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Listen to this31 JANUARY
NEW ZEALAND
The Government has set ten year targets for reducing child poverty
and hardship that will transform children’s lives and establish New
Zealand as having one of the lowest rates of child poverty in the world.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern outlined the targets at a community
forum in Wellington tonight. They follow the release yesterday of the
Child Poverty Reduction Bill, which will set in law several measures of
poverty, and require governments to set three and ten year targets to
reduce it.
“We will make an historic dent in child poverty, and
reduce low incomes and hardship among our children to levels New Zealand
has not seen in decades.
“My Government’s plan will roughly halve
child poverty within ten years, and establish New Zealand as one of the
best performing countries for children. This is what most of us would
expect of a country like ours.
Today, I’m announcing three
ten-year targets under the Bill.
• Reduce the proportion of children in low income
households (using the before housing measure*) from roughly 15 percent
of all children to 5 percent. This reduces the number by more than half
from 160,000 to 60,000.
• Reduce the proportion of children in low
income households (using the after housing costs measure*) from roughly
20 percent to 10 percent. This is a reduction of 90,000 children from
210,000 now to 120,000.
• Reduce the proportion of children in
material hardship from between 13 and 15 percent now to 7 percent*. This
reduces the number of children in this group from 150,000 to 80,000.
“These are ambitious targets that will make a substantial difference
for children. Most significantly, by targeting reductions in the rate of
children in low income households and hardship (not just the number) we
are committing to keeping the rates low over time, rather than achieving
one-off benefits that could quickly erode.
“We want to put an end
to a political era that tolerated hardship and poverty among thousands
of children, and refocus governments on what’s required to ensure all
kids have the opportunity to thrive.
“My Bill also requires our
Government to set three year targets which mark our progress toward the
longer poverty goals. My intention is to make these intermediate targets
ambitious in their own right. I will confirm these in time for public to
have a say when the Bill goes through the select committee process.
“This Government has committed to putting children at the heart of
its decision making. This is the right thing to do for children, and
it’s the right thing to do for all of us,” says Jacinda Ardern.
31 January 2018
Press Release: New Zealand Government
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29 JANUARY
CANADA
Promoting the reunification of families will be a key focus of the government's strategy to improve the care of Indigenous foster children.
That message was stressed by Jane Philpott, the federal minister of Indigenous services, at this week's emergency meeting of federal, provincial and Indigenous officials to discuss Indigenous children in foster care.
Factors like poverty, housing and addiction all combined against Indigenous children, she said – damage has already been done and it's time to fix the issues.
"It's a complex issue that has multiple factors," she told The House. "There are multiple reasons how we got into this circumstance, now it's our job to change those factors."
More Indigenous children in care
Though Indigenous children represent less than eight per cent of Canadian children, they make up more than half of the children currently in foster care, according to Statistics Canada.
In the Prairies, the contrast is even more stark. About 90 per cent of foster children in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are Indigenous.
To help reduce the rate, Philpott announced a six-part plan the government will use to improve the situation of tens of thousands of children in foster care. She also promised the 2018 budget would include more money for Indigenous children.
The plan includes implementing all orders received from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, focusing on preventing children from entering the foster system, exploring options to develop policies with the provinces and territories and reuniting families.
The area Philpott said she sees a need for immediate work is family reunification.
"Should we not first look for other people who might be able to care for their child and keep them in their community and give those families the rights that they have to be able to make decisions around their children and raise them in their own culture?" she said.
Currently, organizations that coordinate care are given funding based on how many children they are responsible for. That model, according to Philpott, is outdated and dangerous.
"More money flows if more children are taken out of their homes," she continued. "That's a crazy way to design a system."
Driven by stories from survivors
The meeting, while beneficial, received some criticism from Cindy Blackstock, the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. Gatherings like this are helpful, she told The House last week, but there needs to be a concrete plan in motion when the participants leave.
Looking ahead, Philpott said stories she heard from children who endured the broken system shows Indigenous foster care needs both an immediate and longer term reform.
"Those are the stories that drive us to say 'Those young people need our support now so that those who have been torn away from their families can be reunited and those that don't have to be apprehended can stay with their families,'" she concluded.
Her team will start working on the six-point plan on Monday, including provisions for shorter and longer term goals.
27 January 2018
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26 JANUARY
CANADA
Ministry of Children and Youth Services
In advance of the upcoming meeting with Jane Philpott, federal Minister of Indigenous Services, on January 25-26, 2018, Provincial and Territorial Ministers with responsibility for child and family services convened to discuss emerging opportunities.
The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to addressing the overrepresentation of Indigenous children and youth in care and to improving outcomes for Indigenous children and youth. They discussed the importance of meaningful collaboration with Indigenous leaders and communities and the Government of Canada on the federal reform of child and family services for Indigenous children, youth, and families, and issued the following statement:
Co-chairs of the Provincial/Territorial Indigenous Children and Youth in Care Working Group
Quote
“Working in partnership with Indigenous leaders and communities, provinces and territories are committed to improving outcomes for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children and youth, by taking holistic, prevention-based approaches that support families and communities.
In 2014, Canada’s Premiers reiterated the need for governments and Indigenous communities to work collaboratively to address Indigenous child welfare issues and requested that the federal government be engaged in this work. At their 2015 meeting, Premiers released a report that identified promising practices and encouraged Ministers to carry on the drive for change. Provinces and territories took that charge to heart, leading to a renewed collective focus on actions to improve outcomes for Indigenous children and youth by Ministers responsible for child and family services.
Provinces and territories agree that collaboration with the federal government must respect existing relationships and engagement processes that provinces and territories have developed with regional First Nations, Inuit and Métis leadership and organizations, as well as with local Indigenous communities.
Recognizing that the federal government has constitutional responsibilities toward First Nations on reserve as well as responsibility to all Indigenous peoples, provinces and territories acknowledge that stronger partnerships and new and immediate funding is needed from the Government of Canada to reach substantive equity in outcomes for Indigenous children and youth.
We hope the federal government will commit to:
• Enhancing support for all Indigenous children
and families, including First Nations children and youth on-and
off-reserve, as well as Inuit and Métis children and youth;
•
Addressing underlying root causes – such as poverty, intergenerational
trauma and access to housing, recreation, healthcare and education –
that contribute to higher numbers of Indigenous children and youth being
placed in child welfare systems;
• Supporting meaningful engagement
with regional/local First Nations, Métis, and Inuit leaders and
provinces and territories on the development of federal initiatives that
will help reduce the number of Indigenous children and youth in care,
while respecting and ensuring alignment with distinctive provincial and
territorial service delivery systems;
• Supporting
provincial/territorial-supported or led initiatives for systemic changes
and new governance models that empower Indigenous families, leaders and
communities in decisions regarding Indigenous child welfare; and,
•
Ensuring equitable, flexible and substantive federal funding for
Indigenous children and youth services that address root causes and
improve prevention and support services, in order to ensure they have
better outcomes and lifelong connections to family, culture and
community.
We are encouraged by the federal government’s engagement in this matter and their commitment to partnership and meaningful collaboration in the reform of child and family services for Indigenous children, youth, and families.
The upcoming meeting on January 25-26 with Minister Philpott, Provincial and Territorial Ministers and national and regional First Nations, Métis and Inuit leaders represents an opportunity for all of us to work toward greater collaboration on this critical issue.
Together we are hopeful that the meeting will be a catalyst for making genuine progress on reducing the number of Indigenous children and youth in care across Canada.”
Michael Coteau and Scott Fielding
Minister of Children and Youth Services, Government of Ontario | Minister of Families, Government of Manitoba
24 January 2018
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24 JANUARY
NEW ZEALAND
Family First NZ is calling on the Government to maintain the Better Public Services target on physical child abuse, even though the previous government had struggled to meet the target.
“The government’s priorities in this area should be the same as the previous government – to significantly reduce child abuse. To remove targets, no matter how difficult or challenging they may be, removes the motivation to make and measure significant and needed change,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
The target to reduce ‘assaults on children’ was introduced by Prime Minister John Key in 2012. By 2017, the government aimed “to halt the 10-year rise in the number of children experiencing physical abuse”. However, they admitted; “This is extremely ambitious. In 2011, numbers were rising, and projected to rise further without intervention. Meeting this target means bringing the projected number of approximately 4,000 children expected to experience substantiated physical abuse down to less than 3000 by June 2017, which is a reduction of approximately 25 per cent in projected numbers.”
According to the latest State Services Commission report, in the year to September 2016, physical abuse was substantiated for 3,051 children, compared to 3,011 for the year to September 2015. However, police records show increasing rates of recorded offences of physical abuse of children. While physical child abuse found by CYF levelled out over the past 6 years, police statistics show a 200% increase since 2000 and this trend shows no sign of abating. Most disturbing is the increase in serious physical abuse resulting in injury that has increased by 86% since the anti-smacking law was passed in 2007. In addition, according to the police, “Assaults on Child offences are likely to be significantly under-reported to police.”
“Also of concern is that the government target of 3,000 children attempts to reduce child abuse only to the levels reported in 2011, rather than the lower levels as experienced in 2007 when the anti-smacking law was passed, or even those experienced at the beginning of the decade,” says Mr McCoskrie.
When the 2015 figures were released, Labour Party’s then-children’s spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said the Government’s targets had served to highlight its failure to tackle child abuse. “Those are dreadful figures, yet police stats tell us the situation could be even worse than that…”
“The overall increase of almost double the number of cases found by CYF since 2004 alone shows that there is still much work to be done to protect our children from physical abuse by rotten and dysfunctional parents.”
“The government should be setting a goal that we can hold them accountable to.”
24 January 2018
Press Release: Family First
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22 JANUARY
CANADA
The children's advocate in Manitoba is opening a second office in Thompson, Man., to serve children and youth in care in the province's north.
The new location would be the first location for the Office of the Children's Advocate outside Winnipeg, Daphne Penrose told reporters Friday.
"I think they deserve a place where they can come and access an advocate and to better engage," the children's advocate said.
A location has already been selected for the office and she said she hopes to have it up and running by the summer.
While the office would be the first bricks-and-mortar presence in northern Manitoba, Penrose said her office regularly travels to remote communities.
"We do get a lot of calls from the north right now so definitely our presence is up there."
Penrose said she wants staff at the office in Thompson – which is approximately 650 kilometres north of Winnipeg – to represent the community it serves.
Her office is in the process of hiring an Indigenous deputy advocate, who will be working closely with the Thompson office, she said.
A spokesperson said the Office of the Children's Advocate is beginning the vetting process for candidates. Applications for the position closed in November.
The Office of the Children's Advocate first announced its intention to open a northern office in an annual report released in November.
Penrose said the new Thompson office was budgeted for this year but if she needs more funding she won't be shy about asking for it.
"If what we've been provided is not sufficient I will be coming back with data-informed information about what it is we need to adequately provide children up there."
Along with expanding its physical footprint, the Office ot the Children's Advocate will soon cover more clients in the province.
The current mission of the independent office is advocate for children and youth in care; however, once the Advocate for Children and Youth Act is proclaimed, the office's mandate will expand to advocate on behalf of nearly all children in the province.
Children who are in school, in the mental health system, involved in the justice system, young people affected by domestic violence and those who receive disability services are among the those who will be able to receive services, said Penrose.
Once the new legislation comes into force, her office could be responsible for roughly 300,000 children up from the roughly 11,000 children and youth in care.
The Children's Advocate's current budget of $4 million is only enough to meet the requirements of the current mandate, said Penrose, and she said she sent a proposal to the provincial government asking for an increase.
"The discussions about budget continue to be ongoing," she said.
At a legislative affairs standing committee Friday, NDP opposition members asked Families Minister Scott Fielding if a date had been set to enact the new legislation.
Fielding said it would come into effect in the "near distant future" but did not provide a precise date.
By Laura Glowacki
19 January 2018
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18 JANUARY
NEW ZEALAND
One of the Prime Minister’s first 100 day commitments is to “set up
an inquiry into the abuse of children in state care”. As the end of
those first 100 days approaches, the debate on the key features of the
inquiry has intensified. Today a group of leading experts issued a
suggested framework for a full Royal Commission to highlight critical
elements the authors say are essential if the process is to be credible.
Those elements include:
• Establishing the inquiry at the highest level
as a Royal Commission;
• Hearing evidence on different forms of
‘abuse’ and ‘care’ to uncover the full range of physical, sexual,
psychological abuse and neglect;
• Covering the experiences of
children and vulnerable adults with disabilities in out-of-home care;
• Investigating and reporting on significant issues, including:
how and why the abuse was perpetuated through
structural and systemic processes,
identifying the agencies that were
responsible and should be held accountable,
factors that led to the
targeting of Maori families by child-welfare agencies and the
over-representation of Maori in state care.
• Identifying the experiences and impact on Maori, on those with disabilities, and on girls as well as boys.
The suggested framework states that “the Commission must engage in
processes that are survivor-focused”. It recommends that the Royal
Commission covers historic and contemporary abuse in care, hears
evidence from a wide range of people, has powers to compel witnesses and
the production of documents and has a significant research capacity.
Amongst other responsibilities it proposes that the Royal Commission
adjudicates on monetary payments, undertakes other measure of redress,
provides recommendations for the prevention of abuse and addresses the
basis for a comprehensive and meaningful apology from the Prime Minister
on behalf of the state.
The suggested framework was developed by:
• Elizabeth Stanley (Associate Professor in
Criminology, Victoria University of Wellington)
• Anaru Erueti
(Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples, Senior Lecturer,
Law School, Auckland University)
• Sonja Cooper (Principal,
Cooper Legal)
• Rosslyn Noonan (Director, NZ Centre for Human
Rights, Law School, Auckland University).
It is based on a survey, completed by 340 survivors of abuse in state
care as at 1 December 2017, and reflects their wishes. Advocates and
survivors who have worked on these issues for many years were also
consulted.
“We strongly support the official commitment to
advance further effective engagement with survivors, their families and
whanau, as well as with stakeholders (including whanau, hapu and iwi;
NGOs; scholars; legal experts; and community groups) into the design,
scope and operations of the Commission,” said Elizabeth Stanley.
Anaru Erueti said: “Working with the Human Rights Commission we have
organised a gathering in Wellington at Rutherford House, Victoria
University, Wellington, on 14 and 15 February 2018, of survivors,
activists, academics, professionals working in the area, and
community-leaders to evaluate the government’s draft terms of reference.
We are drawing on the expertise of survivors, local people and and
international experts who have recently worked in Commissions overseas.”
17 January 2018
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15 JANUARY
UK
Children could be left in circumstances of risk unless the government acts to plug an estimated £2bn funding gap, councils have warned.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said that children's services in England now receive a new referral every 49 seconds and now the government needs to provide more money to help councils meet the demand for social care.
It has warned that, unless more funding is forthcoming, social workers will struggle to deal with current levels of child protection concerns, meaning children could be left in potentially dangerous circumstances.
Department for Education figures published in November showed that there were 646,120 referrals to children's social care in 2016/17, up 3.97 per cent on the previous year.
The rising volume of referrals has led the number of section 47 child protection enquiries, whereby councils must investigate if they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer significant harm, conducted by councils rise from an average of 200 a day in 2006/7 to more than 500 a day in 2016/17.
"We will always encourage people to refer any concerns about children to their local authority as soon as possible, so that the situation can be investigated and support or immediate protection put in place where necessary," Richard Watts, chair of the LGA's children and young people board said.
"But while these figures are encouraging as a reflection of heightened awareness and identification of child abuse, they also highlight the staggering scale of the pressures that have now been building on children's services for a number of years."
He added: "The government has been warned repeatedly that ongoing funding cuts, including the £2bn gap that councils face by 2020, have left them struggling to provide the support that vulnerable children and families need.
"Unless there is an injection of funding to support crucial early intervention, many more vulnerable children remain at risk."
The children's charity Action for Children has backed the LGA's call for more money.
"With no long-term funding solution on the table, many children's services are having to move towards a ‘crisis' fire-fighting approach," said Eleanor Biggs, head of policy at Action for Children.
"We're calling on the government to prioritise the services children need before this turns into a catastrophe for the next generation of children and families."
The LGA previously called on the government to plug the estimated £2bn funding gap in children's social care in October as part of its submission to the Autumn Statement.
In October the Association of Directors of Children's Services called on government to review section 17 of the Children Act 1989, which sets out the duty on local councils to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need.
By Neil Puffett
12 January 2018
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