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The absent elephant in the 2016 ‘Modernising Child, Youth and Family Expert Panel Report’

 A  guest post by David Kenkel

David Kenkel is a lecturer in Social Work and Community Development in the Department of Social Practice at Unitec Auckland. He has an extensive background in working with family violence and children and families involved with CYFS. He has been an advocate for children in national and regional roles with UNICEF and the New Zealand Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

Sometimes the most interesting thing about a new policy document or report is not what is present in the document but what is absent.

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On representation: voice, trauma and evidence in decision-making

The Child Youth and Family reforms announced a week ago are wide-ranging and contain a mixture of potential pros and cons for different populations in contact with the whole child welfare system: by which I mean statutory child protection, the wider domain of NGOs, targeted and universal services, and macro social protections. I offer this post as my first reflections, and (as these reforms provide some hearty discussion topics) look forward to the developing policy debates that will ensue.

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All You Need Is Love: Is the revealed truth within the Final Report?

Ian Hyslop

All you need is love

The long-awaited ‘Expert panel final report: Investing in New Zealand’s children and Their Families’ was released on Thursday 7 April.

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CYF Review- great ideas but what about the workers?

The big questions I have about the proposed reviews, on the basis of what we have so far are: will government  invest generously (or even adequately ) in the social services workforce?  Will they take social workers with them in the planning for the new services? Given the past record of poor investment and excluding social workers from the discussion I am very cynical.  Especially about the lack of investment in us. Change without workforce development and proper planning won’t achieve what they want. The history of social work as a profession in Aotearoa New Zealand is one of deficits in real resources. We have heard talk from the minister this week about social work education and registration- ‘calls for social worker registration to become mandatory‘, but no detail. She’s had a year to think about it.  We are waiting and ready to contribute our expertise.
Minister Tolley wants a social  investment strategy  – well invest in us !  And bring us to the table. And make it soon.
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European Social Work Day of Solidarity with Refugees

This post is reblogged in solidarity with the UK Social Work Action Network (SWAN).

Here you can find an in-depth description of the planned European Social Work Day of Solidarity with Refugees, June 5th, 2016.

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