EXCLUSIVE GUEST BLOG: Karl Pearce – Ministry of “Vulnerable Children” is wolf in CYFS clothing.
The new Ministry for Vulnerable Children (MVC) is being launched today but is it at all different to the former organisation that is Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS)?
I received a document hours ago showing the latest management structure of the new organisation MVC?
Within this Document is both a large number of “vacancies” as well as a large number of “acting” roles. Showing how quickly and haphazardly the new department has been organised, however what is more concerning is those who were in the old structure, are a part of the ‘new and improved’ structure.
For example the current head Social Worker (SW) of the Lower Hutt Branch will be the current head of the ‘new and improved’ MVC Lower Hutt.
In my opinion, this Social Worker has a history of not informing conflict of interests, downplaying sexual assaults, hiding information from courts and local school boards of which she sits on.
And now this person is a part of the new and improved MVC?
Are we honestly going to see any changes to the poor behaviour at CYF Lower Hutt, or the new MVC?
So the allegations;
● This Social Worker was both chief SW of the Lower Hutt Branch and also sat on the Hutt Valley High School Board at the time of sexual assaults in 2007.
● This Social Worker downplayed the sexual assaults on boys in 2007 at Hutt Valley High School and did not declare a ‘conflict of interest’ at the time of the investigation.
● This Social Worker might have perjured herself in a court of law during the investigations of 2007 and subsequent investigations involving ‘Vulnerable Children’ and their parents.
● That an independent report undertaken by the Office of the Ombudsman into the handling of the serious Hutt Valley High incident found this Social Workers word was given “undue weight”.
● This same social worker was slammed by a Judge in 2016 for her ‘misleading information’.
This article states that “The Ombudsman’s report says that despite identifying the offending children, Hutt Valley High School did not alert victims’ parents, police or Child, Youth and Family. It instead chose to stand down the culprits for a few days. Which is odd considering this Social Worker was the head SW of the Lower Hutt CYFS office at the time.
For whatever reasons, matters of sexual assault were not brought to the board of trustees of both Hutt Valley High School and Lower Hutt CYFS office even though this Social Worker, now head of the MVC Lower Hutt branch, knew about them.
It certainly makes one wonder why not?
“Ombudsman David McGee found that one by one, the victims were hunted down and violated with objects including a drill bit, scissors, a craft knife, a plank of wood, a shoe, a cellphone and a screwdriver. According to police reports, victims screamed in pain during the attacks. One endured up to 10 such assaults. Another was kicked in the face when he refused to kiss his attackers’ shoes after they had sexually violated him.”
However further inside information tells me there will be new Lower Hutt CYFS (soon to be MVC) allegations of,
● Misleading information puting a three-year-old girl at risk with its unsubstantiated and unverified reports from yet again the Lower Hutt CYFS office.
● Burying a positive drug test leaving the child at risk while Lower Hutt CYFS then went on to write reports questioning the father’s mental health because he was raising concerns about the mother’s drug use.
● It is also alleged that the Father was threatened with supervised access if he raised any more concerns about the safety of his child.
I also recognise a number of fellow social workers names on the list who are good people and I will be expecting transparency from them. However, we will continue investigating lazy and vindictive CYFS workers who remain on the list.
Karl Pearce BSW (Hons.). has been a political commentator and activist in and around Papaioea Palmerston North, New Zealand for 15 years with the last 8 in both student and community radio. Karl currently produces and hosts his show ‘On Point w/ Karl Pearce’ on Access Manawatu which is a political, current affairs radio show. Karl is academically published and intermittently blogs. If you want to know more about Karl you can find him at www.Karl.Kiwi.nz
D-: what the fuck
Change the name and puff the problem disapears.
Nothing ever changes with these people. It is the norm to promote their social workers when they are busted doing corrupt, incompetent things. It is their way and no name change will make any kind of difference until these social workers are personally held accountable for their wrong doing.
I can sum the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children as nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig and what a pig it is. Shifting the same staff into the new organisation with nothing more than a new foreign CE is a sure way of ensuring absolutely nothing will change! lets reflect on the stories from the two weeks,
– CYFs falsely accuse a father of having a history of sexual abuse and it takes 11 years for them to correct the information.
-CYFS bury a positive drug test and then continue to write reports to say the father must have mental health problems to accuse the mother of being on drugs.
-CYFs leave a 3 year old girl at unacceptable risk after making false accusations the father was violence – a judge slams them
-CYFs threaten parents in Masterton who went to them for help, telling them if they went to the Court to force them to help they would take their children of them – a judge slams them
– CYFs threaten a father who went to them for help with supervised access if he raised more concerns – a judge found the child was left a risk,
These stories speak absolute volumes to the sick cultural that exists within CYFS, moving the same people who create this culture to a rebranded organisation and expecting a different result is the definition of stupidity….and nothing more than lipstick on a pig and well we all know lipstick comes off and you are still left with a pig.
I see we have another foreigner in charge of this department so we still haven’t learnt our lessons from the pasts. Same old same old bullshert
Sure some of these stories may be truthful. So out of about 1200 social workers with the old CYF a small handful have been found incompetent or worse, seeking to abuse their statutory power. But this must be put in perspective. CYF was always underfunded and their social workers overworked – doing the extra mile was the norm, and even then this was not enough to manage ridiculous workloads. Not only is the work arduous by volume it is challenging in terms of complexity. Given the statutory nature of the role with CYF and now Oranga Tamariki, there are many adults who will seek to mislead social workers – some are very good at this and social workers are not Police – they seek to support and develop positive relationship rather than question the integrity of those providing them information – and sometimes this comes back to bite them.
It probably seems I am seeking to minimise the importance of the assertions on this article but it is not the case. Social workers should be held accountable and those with the old CYF and now MVCOT must be registered. This means they are professionally accountable to the SWRB of New Zealand and can have action taken against them for inappropriate actions and struck off – they can even be referred for criminal proceedings if need be. So it is nonsense to talk about a lack of accountability for social workers in the statutory environment. Social worker (and in fact all staff at Oranga Tamariki) are Police checked every 3 years and this along with professional affiliations is more than a good start toward accountability.
Excuse me if i sound overly critical, don’t know how to say this another way, that said.
Accountability is to fancy a word. It should be that you are apart of the human race, if there is something worthwhile you think is worth talking to people about do it, why run around snitching all the time. At the same time it would be more convenient to just sit at home and work.
In recent years there is a strong tendency to require assessments of careers and children, so you have to care by reports and the reports determine what happens to children and careers. That is guaranteed to destroy any meaningful child rearing process and I suspect the reporting standards produce poor result in the education system.
CYF is like a dodgy company on Fair Go with bad press. Dissolve the company XYZ Ltd and rebrand as XYZ 2017 Ltd.
Same crappy service, same deceit and abusive conduct. Why? Because they are the same bad apples.
Covering up school notifications, Evidence, Knowledge of abuse.
Fabricating reports about the notifier, discrediting them, defaming, intimidating, threatening.
Sounds like a gang doesn’t it!
Welcome to CYF/MVC, if your children weren’t messed up before you came to us we will ensure they are by the time we have finished with them.
CYF/MVC, here to hurt.
Lower Hutt CYF, we support child abuse