Background
The Green Paper is a consultation document intended to stimulate debate about vulnerable (abused and neglected) children and get public feedback. It is an opportunity for all New Zealander’s to have their say before crucial decisions are made that will change the way we care for and protect children in the future. A full copy of the Green Paper can be found at: http://www.childrensactionplan.govt.nz/.
The green paper roughly groups its discussion into the following areas:
Sharing responsibility
-
When should government agencies step in?
-
What should government agencies review, support and consider?
-
How can communities help?
Showing leadership
-
Development of an action plan
-
Reporting requirements and responsibilities
-
Partnership with Maori
Making child-centred policy changes, and child centred practice changes
-
Provision of targeted services
-
Prioritising/re-prioritising services to take into account needs to children
-
Monitoring/tracking vulnerable children
-
Information sharing
-
Collaboration between providers
-
Development of a ‘workforce for children’
WNPC have developed a submission to be made on the Green Paper on behalf of all WNPC members. The text of the submission is below and we welcome any and all comments. Submissions on the Green Paper close on Wednesday 28 February, 2012. Individuals are also encouraged to make their own submissions around points that they feel strongly about.
Submission
Sharing responsibility
Education and support should be used to break the cycle of abuse and neglect and prevent subsequent cases of abuse.
Education and support should be readily available to all parents and carers. The sources and types of help available should be publicised and information made easily accessible to all on a dedicated website, which is maintained and up to date.
Communities and local groups should be encouraged to participate in helping vulnerable children in their area.
When abuse/neglect occurs and household members refuse to co-operate with subsequent investigations, all members of the household should be held accountable.
Information should be sought from previous offenders. Is there anything that could have been done to help prevent them abusing/neglecting their children?
Showing leadership
Provision should be made for a two-pronged approach to identify and help children who are currently being abused or neglected and to prevent future instances of abuse and neglect.
Effort should be made to progress the vulnerable from being dependant on society to contributing to society.
Parents/caregivers of vulnerable children should be treated in a non-judgemental manner and help offered accordingly. It is noted that often the parent/caregiver has to ask for help; however, more is likely to be achieved if the help/support from any source can be offered by each/every agency (government and non-government) with which the family has contact.
Education and support should be available to all.
Making child-centred policy changes
Making child centred practice changes
Abused and neglected children should immediately be helped.
Help should be easily available for those parents/caregivers that want it and, in that instance, that help and support should be preferentially available to those with children at risk of neglect and abuse.
Services should be prioritised for parents/caregivers with children provided the parent/caregiver needs the service and intends to make the most of such service.
There should be substantial information sharing between government agencies and other organisations involved in working with families in order to identify vulnerable children and offer support where required. To this end, consideration should be given to the development of a database to record information on each child for a finite period of time.
It should be possible to track parents of vulnerable children, identify all pregnancies within these families and monitor all children e.g. through transfer of data between DHBs.
Risk factors should be taken into account and should act as flags in any predictive analysis of data.
Responsibility should be taken and the system quickly updated if families are erroneously identified as ‘at risk’.
Feedback
Please contact Angela if you would like to add/change anything in the WNPC submission.
Specifics Training Group runs a number of diverse fitness groups and individual personal training programmes. The Specifics Training Group ethos is for you to work hard, be dedicated but most of all to have fun and achieve your goals. WNPC members are invited to take part in: