Ray Smith, Deputy Chief Executive for Child, Youth and Family today welcomed the release of a report which measures how well community based programmes for young sex abusers are meeting the needs of clients and their community.

The report confirms that treatment programmes being delivered by community providers SAFE Network in Auckland, WellStop in Wellington and Christchurch based STOP are effectively reducing the number of young people who continue to abuse.   

“Only 2% of the young people who complete one of these programmes go on to abuse again, and of those who do, the incident is of a much less serious nature. 

“As well as reducing sexual abusive behaviour the programmes are helping many of the young people get their lives back on track, with 62% stopping offending altogether,” Ray Smith says.

The report shows that some of the strengths of the programme include the provision of holistic services, creative treatment approaches and a mix of treatment interventions including individual, family and group therapy.  Many of the young people said that the strong relationship between them and their therapist, plus family support are critical to successful outcomes.

“The providers we work with do an amazing job, and that shone through in the report.  In programmes like these the young people are in the best possible environment to change.  They also enable us to monitor that change and ensure children and young people are treated and supported in a way that is best for them,” Ray Smith says.  

The report also highlighted areas for improvement – one of the challenges is to ensure there are suitable placements and follow up for young people as they come out of the programmes. 

Ray Smith says that Child, Youth and Family and the providers have been working together on ways to address this and introduce other enhancements. 

“The key purpose of this evaluation was to inform us about what works, what doesn’t and any improvements we need to make to ensure our processes and the programmes themselves are doing the best for the young people, their families and the community. 

“One of the most important changes has been to strengthen our relationship with the providers and other youth justice agencies.  This has led to social workers having more involvement, increased referrals, and better support and monitoring of the young people while they are in the programme and once their treatment has finished.  There has also been an increased focus on ensuring the programmes are tailored appropriately to meet the cultural needs of Maori and Pacific Island families,” says Ray Smith.

View the report Getting it right (658KB).