‘Employment process’ follows Hastings review

Had a social worker made and kept adequate notes there would likely never have been an attempt to uplift a baby from Hawke’s Bay Hospital. There may never have been so much confusion and anger.

And the Oranga Tamariki staff sent into collect the child would not be the faces of a decision they had nothing to do with.

The Practice Review into the uplift case, released on Thursday, covers a list of failings, but had it not been for the social worker’s inadequate record keeping none of those failings might have come to light. At least not now.

Chief social worker Grant Bennett says, as the report identifies, that there were ‘‘multi-factorial’’ failures, but concedes that matters on May 6 would not have played out the way they had, had the social worker’s notes been adequate.

Bennett won’t discuss staff other than to say there is an employment process under way.

The Oranga Tamariki staff caught on film in the Newsroom article were acting on a case in the hands of the social worker who was on leave.

They had a custody order for the child, but had no idea about the nature of communications between the child’s wha¯ nau and the social worker. The social worker had not recorded them, nor disclosed to the wha¯nau that there would be an application for a custody order.

Bennett said there had been several hui between the social worker and the wha¯ nau and other agencies in which a plan was discussed.

The wha¯nau and agencies believed the plan, which would see the baby remain with the mother, had been been agreed to. But it hadn’t been agreed to, and the social worker never informed them of that.

‘‘I can understand the social worker at the time possibly not

wanting to take the decision there and then in the meeting and wanting to go back and consult, but what didn’t happen was going back and saying we agree with it or we don’t,’’ Bennett said.

It meant that the three staff filling-in during the social worker’s absence had none of the historical information or details that they should have.

‘‘Had there been strong communication in terms of where we stood and what was proposed there certainly wouldn’t have been the level of confusion and we may not have got to how the hospital situation played out,’’ he said.

While the review and Bennett are clear it was a situation where there were legitimate concerns for the baby that warranted Oranga Tamariki involvement, they also acknowledge there was insufficient consideration around the situation of the parents and whanau.