Author: Deb Stanfield

In Aotearoa’s sister nation of Canada, there is a government appointed body called The Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It was set up in 2008 to document the experiences of children who lived in residential schools in Canada between 1883 and 1996. Its mandate was to fully report the truth of what happened to the 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children who attended these schools – to tell of the abuse inflicted upon many of them at the hands of the state and the church.

In just two months the New Zealand social work profession has undergone a transformation, or at the very least has risen, shaken itself off and shown a renewed confidence in the value of its own opinion. Over these two months, since Minister Tolley’s CYF Review announcement at the beginning of April, there has been an intense succession of disturbing new social policies, funding crises, service delivery disasters and heartbreaking news stories all related to the services provided (or not) to New Zealand’s most vulnerable. There has been no rest for the wicked problems which when not regularly bubbling to the surface of the cauldron, have been happily stewing away at the bottom, preparing to rise again. And no rest for many social workers, who found themselves compelled to respond in ways that surprised even themselves.

Children’s Commissioner Russell Wills was asked by National Radio last week to respond to Minister Anne Tolley’s proposed CYF modernization project. An even, calm and suitably critical Mr Wills offered himself as an ally for child protection social workers and for the children they work alongside on a daily basis. It is very simply in his words “hard work,” and he couldn’t have agreed more with Nine to Noon interviewer Kathryn Ryan who described the size of social work caseloads as “unfathomable when you consider the complexity of the work.” To have this challenge acknowledged is largely satisfying and affirming for social workers and few would disagree with Dr Wills’ stated support for the application of “big brains” to the task of modernizing our child protection system to better meet the needs of children and young people.