service Providers Aotearoa represents some 200 non-government organisations working with vulnerable children, young people and families in communities throughout New Zealand.

Brenda Pilott says the Bill has many positive aspects but SSPA has identified a number of issues that need to be addressed if we are to achieve the very best for children in need of care and protection.

“For example, we cannot support the information-sharing provisions in clause 38 of the Bill. They could lead to an overly complex system with unfettered demands for information that undermine professional duties of care and confidentiality.”

Brenda Pilott says SSPA shares the Children Commissioner’s concern that downgrading the place of whānau, hapū and iwi in decisions about their children is the wrong approach and risks repeating mistakes of the past.

“We want to see a stronger focus on supporting families so children need not be taken into care. And where a child is taken into care, the place of kin care is reinforced and supported.”

She says that while members of SSPA welcome the overall intent of the Bill, there is widespread concern that the significant change process will not be adequately resourced.

“The Bill is ambitious in its intent and we should be ambitious for our children and young people. But our ambitions won’t be realised if they are not matched by systems and resources that fully support both the new ministry and the service providers. Previous changes have failed, in part because of inadequate resourcing. We must not make that mistake again,” Brenda Pilott says.

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