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Critics say Child, Youth and Family (CYF) has improved its act but must do better as the last line of defence for children.
The death this month of a distraught 12-year-old who died in CYF care less than a month after she was allegedly abused by a caregiver has raised alarms about the vetting of foster carers and CYF handling of allegations.
CYF figures show 30 children aged under 17 died in CYF care in the five years to July, seven in the most recent financial year. In some cases, the children had terminal illnesses or other existing health problems when they came into care. Two died as a result of child abuse or homicide, 10 of natural causes, 10 of accidents, and eight of suicide.
Family and Foster Care Federation director Gaylene Lawrence argues the caregiver system needs an overhaul.
CYF has a pool of 4478 approved caregivers, of which 58 per cent are extended family.
Training is available for caregivers but it's not compulsory. Lawrence says: "No one should have a foster child placed with them without having undergone some basic training. It's not like having a child of your own."
The federation runs a support service for caregivers facing allegations of mistreatment.
"We consistently see people who haven't had any training and they've asked for help before the abuse happened."
The service's figures suggest 50 per cent of allegations are founded.
Another concern is that some carers are running foster homes like a business and become reliant on the grants they receive for each child.
Bill and Donas Nathan of Tawa say fostering is more challenging now than it was 10 years ago, even for well-intentioned caregivers. The retired couple ran a family home - temporary supervised boarding for uplifted kids - for 21 years and fostered five children in their family.
Alcohol and drugs have upped the ante, they say. And fostering demands unconditional love even when the child is throwing bottles at you.
Says Bill Nathan, "No matter how much they may have been abused or violated, most children still love their parents. There was always that wanting to know what happened to their mother."
More broadly, child advocates like adolescent physician Sue Bagshaw and family agency co-founder Lesley Max see the short, sharp intervention model as no match for the chronic, deeply entrenched problems and patterns underlying child abuse.
Bagshaw says the culture needs to change from being risk-averse and authoritative (we know best) to being authoritative (warm, supportive, firm) and focused on developing strengths. She sees a shift in social workers on the ground, but resistance from their supervisors.
Max, co-founder of Great Potentials, says the agency has improved co-ordination with non-Government organisations like hers, but needs to empower them to be more directive.
"I'm frankly sick of seeing social service agencies acting as handmaidens to families but refraining from giving them the help or guidance to avoid them being snowed under by children they cannot adequately care for."
Louise Belcher, who manages one of the Great Potential family centres in Papakura, Auckland, has a suggestion she admits is radical: instead of children being uplifted from homes because of abusive or negligent parents, the parents should be sent to a "parent retreat" and caregivers moved in to look after the children in their own homes.
Parents would be taught parenting and life skills, undergo treatment for substance abuse or other mental health issues and be allowed to return home only after they're deemed fit to look after children.
At the moment she says uplifted children are doubly punished, first by the disruption to their lives, then often by being labelled troubled children by the behavioural problems that ensue.
National CYF spokeswoman Anne Tolley's impression is that social workers are doing "an amazing job" but are overwhelmed by an upsurge in notifications of suspected abuse.
CYF figures show notifications have more than doubled in five years from 40,939 to 89,461 in the year to July. In that period, cases of confirmed abuse climbed from 27,747 to 39,894.
