CHILD, YOUTH AND FAMILY: WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

Safe children and young in strong families

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Each year Child, Youth and Family makes a difference for thousands of children, young people and their families. Like everyone, we want the best for children and young people, and we work with them, their families and communities to help them be safe, strong and thrive. We help:

people and communities.

• families get the support they need to care for their children • children needing care to find secure, long term homes with family and whänau, caregivers or adoptive parents

• young people who offend take responsibility for their actions, and make the changes they need to build an offending-free future • communities to raise awareness, and prevent child abuse and neglect. Much of the work we do relies on the strength of our relationships with others – whether that’s a family, an iwi or hapü group, a local community provider, youth aid officer, government agency, or an employer who wants to provide a young person with an opportunity that they might not otherwise have had. We’ve seen the difference this support can make to a child or young person’s life. We know that more can be achieved when we work together with people who share our vision of safe children and young people in strong families.

In an average day at Child, Youth and Family ... • we receive around 230 notifications of child abuse or neglect ...

A life for me and Jason ... Danielle turned her life around so she could give her son the childhood she didn’t have. She did it with help from family, “real good” caregivers and “heaps and heaps of support” from her Child, Youth and Family social worker. “It’s not been easy over the years but I’m really proud of getting Jason back and living on my own and out of care.”

In an average day at Child, Youth and Family... • our social workers engage with more than 100 families to discuss their family situation and assess their children’s safety

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When children and young people need

We work with others to take care of children and young people who are at risk of being hurt or neglected, and support families to keep their children safe. Every year we receive thousands of notifications from people concerned that a child is at risk of being harmed – most notifications come through our national call centre. In many of these cases, the family just needs some advice or access to support services. For others our care and protection teams work with the family to identify the issues and find a solution. For more serious or complicated cases, we’ll hold a family group conference where the family and other key people agree to a plan to keep the child safe and to identify the supports and services they need. We then work with the family to make sure the plan is carried out. Our aim is always to work with families and whänau to help them to provide a safe and loving home for their children.

When a child can’t live at home with their own family Sometimes it’s not safe for a child or young person to live at home and we need to find other family members or caregivers for them to live with. Often this happens with the agreement of the family and sometimes we go to the family court to ask the judge to make a decision. At any time there are up to 5,000 children and young people in care, with around half living with extended family/whänau. Many of them will return home, others will stay permanently with their caregiver or extended family.

Care and protection residences We have four care and protection residences that provide a temporary, secure environment for young people who need specialist support to stabilise their behaviour. Here the young people have an individualised care plan to make sure they have the tools and support they need to address their issues and go back safely to their community.

“ Our aim is to keep children and young people safely with their own family. ”

Walking down a different path ... “Heaps” of offending and court appearances played a big part in Jaydah’s* life until a youth justice programme and her youth and whänau worker showed her a different path. The programme meant she was intensively supported in the community, linked up to services and encouraged to make positive changes in her behaviour. Now she has a job and is getting her driver’s licence – something Jaydah had previously “only ever dreamed of”. *Not her real name.

In an average day at Child, Youth and Family ... • we hold around 20 care and protection and 40 youth justice family group conferences • we’re responsible for just over 100 young people in youth justice residences

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Helping young offenders turn their lives around Most young people who commit offences are dealt with without going to court, and many minor offences are sorted out with a police warning. Our youth justice teams deal with more serious cases and those that are going through the courts. Our aim is to prevent young people from re-offending, and get their behaviour back on track by holding them to account. We want to do this without them receiving a criminal conviction. We know that once a young person has a criminal record they are more likely to carry on breaking the law and their offences may become more serious. We work with the young person, their family, police and others in the community to help the young person turn things around. The family group conference is at the heart of the youth justice process. At the conference the young person has to face up to their crime and hear how it has affected their victim. The young person, their family, police, the victim and others involved agree on a plan for holding

them accountable. The plan also includes actions to help them address what’s behind their offending and the things they need to do to turn their behaviour around, like counselling, work experience or training. The family group conference is legally binding and we monitor it to ensure the actions are carried out. If a young person denies the charge or fails to follow through on their plan, their case will go back to the police or the court.

Youth justice residences Young offenders can be admitted to one of our three secure youth justice residences. This can happen if they have been arrested by police, remanded by the court, sentenced to imprisonment, or the court has ordered that they go into residence. While they are there they attend school and programmes that help them address their offending and move forward in a positive way.

“ The Family Group Conference holds young people to account and helps them address what’s behind the offending. ”

A different kind of family ...

Leanne and Alan really wanted to become parents. Initially they were keen to adopt but when their social worker explained all the options available to them, they realised they could become a different kind of family by providing permanent care for two young siblings. “It wasn’t easy becoming instant parents”, says Alan, “but a cuddle and a smile from our kids makes it all worthwhile.”

In an average day at Child, Youth and Family ... • more than 5,000 children and young people will be living with caregivers, or extended family/whänau supported by our caregiver social workers

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Giving children and families opportunities through

We manage and facilitate adoptions for children born in New Zealand and we’re responsible for intercountry adoptions. The wellbeing of children is the most important thing in the adoption process, so our focus is on finding the right family for the child and supporting them to have an ongoing connection with their birth family.

Connecting families

It’s important that people considering adoption are fully informed, know all their options and have a chance to examine these fully with professional support. We provide counselling services for birth parents and our social workers work closely with people who want to adopt.

Working together

Adults who have been adopted and want to find out about their birth parents or family can come to us for information, counselling and support. Birth parents can also talk to us if they want to apply for information about children who have been adopted.

As part of our effort to find permanent, loving homes for children in care who can’t go back to their families, our adoption and care and protection staff work closely together. As a result, some prospective adoptive parents are choosing to be foster parents.

“ The wellbeing of children is the most important thing in the adoption process. ”

Positive ways to different futures .... Jason Turnball from social service provider Awarua Services works hard to widen the horizons of the young people he works with. “I often take kids out diving or surfing, or try to get them involved in sports,” he says. He also links them up with Work and Income. “It’s this sort of wrap-around approach that ensures that the young person’s needs are covered from every angle and gives them the best chance to succeed.”

In an average day at Child, Youth and Family ... • we work with other agencies, community organisations and child and family service providers to build strong networks and support for children and their families • we visit key groups and agencies in the community to raise awareness about child abuse, how to recognise it and how to report it

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Our role in the

We work with others We provide funding and partner with hundreds of social service providers around New Zealand to make sure the children, young people and families we work with have access to quality services and support. This includes things like abuse and neglect prevention services, and mentoring programmes for young people, through to rehabilitation programmes for children and young people who have suffered abuse or harm. We also fund and administer initiatives such as the Social Workers in Schools programme. We work with other areas of the Ministry of Social Development and across government to provide coordinated services. For example, Work and Income

“ We partner with social service providers to make sure children, young people and families have access to the support they need. ”

case managers are working alongside our staff to help families access financial assistance and to support young people into work or training. Our staff work with groups in the community to help them identify and act when children or young people are at risk. We also provide information and resources that help parents to create strong families and raise happy, healthy kids.

CYF106 May 08