Post by Kiwi Frontline on Apr 1, 2017 16:17:10 GMT 12
CHILD ADVOCATE ANTON BLANK SLAMS NEW 'HUGELY FLAWED' MINISTRY FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN
Child Youth and Family is gone, and in its place is the Ministry for Vulnerable Children.
The new Ministry was launched on Friday afternoon, but will it do anything to reverse our shameful record on child neglect and abuse?
Social policy expert and child advocate Anton Blank told Three's The Project that while the Government has shown strong leadership in dealing with a difficult issue, "the problem is the overall approach is hugely flawed".
OECD statistics show children and teenagers are 50 percent more likely to die of abuse here than in Australia, and Mr Blank says our death toll is due to the market-led restructuring of the New Zealand economy in the 1980s.
"I think that economic restructuring during the 1980s, that really escalated our child abuse rates. Maori rates are the highest in the country. Prior to the 1980s there was not difference in the rates of death between Maori and other children," he says.....
www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/03/child-advocate-anton-blank-slams-new-hugely-flawed-ministry-for-vulnerable-children.html
Child Youth and Family is gone, and in its place is the Ministry for Vulnerable Children.
The new Ministry was launched on Friday afternoon, but will it do anything to reverse our shameful record on child neglect and abuse?
Social policy expert and child advocate Anton Blank told Three's The Project that while the Government has shown strong leadership in dealing with a difficult issue, "the problem is the overall approach is hugely flawed".
OECD statistics show children and teenagers are 50 percent more likely to die of abuse here than in Australia, and Mr Blank says our death toll is due to the market-led restructuring of the New Zealand economy in the 1980s.
"I think that economic restructuring during the 1980s, that really escalated our child abuse rates. Maori rates are the highest in the country. Prior to the 1980s there was not difference in the rates of death between Maori and other children," he says.....
www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/03/child-advocate-anton-blank-slams-new-hugely-flawed-ministry-for-vulnerable-children.html