Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jane Searle: Child Matters CEO talks growing number of reports of concern to Oranga Tamariki

Transcript

Jane Searle: Child Matters CEO talks growing number of reports of concern to Oranga Tamariki · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's a worry. These numbers coming out of ordering a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: tamadiki this morning via a report from enz ME, more
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: than thirteen hundred kids who are overdue to be assigned
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a social worker. On top of this, eighty one thousand
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: reports of concern that's when people are worried about a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: kid they report it to ordering a tamidiki. Eighty one
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: thousand in the last year to March. That is a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: forty five percent increase on the previous year. The chief
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: executive Child Matters Jane Searle with us this morning. Jane,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning, Ryan. Now those overdue, So the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: thirteen hundred kids overdue to be assigned a social worker,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: that's ten days or more. How serious is that? Give
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: us an idea, Well, it's.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Usually concerning, So you need to have social workers in
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: front of these children to understand what the risk is.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: So the question is what does it mean or we
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: have an increase in unallocated cases. The answers increase risk
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: for a vulnerable kids and.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: A forty five percent increase in the reports of concern.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Just to clarify, that's not necessarily eighty one thousand kids
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that could be double ups there, so.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: It's well, it depends how they calculated and if there
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: are reports concerns about the same children or the same
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: children in one family. But I mean, we've always sat
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: high with our reports are concerns, but these are the
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: highest numbers that I've seen. What's called that that's up
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: for debate. We do know, of course, that that's as
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: a fraction of the children that are risk in the country.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Because report are concerned our only a fraction of what
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: we know is going on. So it shows that are
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Englis commody keys increasingly swamped with this workload. And if
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: you're swamped to do the work that you're meant to
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: be doing, that's for a huge concern.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: You said, it's up for debate about why. Obvious answers
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: one is there's more abuse going on or people are
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: reporting it more. What do you say?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I would say it could be a mixture of both.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: But we know that there's a huge amount of underreporting,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and what I hear from the social sector is that
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: probably there is less reporting from some serious cases. So
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: it's certainly not indicative of the fact that it's just
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: more being reported and that we're knowing what's going on.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I don't think that's the case.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Help, This makes sense for me. Government says there's more
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: social workers going in, they've revamped the reporting system sixty
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: eight million dollars over four years or whatever it was
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: last year, and yet they are swamped. In your words,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: what's going on?
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Well, the answer is that OT is a very big
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: ship to turn around and it is going to take years.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: We always knew that, but I think that, I mean,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: this shows that the capacity is storm not what it
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: should be, and if our weight lists are growing, then
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: it's going to increase risk. So there's no way of
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: talking around that.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Jane, I appreciate your time this morning. Jane cell Child
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Matters Chief executive.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: to News Talks it be from five am weekdays, or
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio