Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Karen Chhour: Children's Minister on more children are being harmed in Oranga Tamariki's care

Transcript

Karen Chhour: Children's Minister on more children are being harmed in Oranga Tamariki's care · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Children's Commissioner and Independent Children's Monitor calling out Karen Chaw
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for cherry picking stats this morning they reckon the abuse
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in state care is getting worse, and the Minister put
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: out a press release saying recorded harm was going down
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a fourteen percent reduction and recorded harm across the cure
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: residences since twenty twenty four. Ordering a Tamainiki's annual report
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: says five hundred and thirty children in care experienced harm
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: in the year to March twenty three, more than the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: previous year.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: So what gives Karen Chaws with me now, Minister, good morning.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Good morning.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Are you cherry picking here? What's going on?
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: So the harm that you're speaking to around that could
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: be anything so low level, high level. The harm that
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about in the decrease in residences is serious
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: harm where a child or young person has an injury
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: that is serious. So there's been a massive reduction in
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: harm and retil and it's the first time ever we're
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: seeing no reduction and harm and residence in New Zealan.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: And this is really important to me because I actually
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: set this as a real priority when I first came
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: into Parliament because children deserve to be safe no matter
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: where they live and within a residence. These young people
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: deserve to have the best protection they possibly can and
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: be able to have a chance to turn their lives around.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: And they're not going to do that if they're not
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: feeling safe where they live. So what I announced yesterday
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: is around a program that we have put in place
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: to make sure that our staff have better training, better oversight,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: We have better recruitment and strengthened leadership to make sure
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: that these kids are safe. I understand where where the
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Children's Commissioner is coming from. Any harm is not okay,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: and we have to make sure that we're clearly focused
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: on that.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Minister. What is serious harm or what's minor harm that
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: we shouldn't be worried about that's been going up.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I guess it's recordings like within the MSA when we
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: had two recordings of harm and one with a cut
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: finger and one with some burn sometimes.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: So's we're not talking here about physical abuse, you know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: either caregiver on young person abuse or a young person
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: on young person abuse. It could be anything tripping and falling,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: stubbing a toe.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: This fourteen percent reduction of finding of harm is based
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: on it could be physical abuse where a child this
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: is what I'm speaking to today, is physical abuse where
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: a child or a young person has injury or it
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: was at risk of injury. Sexual abuse or including exposure
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: to sexual activity and sexual imagery and grooming behaviors. Neglect
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: where the basic needs of a child a young person
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: has not been met. Emotional abuse with mental health and
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: social or emotional functioning and development. So Master, what I
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: would also say, what's the number?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: What's the number? So the five hundreds, because this is
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: what they're coming at you with, right, So that the
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: five hundred and thirty children here who experienced harm in
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: the last year, up from five hundred and seven the
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: year before.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: So the number I'm reporting to is in twenty twenty
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: four to twenty twenty five, there was around one hundred
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: and ninety five findings of harm and for one hundred
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: and for one hundred and fifteen children and young people
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: in residential placement. In the previous year there were two
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: hundred and twenty eight findings of harm for one hundred
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: and eighteen children. What I would also say is eighty
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: three percent of the harm experience that was caused by
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: other children in placement and twelve percent was by staff,
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: so we're really breaking this down so we've got a
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: good understanding of.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: What's happening, Minister, Given that most of the harm is
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: between the young people, do you need to separate them
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: out of it more.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: This is why we've put legislation changed through Parliament even
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: recently in response to not only needing the necessity of
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: making sure young people are safe, but in response to
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: the Abuse and Care inquiry where residences. We're a big
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: part of the story that was told from survivors in care,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: so we need to make sure that we're keeping these
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: young people safe. Some of the routines we've done more
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: staff is that they have clear bags now when they're
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: coming within residents, so we can see what they're bringing
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: into residents, and contraband is lower.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: So it sounds like you're making moves on all the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: right places, Minister, but obviously some disagreement about exactly how
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: safe the young people there are.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Karen, appreciate your time this one and Karen Shaw Children's Minister.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Listen live to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.