CYFS set to lose 200 workers

Peter Hughes. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Up to 200 people - mostly women - look likely to be made redundant or forced to move because of plans to close Child, Youth and Family service centres in provincial towns, such as Whangarei and Tauranga.

Social Development Ministry chief executive Peter Hughes has confirmed that Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS) will be the biggest net loser in a proposed restructuring of the ministry announced last month, with 58 net redundancies under a "worst-case scenario".

Gross job losses will be much more than that because of a decision to abolish the third tier of 12 service centres, employing 363 people, from CYFS' present four-tier structure.

Consultation with affected CYFS staff closed at midday yesterday and Mr Hughes plans to announce final decisions on all parts of the sprawling ministry on June 29.

He said the shakeup would save $34 million over the next three years, enabling the ministry to stay within its budget, despite rising wages and other costs.

The proposal involves keeping CYFS' Wellington head office and four regional offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch, as well as the lowest level of 55 site offices from Kaitaia to Invercargill.

But the 12 service centres in provincial centres from Whangarei to Dunedin will close. Their social workers will be offered new "frontline" jobs in the site offices, some administrative jobs will be relocated to Wellington and the four regional offices, and others will become redundant.

Unions said they could not fault the logic of cutting out one tier of administration, but were concerned for the 193 staff in the service centres outside Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

"A number of those are older women who have limited ability to pick up other work," said Janice Gemmell of the National Union of Public Employees.

Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott said it was often harder for women to relocate from provincial centres, such as Whangarei, to the four main centres because their male partners had jobs in the regions.

She said other state agencies, such as the Tertiary Education Commission and Ministry of Justice, were also closing their regional offices.

"Focusing on having fewer layers makes good sense if it means staff are better able to focus on what they do," she said.

"But we are going to start seeing an impact on regional unemployment figures because there are lots of administrative reforms that are going to fall most heavily on female public servants."

The ministry has set up a Jobs Link service to help its redundant staff find new jobs and Mr Hughes pledged that everyone would be offered at least one job.

"Every staff member left without a job will get one good job offer, which might be a vacant position within MSD [Ministry of Social Development] or another government department or someplace else," he said.

CYFS head Ray Smith said some staff from the Tauranga service centre could get jobs at the agency's national accounting centre in Rotorua, and some functions from the Auckland regional office in Takapuna could be moved to Grey Lynn to suit redundant staff from Grey Lynn and Manukau.

The ministry also expects 49 net redundancies from its Students, Seniors and Integrity Services division, mainly because 95 per cent of applications for student loans and allowances are now handled online. Studylink regions are being cut from five to three.

Mr Hughes said the ministry's Integrity Services arm, including benefit fraud and debts, would be reduced from 12 regions to four, and the number of debt collection units would be cut from four to three. But there would be a net increase in the number of fraud investigators.

A net cut of 22 jobs is proposed in the ministry's biggest agency, Work and Income, mainly in head office roles.

"Back office" jobs in support roles, policy and strategy account for the remaining 60 net redundancies. Support functions for the ministry's two Wellington-based policy divisions are being merged and some publications are being moved from print to online.

Mr Hughes said it had always been "a funny thing" for a state agency to publish the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, and "it would be much better if someone like the Institute of Policy Studies picked it up".

FOR THE CHOP

CYFS service centres

* Whangarei: 43 staff
* Grey Lynn: 62
* Manukau: 24
* Tauranga: 19
* Hamilton: 30
* Napier: 19
* New Plymouth: 13
* Palm. North: 39
* Wellington: 20
* Nelson: 35
* Christchurch: 34
* Dunedin: 25
* Total staff: 363