Supernanny-like social workers could be living in at-risk homes as part of new social services

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Supernanny-like social workers could all but live in the homes of troubled families, as part of a new plan to stem the flow of vulnerable children into state care. Katie Kenny and Blair Ensor examine the plan for The Homicide Report.

The Government is expected to provide funding for new intensive intervention services as part of Budget 2019. Among many ideas being looked at is having social workers embedded in households.

Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive Gráinne Moss recently visited one of the trial sites with Minister of Children Tracey Martin and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. 

At that site, she said families had '24/7' access to social workers, who were with families all day and in some cases until late at night.

'These are really wonderful intensive services. Our workers go in and actually live with the families, helping them to build up good parenting and safety strategies,' Moss said.

'We had a successful meeting with one woman and her children have been returned to her. She battled her addiction and won. She developed major parenting skills.'

In an interview for The Homicide Report, which found 135 children aged 14 and under had been killed in New Zealand from 2004 to March 31, 2019, Martin also spoke about the plan: 'In its simplest form, [it] means Oranga Tamariki shows up, eyeball to eyeball, with the parents and says, 'We want to work with you and your children can stay with you if you do this with us, otherwise we'll be uplifting them because they're not safe'.'

Following reports criticising the uplifting of Māori children in particular, Martin defended Oranga Tamariki's right to take children into care to keep them safe. She told Stuff she hopes new interventions will reduce the number of children and young people entering the state care system.

There were 7500 children and young people in care from April 2017 to March 2018 — an increase from 6250 in the previous 12-month period. More than half of them are Māori.

In a recent report, Oranga Tamariki said it wanted to significantly increase 'genuinely intensive support' for children and whānau who are at risk of harm.

Oranga Tamariki's Joe Fowler said discussions so far with communities and community organisations pointed towards intensive support being based around skilled family and whānau workers that work intensively with families and whānau, building on existing local support and services. 

'To get this right, we want to develop intensive support services with communities, building on local strengths, including the talented and passionate people in NGOs, and iwi and Māori organisations.

'We recognise that this will mean our social workers working differently with people in community organisations. Our plan will be to build intensive support services area by area, so that we can learn together with our partners and refine the support available over time.'

New legislation coming into force on July 1 means the agency is required to provide a significant uplift in the quality of care, underpinned by the country's first 'Care Standards'. The national regulations were approved as part of a major transformation of the system for care and support of vulnerable youth.

They also apply to organisations that have a child or young person in their care or custody.

Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft said the reforms meant the agency has the 'obligation to provide support and assistance to families before it gets to the case of removing a child'.

It meant Oranga Tamariki would have a 'preventative' role that the former state care agency, Child, Youth and Family didn't have.

The new intensive intervention services would be available for whānau or children and young people who had already been to a Family Group Conference and where there was a risk of the child being uplifted, Becroft said. 

'Its purpose is to walk alongside whānau, providing support so they can provide safe care for their children. Whānau will have the opportunity to choose their family support worker and some funding will be available to help meet the specific needs of individual whānau.'

The service will be resourced by Oranga Tamariki but delivered by Māori or other community organisations, he added. 

'It's an important initiative,' he said. '[The Office of the Children's Commissioner] would like to see it expanded to be available to whānau whose tamariki are in the early stages of contact with Oranga Tamariki.

'It is the kind of family-centred model that could help drive down our unacceptably high rates of abuse, neglect and removal.'

Jackie Burrows, chief executive of He Waka Tapu, a Māori kaupapa health organisation in Christchurch, said she supported wraparound services that would reduce uplifting of children from their homes. However she worried the plan's focus on social workers could overlook the valuable experience community workers bring.

'You're going to have to use organisations like ours, with a whānau ora approach, that already have those relationships. We're not talking about easy-to-access families.

'I love the idea of getting alongside and working with parents — my issue is we can't afford social workers. But we have plenty of people I could employ who have the heart and want to work with our families.'