Putting children in care can backfire

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 27

Putting children in care can backfire

Wellington reporter Children taken into Social Welfare Department care may become resentful and alienated, and even end up committing offences because of it, says the department’s director-general, Mr John Grant. In Social Welfare’s annual report, Mr Grant suggests taking children into care has been used too often as an easy way

for the department to handle its responsibilities. But it has learned that direct care, most often by placing children in foster homes, may not succeed. “Many of the children thus transplanted have not thrived. Many have become apathetic or resentful or alienated,” he said. “In spite of the deprivation and unhappiness they may have experienced while living at home, many have felt accutely the separation from their families and mourned their loss.” Mr Grant says placing children in homes is attractive from the department’s perspective, enabling it to “operate autonomously” with parents, relatives and the general community. However, he says a drop in the numbers of children in care is now reflecting a move by the department to support children within their own

UUUIC9. Last November, there were 5840 children in the department’s charge, 43 per cent in foster homes. That was the lowest figure for 14 years, and compares with almost 7000 five years ago. The department now is removing children only when it has a specific plan for the individual’s welfare, and the removal will be only temporary, he says. In particular, the department is committed to; co-operating with Maoriefforts to strengthen iwi, hapu and whanau ties; building family responsibilities. Mr Grant concedes that not all his staff are comfortable with the changes, which can bring to the fore inherent tensions in the social worker’s role. Another consequence of the change is the realisation that the department alone cannot meet the needs of children in trouble. While the department could be an initiator and

a co-ordinator of help, it cannot provide the affection and bonds of commitment children ultimately need, Mr Grant says. The success of efforts to protect child welfare depend, therefore, on the acceptance of the community of children’s needs. The approach will be more expensive for the department, to provide specialist services required to support children, some of whom are “highly disturbed,” in their own homes. Mr Grant says the department has contact with about one in five boys below the age of 17 because of criminal offences or other misbehaviour, while one in eight appear in the Children and Young Persons Court. For Maori youth, the proportions are double. The proportions of children coming to Social Welfare’s attention because of parental abuse or neglect or glue sniffing or abandonment are less, he says.