Table of Contents
Lindsay Mitchell
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com
Lindsay Mitchell has been researching and commenting on welfare since 2001. Many of her articles have been published in mainstream media and she has appeared on radio, tv and before select committees discussing issues relating to welfare. Lindsay is also an artist who works under commission and exhibits at Wellington, New Zealand, galleries.
CYF became Oranga Tamariki in 2017. There has since been a push to reduce Maori children in state care (not dissimilar to the push to reduce the prison population). Currently, just over two-thirds are Maori.
So here’s a quick stock-take on OT stats under the new regime. The numbers are for the year ending June.
‘Reports of concern’ about a child come from schools, police, neighbours etc.
These are trending down:
A report of concern can result in a ‘further assessment or investigation’.
These increased in the most recent period:
Next, I would have expected to be able to show you ‘substantiated findings of abuse or neglect’ but there are none at the OT site. The latest Annual Report provides none.
So finally, the number of distinct children in a care or protection placement (which could be family/whanau, non-family or a state facility.)
These are trending down:
A breakdown in ethnicity for each category shows every stat declining for Maori including further assessments and investigations.
A couple of matters prompted me to check the most recent data: reports from the States that harm to children has increased during lockdowns, with absence from school and confinement within families under stress.
And closer to home Child Matters releasing data about the number of deaths from neglect and abuse increasing in number.
Last year, one child died every five weeks as a result of alleged abuse in New Zealand. So far this year, one child has died almost every week.
Ten children in one year is above the norm and the rate appears to be increasing. Child deaths represent the most extreme abuse or neglect but may provide a clue to other underlying degrees.
The trends seem to be going in two different directions.
It’s hard to draw sound conclusions but it can be said fewer children are under the state’s care and protection (now officially referred to as ‘loving placements’) and more children are dying. Whether the two observations are related is another thing.
