More welfare workers leave despite recruitment drive

Unfair pay systems are said to be one of the reasons CYF staff have a high turnover rate. Picture / Bay of Plenty Times

More than 100 extra Child, Youth and Family (CYF) staff quit in the past year than in 2002 despite major recruitment and retention initiatives, it was reported yesterday.

The welfare agency launched a recruitment drive in 2003 after identifying a need for more social workers and concerns over its performance.

It got Government funding of $127 million for the following three years and aimed to recruit 90 extra social workers in quick time.

But CYF figures show 395 staff left in the year ending June, a staff attrition rate of 14 per cent which was only 2 per cent lower than at the crisis in 2003, after several high-profile cases highlighted troubles at the agency.

Cases had included the murder of Masterton sisters Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson, murdered by their stepfather Bruce Howse, despite concerns being raised with CYF about their welfare.

The number of staff lost in the past year was 100 higher than in 2002, when CYF lost about six employees a week - 290 staff out of 2000.

CYF spokeswoman Jo Mika-Thomas said that, while an increasing number of front-line staff had left, social worker numbers had increased by 22 per cent since 2003.

Relative turnover for social work staff had reduced slightly, she said. Ms Mika-Thomas said initiatives by CYF included introducing a graduate recruitment programme, increasing pay, introducing social work assistants to provide greater support to staff and increasing opportunities for ongoing professional development.

But Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott, a former acting chief executive of CYF, said pay and caseloads of social workers needed to be urgently addressed.

She blamed the high staff turnover on an "unfair and de-motivating performance-pay system which is more about managing budgets than rewarding performance".

- NZPA