Workshops to tell about Families Act changes

Press, 25 September 1989, Page 20

Workshops to tell about Families Act changes

By

SUZANNE KEEN

A series of community workshops will be held in Christchurch next month to tell people about changes under the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act. The Act, coming into force on November 1, aims to give power to families to make decisions regarding their children and brings a greater flexibility of options in care and protection and I youth justice matters. The transition senior social worker with the Social Welfare Department in Christchurch, Miss Sam Armitt, said part of the Act required the department to provide the community with information about the changes. As a result six workshops and a wananga (a workshop on a marae) have been organised. They would be addressed by several people, including a departmental solicitor and a cultural adviser. “They will go through the new legislation completely, because it is totally different from our old legislation and brings in new concepts. Some of these may be things that social workers have tried

to do in the past, but they haven’t been written into the legislation.” Miss Armitt said anybody could attend the workshops. The department had written to community groups, Maori and Samoan organisations, church groups, social workers, teachers, foster parents and others who work with children, advising them of the meetings. The first workshop will be on October 4 at the Christchurch Workingmen’s Club. Other seminars will be on October 5 (St Martins’ Anglican Church Hall), October 6 (Papanui Methodist Church), October 18 (Aranui-Wainoni Family Centre), October 19 (Kingslea Resource Centre) and October 24 (Rangiora Returned Services Association). The wananga will be on October 20 at the Tuahiwi Marae. All the workshops will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Act will attempt to encourage families to make responsible decisions about their children, ensure that children separated from families have links with them and return home if that is possible, and keep the

intervention of the State in the lives of families to a minimum. Young people charged with offences should be treated fairly and not separated from their families if this can be avoided. Two new positions under the Act will be care and protection co-ordina-tor and youth justice coordinator. There will be one care and protection co-ordinator for each of the four new districts in Christchurch and two to four youth justice co-ordi-nators. The department hopes to have people in these positions by the end of this month. A responsibility of the care and protection coordinator will be to call family conferences in cases where a care and protection order for a child is to be sought through the Family Court. Niss Armitt said the department would no longer be the only authority that could be awarded guardianship. Children unable to live at home could be placed in the care of their iwi or cultural authority or with family service groups.