Once again the "system" has failed a child and its abusive parents.
Twenty-four years ago, the then Labour Government moved to close Social Welfare residential care facilities for children. Their rationale was that, with support, those children should be looked after in the community. Effective community support was not in place when those residential facilities were closed, and I do not believe that they have ever caught up to the demand.
Effective as they were, those institutions were still ambulances at the bottom of the cliff. The damage to the children had already been done.
Before the closings, I contacted a number of agencies around Whanganui which were involved with children and their families and discussed how best the community could be served, given this new concept. Those contacted were from Plunket, kindergarten, district nurses, primary teachers, Principals' Association and Police Youth Aid. They all had had long experience and hands-on contact with a wide range of children. All of these people stated those children who would later be a "problem" were easily identified early in their lives. The warning flags were out almost from almost birth, sometimes before.
From this consultation, a plan was drawn up that would attack the problems at their source. A multi-talented team would be formed that could go into the homes of families that had been identified, assess the problems and teach the parents how to rectify their behaviours so that the child and subsequent children were not adversely affected. This could be through budgeting, nutrition nurturing, anger management, drug programmes, you name it. It focused on teaching the parents the ability to give their families what was needed to succeed.
