Agency ‘too scared’ to protect children
Children are being abused and dying because Oranga Tamariki is reluctant to remove them from homes where parents are using methamphetamine, former social welfare boss Christine Rankin says.
Her comments follow revelations that the child protection service knew that 2- year- old Nevaeh Ager was living with a father who used meth but did not intervene. The father, Aaron Izett, has been convicted of her murder.
Rankin, who was chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development in the 1990s and is now child abuse spokesperson for the Transforming Justice Foundation, said Nevaeh’s death was ‘‘tragic and predictable’’.
‘‘I often stand up for Oranga Tamariki but I have reached a point of despair,’’ she said. ‘‘Our organisation has been involved with several situations where OT’s actions simply stump us. The child seems to be the last consideration and political correctness seems far more important.’’
Rankin, a former families commissioner, said she’d been told by a senior Oranga Tamariki manager that meth use alone was not a reason to remove a child from a home and that some people could function ‘‘perfectly well’’ on the drug.
‘‘ P is a totally unpredictable, mind-altering drug,’’ Rankin said. ‘‘It causes disgusting behaviour in many people who then turn on children who have no hope of defending themselves.
‘‘ These parents cannot be trusted and who is there to protect them if not OT and the police?’’
She claimed that the agency was ‘‘too scared’’ to remove children now because of publicity around uplifts of Ma¯ori babies.
Documents obtained by the Sunday Star-Times show that social workers first learned in July 2017, when Nevaeh was a few months old, that Izett was using meth in the home. Police who responded to an incident at the home found him acting strangely and made a ‘‘report of concern’’ to Oranga Tamariki.
Social workers discussed a ‘‘ safety plan’’ with Nevaeh’s mother, details of which were not recorded. The case was then closed.
A month before Nevaeh died, a neighbour rang the agency concerned that the child was living in a house where drugs were being used and manufactured, but was told to call police if anything ‘‘dangerous’’ happened.
Oranga Tamariki’s chief social worker, Grant Bennett, said the presence of methamphetamine ‘‘may or may not’’ be a reason for the agency to intervene.
‘‘And the reason for that is we have to establish what impact the methamphetamine use is [having] on children, what support the parent is already getting, what protective factors are already in the home, whether we can build safety. We’re having to weigh up all of those decisions.’’
Bennett said staff around the country were reporting that meth was a bigger problem than ever for families and addiction issues were the most prevalent reason for taking children into care.
‘‘ It’s much harder to build safety with meth because it can increase impulsivity in some people – it only takes a moment to hurt a child,’’ he said.
‘‘Doing things like monitoring families, checking in on children, become less effective because of the impulsivity – that’s definitely a challenge for us.’’
Bennett said that where a safety plan was not feasible, Oranga Tamariki would remove a child.
‘‘I guess one of the frustrating things for me is that people think there’s a formula – and you can apply it every time.
‘‘But this is complex work and you’re always balancing up competing imperatives based on limited or partial information, so you are having to make a judgment . . . as to whether or not the child is safe.’’
Bennett said controversy around uplifts was a factor.
‘‘I’d be a liar to say that isn’t in the back of people’s minds. Social workers don’t work in a vacuum – they’re aware of these discussions.
‘‘ But we’re definitely not too scared to take children. We are still bringing children into care – not at the rate we’ve done in the past – there’s definitely a much stronger emphasis on building safety. But we will act where we need to.’’
Rankin claimed the system was ‘‘at breaking point and out of control’’.