This is an email protesting the closure of Relationships Aotearoa posted by Peter Matthewson to Anne Tolley, Minister of Social Development. Peter is a lecturer in the Department of Social Practice at Unitec. He has previously worked as a social worker in the former Department of Social Welfare, in the Probation Service, and in mental health.
Categories
Investing in children
This guest blog post is by Mike O’Brien. Mike is an Associate Professor at the School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work at the University of Auckland and has previously been the Head of the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Massey University. Mike chaired the Alternative Welfare Working Group in 2011. He is a Board member at Te Waipuna Puawai and of the Auckland City Mission and is a member of the Impacts of Poverty and Exclusion policy group for the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services. He is also the social security spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Working Group. In this post he discusses the meaning of the “investment approach” in the context of New Zealand government;’ review of Child, Youth and Family Services.
Categories
We need counselling services
See the previous post for the background to the cartoon.
Categories
‘Relationships Aotearoa’ to close
Relationships Aotearoa is likely to close its doors in 60 locations throughout the country by the end of the week, the agency says. The not-for-profit organisation failed to get an assurance of more funding from the Government this year and negotiations for a transition plan for clients have fallen through. Some 7000 people who get counselling will have to find help elsewhere, and of those, up to 900 will be referred back to the courts.
Re-imagining Social Work is delighted to welcome this guest contribution to our blog by Stephen Crossley who blogs in England about the Troubled Families Programme, looking at how the key workers (or ‘troubleshooters’ as David Cameron has called them) are enacting the troubled families agenda and if/how they are negotiating it and/or resisting it. You can read more about his work here. Stephen is undertaking a PhD in the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University and is interested in how some families are constituted as a threat to society.