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What we do
Child, Youth and Family works with families to:
- protect children
- promote the wellbeing of children, young people, their families and family groups
- manage young offenders
- facilitate the adoption process
- ensure that children in need are secure and cared for
- help families maintain and strengthen their child-rearing role.
We also fund a wide range of community-based social services, with a focus on children, young people and families in need of support.
Children and young people who are at risk of, or who have been, abused or neglected, or who are at risk of offending are our primary service responsibility. This includes supporting families in need to meet their care and control responsibilities.
Child, Youth and Family also has an important role in supporting and funding a wide range of community-based social services, with a focus on children, young people and families in need of support. As well, our Adoption and Information and Services Units provide services and advice on adoption both within New Zealand and from other countries.
Our statutory role is defined primarily by the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989, the Adoption Act 1955, the Adult Adoption Act 1986, the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985, the Adoption (Inter-country) Act 1997, and the Guardianship Act 1968.
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Guiding principles
The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 is widely regarded as forward-looking and innovative legislation that emphasises the role and responsibilities of families in caring for their young and protecting them from harm.
When problems arise with children or young people, their families, whanau and family groups are encouraged and supported to find their own solutions. These problems could be if a child or young person under the age of 17 is in trouble with the law, or if a family is having trouble caring adequately for their children or is neglecting or abusing them.
A central principle of the law is to involve families and family groups, whanau, hapu and iwi in decisions affecting them and their children. In the past, social workers made the decisions on their own. Now they work together with the family group to reach agreement on how to keep the child or young person safe.
The family group conference is the primary mechanism the law provides to involve families in the decision making. It is also a means of balancing children’s need and right to be safe, with their need and right to be in a family.
In all matters relating to the care and protection of children or young people, the welfare and interests of the child or young person come first.
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Our services
Care and protection of children
An investigation is carried out when a child or young person is believed to be ‘at risk’ because they are experiencing (or are likely to experience) such things such as:
- physical or sexual abuse
- violence and conflict between their caregivers
- emotional or physical neglect
- mistreatment from caregivers.
Protecting children from suffering harm, ill-treatment, abuse, neglect and deprivation, and ensuring that they have the care and protection they need to keep them safe from harm is a large part of the work of we do.
Anybody – a relative, neighbour, friend or simply someone who knows of a child at risk – can report a case of ill treatment or neglect of a child to a social worker or to the Police.
Each year Child, Youth and Family investigates more than 25,000 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect.
When, after an investigation, a child or young person is believed to be in need of care and protection, the case is referred to a care and protection coordinator who consults with the local care and protection resource panel and organises a family group conference. This happens in just over a quarter of notified cases and ensures that the family group is involved in deciding what should be done to make certain the child’s needs for care and protection are met. If a child needs to be removed from their immediate family, they may be placed in the care of a member of the extended family.
The safety of a child or young person is always paramount for Child, Youth and Family. Where there is a risk of serious harm, we can exercise powers to ensure that a child is kept safe from that risk.
If we do use our powers to intervene to keep a child safe, the Family Court may become the place where issues regarding the child's safety are decided.
Youth justice
Youth justice is a section of the law that deals mainly with offending by young people aged 14–16 years.
Children and young people who break the law are treated differently from adults who offend. The law makes sure they are held accountable and encouraged to accept responsibility for their offending, but it also aims to help young offenders learn from their mistakes and develop in a socially acceptable way.
The youth justice system aims to resolve offending without young offenders receiving a criminal conviction, as they would do under the criminal justice system. Experience shows that once a young person has a criminal record they tend to carry on breaking the law and their offences may get more serious. The aim is to avoid that.
Around 90 per cent of young offenders are now kept out of the Courts. Minor offences are dealt with by Police warning or alternative action such as apology or reparation (payment to their victim in total or part for loss of or damage to their property).
When cases are more serious, and usually for all cases going through the Courts, a family group conference is called. Here the young offender, their family, the authorities and the victim meet to decide how the young person will be held accountable for their offending. Care and protection concerns can also be addressed, and planning can include the rehabilitation or specialist care of the young person.
Adoption
The Adoption Information and Services Unit (AISU) is a branch of Child, Youth and Family that provides adoption services both within New Zealand and in collaboration with other countries.
Its role includes counselling birth parents, preparing those wanting to become adoptive parents, approving the placement of children for adoption and reporting to the Court.
AISU also provides support after an adoption is complete, and services to adult adopted people, birth parents and adoptive parents under the Adult Adoption Information Act.
Residential and care services
When children and young people need to be placed away from their parents, guardians or usual caregivers, Child, Youth and Family has a range of services and programmes to look after their needs in out of family placements, homes or residences. The young people may be placed in care because they are in need of care and protection, because they have offended or their behaviour is beyond their, or their caregivers', control.
Funding for community groups
We fund a wide range of community-based social services, with a focus on children, young people and families in need of support.
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Statistics
- We have just over 2,000 staff – with more than 1,300 social workers or specialist support staff such as psychologists, evidential interviewers and lawyers.
- We work out of 28 Service Delivery Units and 55 Service Delivery Locations with a national office in Wellington.
- We respond to more than 25,000 notifications every year for children and young people who may have been abused, neglected or had other care and protection problems.
- We manage five national residences, 60 family homes and more than 2,000 caregivers.
- Last year we handled more than 7,500 youth services referrals for young people who had offended, and some who also needed protection or care.
- We convened more than 8,000 care and protection and youth justice family group conferences.
- We provided alternative care for more than 7,600 children and young people in our residences, our 60 family homes and with our 2,000 caregivers.
- We managed around 275 international cases.
- We managed more than 1,200 enquiries for local adoptions, 400 enquiries for intercountry adoptions, and 3,000 enquiries related to the Adult Adoption Information Act.
- We made more than 3,000 community liaison visits to raise awareness of abuse and neglect issues and talked to a range of groups including the general public, teachers, doctors and nurses.
- We negotiated service funding agreements with more than 1,000 community groups to provide a wide range of community-based social services.
- We completed more than 1,000 approval assessments with community providers to provide quality assurance.
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Our vision and values
Our vision
Safe children and young people in strong families and responsive communities:
- free from abuse
- free from neglect
- free from offending.
Our values
In everything we do, we seek to exemplify the values of:
- Respect
- Fairness
- Integrity.
Respect, fairness and integrity are fundamental values central to social work practice. These values are integral to our work with clients, staff and collaborating partners. They guide our decisions. In all our activities, we seek to realise our vision, achieve our mission, model and encourage our identified values.
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Biculturalism
Child, Youth and Family acknowledges its duties and obligations to the tangata whenua as a Crown partner to New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi.
We are committed to ensuring that services we deliver and purchase are fully responsive to the needs and aspirations of Maori, and that our actions are consistent with the Principles for Crown Action on the Treaty of Waitangi.
Our commitment is reflected in a key result area – improved outcomes for Maori, the alliances and partnerships we have built and continue to foster with iwi and Maori social services groups and communities, our human resource policies, and in our work programme (especially the development and implementation of a strategy for improving outcomes for Maori children, young people and their families).
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How Child, Youth and Family is organised
Child, Youth and Family is organised around a nationwide service delivery network, supported by a National Office based in Wellington.
Our service delivery network
Our service delivery network provides a range of directly delivered services including:
- social work services
- coordination of family group conferences
- residential and care services
- adoption services
In addition, Child, Youth and Family (either alone or with other partner departments) funds a network of community-based services provided by service providers.
Our directly delivered services are managed through a network of 28 Service Delivery Units and 55 Service Delivery Locations headed by six Regional Managers. This network is responsible for providing social work, family group conferencing, and adoption services to their communities. We also manage and provide alternative care services through five national residences, 60 family homes, and more than 2,000 caregivers. Our service delivery is supported by a network of specialist and legal staff.
Our service delivery and contracting staff take a lead role, in cooperation with other government departments and not-for-profit agencies, in cross-agency case management and support of service coordination and initiatives in their local communities.
We have service agreements with a range of iwi, Maori, Pacific and community service providers to deliver child and family social services. We operate a decentralised community funding process. Some of the funding, specialist contracting and approval functions, are centralised with specialist teams responsible for funding planning, contracting, approval and service development. Service standards and quality assurance for community providers are maintained through an approvals process.
Our management groups
Child, Youth and Family has seven functional groups (Service Delivery, Contracting, Policy and Development, Human Resources, Maori Strategy, Finance and Information Services) reporting to the Chief Executive. Together with the Chief Social Worker, this executive management team constitutes our governance body.
In addition, the executive management team has strategic advisory input from Te Komiti Arai Take Manaaki and the Pacific Peoples’ Consulting Group.
See Our management for further information on the role and functions of these groups.
National Office
Frontline service delivery and Child, Youth and Family’s overall operation are supported through a range of policy, practice and legal advisory services, business and management information, information technology and financial systems delivered from the National Office.
Our workforce capability
Child, Youth and Family is the single biggest employer of social workers in the country, with more than 1,300 social workers or specialist support staff such as psychologists, evidential interviewers and lawyers. Our service delivery is supported by a complement of specialist staff, including psychologists, evidential interviewers, and legal advisors specialising in the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act, and related legislation.
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Contact us
A full list of National Office and site office contact details is available in the Contact us section of this website.
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