Arran Jones: Independent children's monitor on the increase in harm for children in state care

A disproportionate number of children in state care face harm when returned home.

Oranga Tamariki's annual report shows an overall increase in abuse or neglect in state care, with 530 children experiencing harm in the year ending March.

That's 23 up on the previous year.

Independent children's monitor, Arran Jones, says about half of children return in an unplanned way.

"You've got voices of parents there saying - I just wasn't ready for my young person to come home, I've got drug and alcohol issues, I've got mental health issues I haven't been able to address, I'm not ready to have them home."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Shout up. Now, Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there's much
improvement in how we care for our most vulnerable kids.
The number of kids abused while in state care has
increased in the last year, with five hundred and thirty
experiencing harm. That is twenty three more than last year.
Aaron Jones is the Independent Children's Monitor and with us Hello, Aaron, Yeah, However,
now is this right that most of this is happening

(00:21):
when these kids are going back to their parents, Not.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Most of it, but there's overrepresented, so it's a real
risk area. And Ordongo Tamariki have called this out as
far back as twenty nineteen. For kids that are returning
home but they're still in state care, they're disproportionately getting harmed.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
What does that mean? What does disproportionately mean?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, because the number of kids that are returning home
is small, but the amount of harm that's been is great,
So you're more likely to get harmed if you're in
one of those situations. And I think what's really important
to understand is those kids that are returning home, about
half of them are returning home in an unplanned so
they're going back to homes when family members aren't necessarily ready.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Or are we doing this parent?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, that's the question you need to ask, what a
ton of time?

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I mean, if we know that there's a really high
rate of these kids getting hurt when they're back with
their with their loser parents, why don't we keep them
away from their parents?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well that's that is one option. The other option is
making sure that if this is the only alternative for
this young person and they want to be home with
their parents, is making sure you've got the supports in
place for them. So we produced a report in twenty
twenty three that called this out and you know, you've
got voices of parents. They're saying, I just wasn't ready
for my young person to come home. I've got drug
and alcohol issues. I haven't addressed those yet. I've got

(01:41):
mental health issues I haven't been able to address, so
I'm not ready to have them home. And so what
it's saying is if they're going to return, you've got
to make sure the supports are there for both them
and their family members.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Are we talking about social worker visits.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
That's one of them. So one of the things we
noted back then was actually social workers were less likely
to visit those kids that return home in an unexpected
way than those that have gone home in a planned way.
Why that's again a question you'd have to ask, a.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Really obvious thing. We can fix.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's yeah, it does. And I think one of the
heartening things. I'll give you some good news here here
there is I think ordering a tamariki. In the last
six months have have responded to that and are actively
driving and improvement and practice to make sure that social
workers are visiting those young people to make sure that
they're safe. So if that can be sustained and you
can get the other agencies wrapped around in terms of

(02:33):
mental health support and everything else that's needed, we might
see a reduction in that harm.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh pleased to hear that, Aaron, Thanks so much, mate,
Aaron Jones, Independent Children's Monitor. For more from Heather Duplessy,
Alan Drive, listen live to news talks they'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.