CYF workers face Social Development Ministry axe

A team of social workers dedicated to child abuse prevention is included in jobs cuts confirmed this afternoon by the Social Development Ministry.

The Ministry – the Government’s largest with 9500 employees, including the Child, Youth and Family service – confirmed a total of 200 jobs will be cut from its ranks, Radio New Zealand reported.

Child, Youth and Family head Ray Smith said it was closing 12 administration service centres, and cutting a team of 18 child abuse education social workers, with a total of 80 jobs to go.

However, 12 new social worker positions to support foster families had been created and also new centralised administration roles.

The child abuse team education had been cut, because it carried out a role he wanted a wider range of CYF staff to be able to carry out, Mr Smith said.

"I don't want the responsibility for talking to community groups. . .left to a small number of people.

"I want many more of the people that work in this organisation to play an active role in their communities."

He wanted staff to lead a much more responsive public education strategy, which helped people to learn how to deal with difficult situations.

Reporting of child abuse and neglect was not the major issue – it had increased dramatically over the past decade, Mr Smith said.

"The real issue is teaching people how to respond to situations they see. So if you encounter. . .someone that's struggling with a teenager or a young baby, how do you respond?"

Overall CYF wanted to put a stronger focus on its frontline people while it got some efficiency gains, Mr Smith said.

"It's difficult for staff that go through change processes like this and we need to support them so that we can help them find a way to be in a job that they feel effective in."

There were currently just under 300 available positions, including 90 social workers, available at CYF across the country, he said.

"In an overall sense we have a large number of positions, that's why my expectation is that we should be able to offer the vast majority of our people a job."

The ministry said the restructuring will save up to $22 million a year. Between 60-70 front line jobs were expected to be created as part of the process.

A proposal for the axing of 200 jobs at the ministry was first revealed in May.

Chief executive Peter Hughes said the move was aimed at giving greater efficiency and redirecting resources towards front-line positions.

The ministry said then it intended to hire 100 extra case managers to cope with the increased workload.

It said that with unemployment set to double to around 80,000 by early next year, more case managers would be required to cope with demand.

- with NZPA