For those who do not know: Child, Youth and Family Services and Oranga Tamariki are NZ's child protection services. They are a government agency
I found this article in the Herald from 2016, it clearly shows how Oranga Tamariki's predecessors, Child, Youth, and Family Services(CYFS) are incompetent and placed children at risk of harm.
Child, Youth, and Family Services were rebranded as Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Children and still they get it wrong.
The article
Two children aged 8 years and 15 years were living with a known criminal in a house that was used for the manufacture of methamphetamine for supply with weapons like AK47's.
The father was distraught and went to CYFS. From the article:
"The children's father feared for their safety but his concerns were dismissed by the CYF social worker, who accepted the explanation given by the new partner.
"[The accused] was honest about his charges. It is my view these charges are not an area of concern regarding the children's safety," the social worker wrote."
It was not just CYFS.
The police knew that the children were in the house because they were doing an undercover investigation
Why did the police not go to CYFS and get the children removed?
Are children at the centre of our work?
Does Oranga Tamariki place children at the centre of their work?
Do the NZ Police place children at the centre of their work?
How Oranga Tamariki and the NZ Police respond now is based on what they have done in the past.
I HOPE ~ we all HOPE
I hope that both Oranga Tamariki and NZ Police have reflected on the case in the herald.
I hope that they apologised to the father of those children and to the children for failing to intervene.
I hope that Oranga Tamariki and the NZ Police have ensured that the father and the children have been provided compensation and support to overcome the trauma they faced - the father for being disregarded, unseen and unheard AND the children for being exposed to drugs and weapons.
When professionals are involved they have a responsibility to all children. If they know that children are at risk of harm they MUST intervene with urgency to remove the harm
This is the very reason why we need all our government agencies to be trauma-informed so that they are trauma-responsive.
In NZ, Oranga Tamariki is trauma-informed on paper but that is where it remains on paper.
That is why I say NZ MUST be trauma-responsive for then we will also be child-centred.
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