Welfare staff ‘overworked’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33452, 6 February 1974, Page 12

Welfare staff ‘overworked’

Senior staff in the Department of Social Welfare were grossly overworked and in some cases underqualified,’said the president of the Association of Social Workers (Mr J. R. L. Fry) in Dunedin last evening.

These circumstances werei brought about by the scale of salaries, said Mr Fry, at the fifth biennial conference: of the association. The difficulties had arisen from lack of planning and lack of extra finance when the Child Welfare Division was amalgamated with the Social Security Department in 1971, said Mr Fry. I The association' had strongly opposed the amalgamation, but its views had been virtually ignored. Some forward planning and extra finance could have: ensured adequate, competent: staffing at the time of the; , amalgamation, said Mr Fry.;

ji “This, to a large extent, ii would have prevented the t’long delays in making ii appointments which have caused so much frustration. i “There are strong grounds I for believing that an inquiry i would establish that many of i the difficulties have had their : origin in State Services Comi mission and Treasury decisions where the human need I factor has not ’ been sufficiently taken into account. I;Specialised work with families where children are at [lrisk is not an appropriate.: s ifield for economy,” said Mr ;|Fry. ; i The conference, attended ,'by delegates from 13l •i branches, will end on Satur-,' iday.