School programme heads off problems at home

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX

Tamaki College principal David Hodge prefers to tackle child abuse from the top of the cliff.

"A cliche, yes I know, but prevention is always better than a cure - especially when it's successful, and I believe it really works."

His particular method of prevention is through his school's health centre, which is staffed by a trio of professionals - a nurse, social worker and guidance counsellor - who are adept at identifying and dealing with children and their problems.

The concept has turned Tamaki College into what the Ministry of Education calls a Full Service School - a one-stop shop for children with any kind of problem, be it health, social or academic.

The health centre was set up almost three years ago with an aim of raising student achievement levels.

"It's about being able to deal with potentially at-risk kids before it gets to the stage where it's too late," says Mr Hodge.

"The idea is to have them [the health workers] together in the school because the school is the centre of existence for most kids. It's where they spend most of their time, so it makes sense to have the help on hand.

"We see it as a way of unifying health, welfare and education."

And he says it makes life a lot easier for all concerned if a situation arises with a child and his or her family.

Mr Hodge cites an incident from another school when a student was being dealt with by 12 agencies at once.

"It was incredibly frustrating for the school. In the end we called a meeting with the family and all of the agencies involved and I said, 'Right, who is going to take responsibility for this case? Who will be the case manager?' And not one of them put their hand up.

"The welfare system can be so fragmented, it is unbelievable at times. And they are already busy.

"It's not uncommon to ring social welfare about a child's situation that potentially puts them at risk, and be told to ring back when you have a 'real' problem."

Students can approach the health centre staff at any time for any reason.

If a child is upset because of violence at home, he or she can ask the social worker to talk to the parents.

"The nearest Child, Youth and Family Service office to here is in Royal Oak. I don't think many kids would take it upon themselves to wander off to the CYFS office to talk about their situation. That's two buses," says Mr Hodge.

"Even if they were getting beaten to death at home I doubt they would approach CYFS. At school, it's that much easier."

In 1998, the Full Service School concept, in particular the Penrose High School model, was studied by Auckland Medical School staff for the Social Welfare Department.

They concluded that even having just a social worker in a school was highly successful.

"There are clear benefits for young people and their families who have contact with the school-based social worker," the summary reads.

"There are also clear benefits for CYFS as an organisation and for the school community. Evidence identifying drawbacks to the initiative was difficult to find."

While Mr Hodge believes the health centre is successful, he admits its effects are hard to measure. But in the past two years there has been a dramatic drop in absenteeism and teachers are starting to see better schoolwork.

"It works well. At any rate we are going to continue using it and I think we will continue to see results."

Herald Online feature: violence at home

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