P.S.A. ban ‘causing extreme difficulties’

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 2

P.S.A. ban ‘causing extreme difficulties’

A Public Service Association ban on new admissions at the Kingslea Resource Centre land the Christchurch Boys’ Home has caused extreme difficulties, according to the Social Welfare Department. 1

“The' ban has caused extreme difficulties for the policej the- department and the management at Kingslea,”! said the department’s southern regional director, Mr Terry Comer. J In ! the Children and Young Persons Court yesterday, Sergeant Max South said he wanted to express disapproval of the situation |in which the police had been placed because of the industrial action.

He was referr ng to the case of a young women, aged 16. charged with robbing a handicapped man last Monday evening. The girl was held in a police cell for'! a short time after Kingslea refused to take her. said Sergeant South. She was later released into her mother's custody in spite of a Court order that'she be remanded in the custody of the Social Welfare Department. The girl was placed in a

department family home the next day. Mr Comer said, “We all agree with the police in their disaproval of the position in which we have been placed.” _j - Negotiations were continuing I with the P.S.A., the institution’s management, staff, and the department’s regional office. The regional office of the P.SIA. will meet the institution’s P.S.A. members on Monday.

i The Director-General of Social Welfare, Mr John Grant, said that after discussing the girl’s case with Mr Comer yesterday he did not believe it necessary to approach the P.S.A. Mr Grant had said in an earlier statement that he would approach the P.S.A.'s national office. I However, he would be “keeping an eye on things, from a distance” to see what was happening to the children.