KEY POINTS:
Five years after their baby son died in state care, a West Auckland family has hit back at the social workers involved by naming them on a renegade website aimed at holding such people to account.
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Here is the latest selection of your views:
H
I am a married 19 year old and I got given my sister because my mother couldnt handle her shoplifting. I then put her under some strict rules which seemed to be working, until a CYFS councilor told me I had serious mental issues for someone my age and needed to see a doctor to get medication(I am actually a pretty well adjusted person). She then got given to my aunt, who sees my sister as nothing but extra income, and my sister still has no-one to address her problem of shoplifting. My mother has called CYFS repeatedly to get them to address the problem, and they have only contacted her now because my aunt cannot handle my sister, and now wants to dump her back on my mother. It seems strange that CYFS is supposed to be helping my sister through her problems, yet she is the one who is being ignored.
Joy
New Zealand has such a poor record for abuse of children. But now it seems that the organisation which holds itself up as the ultimate child caring one is partly to blame for it. I feel sorry for the parents, for the children and for those many social workers who do have integrity and justice in their hearts. Their bullying colleagues have let everyone down. Lets hope their managers see fit to redeploy them and rebuild CYFs tattered reputation.
Lloyd
High time some of these seemingly inadequate people were held accountable. If they do a good job, they should not have too much of a worry. There will always be the odd person that goes over the top with their criticism, & they should be dealt to as well. From the top down, NZ is infested with faceless bureaucrats that ride roughshod over the ordinary & generally law abiding Kiwi.
Kristina Harrison
I fully support the naming and shaming of CYFs social workers. When kids are dying after CYFs have been called with concerns obviously something is not right. When non-custodial fathers are being told that the only reason they are ringing CYFs with concerns about their children is because they are overbearing, there is a problem. When kids are dying in the care of CYFs approved homes, there is a problem. The government should be getting rid of people who are assisting in the abuse of our children by their inaction or prejudices, rather than trying to pass a bill through parliament that allows us to make criminals of good parents.
Mark
Great job, about time, well done.
Sharon
Cyfs should be held accountable for these children who apparently slip through the net and end up dead.
James
It is interesting that the CYFS workers and PSA are so concerned about a blog that personaly identifies poorly performing staff. I am a teacher and myself and every other teacher has a page on the website www.ratemyteachers.co.nz in which teachers are criticised--several quite severely and many unjustly.There has been not horror and action to take this website down. CYFS workers need to get used to the way things happen in the 21st centry and stop being so precious and get on with improving their performance like the teachers website has prompted them to do.
Errol
Peter Hughes has hit the nail on the head. All responsibility for child abuse should rest squarely on the shoulders of the parents and adults in the house. If it were not for the neglectful, errant, irresponsible and downright cruel behaviour of some of our parents , there would not be the need to have an organisation like CYF in the first place. The numbers speak for themselves . New Zealand has the highest rate of child abuse in the world, therefore its no wonder that CYF is overworked and their attention spread thin over the number of cases each officer can handle. If they get some wrong , who is to blame. We can keep pointing fingers at the government, underbudgeting , lack of workers, nurses and the whole shebang of excuses but the fact remains that the blame lies with us as parents and caregivers. If a couple of seconds of orgasmic pleasure experienced one drunken afternoon results in the birth of a child then maybe we as a society should take a long hard look at ourselves and ask some serious questions about the choices we are making . That blog should be wiped off cyberspace and that family be prosecuted for scandal.
Dave
If they want to name and shame social workers why dont we have an identical site naming and shaming families who have had their children removed and why? Its only fair to have both sides to the story.
