Merepeka Raukawa-Tait: Whanau Ora Chair on the rise in the number of children in care suffering from abuse or neglect

Whanau Ora's Chair believes there's more focus on removing children from their families, rather than their safety further down the track. 

A critical report from the Independent Children's Monitor argues that little progress has been made in living up to National Care Standards introduced six years ago. 

It finds the percentage of young people suffering abuse or neglect in care has risen from 8% to 10% in the year to July last year.  

Chair Merepeka Raukawa-Tait told Ryan Bridge once children are in care, the minimum standards are not adhered to. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Numbers out of ordering a tamadiki getting bleaker. The Independent
Children's Monitor says abuse in state here is rising. Five
hundred and thirty children are harmed in twenty four to
twenty five. That's up from five hundred and seven the
year before. That's ten percent of the kids totally in care.
Medipecket Okawa Tate is fun at Order Commission Agency chair
with us this morning Medipica.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning, Good morning, Ryan.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Now this picture hasn't moved in the six years of
this report. Now it was bad under labor, bad under national.
Is anyone around the world doing this better?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, certainly I'd like to think so, because I can't
understand why the dial hasn't moved for our children in
care in New Zealand, and unfortunately, as the report just says,
things have not improved. All the attention that seems to
come on to removing the children from their families and
yet when they do come into care, first of all,
they get abused in care and the minimum standards of

(00:56):
care are not adhered to. So rather than kicking the
can down the road, I think it's giving the child
down the road and things are just not changing.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, well, I suppose nine. I mean, let's look, the
ten percent are being abused or neglected in state care,
which is terrible, but that means ninety percent aren't. Does
that mean that they are better off you know what
I mean, better off than being in the home.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
No, it's not really, because what the report clearly says
is that for a lot of the children in care,
their educational requirements are not being met. Certainly, then their
health needs are not being met. And so we've we've
got a number of agencies that know that they are
paid to do a particular job for children who are
already in a vulnerable situation, who need their care and

(01:40):
attention and are not being prioritized. So it does not
look good for those that should be making every effort
to change and turn around the lives of children who
are already in a vulnerable position.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
No, their lives have been terrible already because this will
They got there in the first place because they were,
as the report says, you know, sexually abuse by a
family member or they had a parent on meth who
just didn't care about them is terrible.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, it is, but sometimes I think we should be
actually looking at what are we doing to change those
uh and those issues as well, those factors, I mean,
because those factors haven't changed either. So all we're doing,
we're reacting when something happens putting the child in a
situation where we know from the continuation of the reports
that we receive that we see that nothing will change

(02:27):
for them in state care anyway. So you know, if
you don't if you don't start to address those those
factors in the home that are causing children to be
at risk, that's one thing. And if you don't address
and make sure that the minimum standards of care that
they should be receiving when they go into care are
happening and being prioritized, then it's just going to be

(02:48):
one report after another, a lot of dollars going in
with no positive outcomes for the children. And this has
happening year after year.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, six years on the Trump Medipecker, appreciate your time
this morning. Thank you many. You Get oka with Tate For.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
More from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to
news Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.