CYF remove 10 'abused' children from single family

By STEPHEN COOK

Details have emerged of 10 children being removed from one family just days after the release of figures showing a dramatic increase in the number of child abuse complaints.

Child Youth and Family says for legal reasons it is unable to comment on the case, but it is understood the children, aged between 5 weeks and 13 years old, were uplifted recently by the department from a home in Lower Hutt.

The case is believed to be one of the worst of its type on record in recent years. It is understood the children are now in foster care or with other family members.

The frontline social worker involved with the case did not wish to comment yesterday.

CYF officials also would not say what sort of abuse the children had allegedly been subjected to, nor would it comment on whether it was seeking to have the children permanently removed from the family.

However, it is understood the future of the children would be determined by the Family Court, which is set to hear the case shortly.

The Lower Hutt child abuse team could not be contacted yesterday for comment.

However, National's social services spokeswoman Katherine Rich said New Zealanders would shake their heads in disbelief at the case.

"Why would someone continue to bring kids into the world when they clearly can't look after them," she said.

The Lower Hutt case coincides with figures released this week showing complaints of child abuse rose 30.8 per cent to 43,414 cases in the year to June 30.

That was 10,212 more complaints than the same period 12 months earlier.

For CYF the soaring number of cases has placed more pressure on a department still reeling from a scathing review last year which found it was suffering from systemic failure.

Although it has reduced waiting, there are still nearly 4000 unallocated cases, prompting a new incentive-based recruitment campaign aimed at attracting top social worker graduates.