Child Abuse Prevention Services NZ

E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi o te motu, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi o te tau kia koutou.

Conference delegates, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for the invitation to address you here today.  I am pleased and honoured that you have asked me to open your conference.  This is an important gathering, one that could provide useful indicators for New Zealand in one of our most critical areas, that of child safety.

This is an area which we all approach with mixed feelings.  Although, unlike many of you, I have never worked directly with the victims or perpetrators of child abuse, my experience as a lawyer and judge of both the Family and the High Courts has given me an insight into the depth of the problem, and into the dedicated work that people such as yourselves undertake to keep our children safe.

Since I became Governor-General some three and a half years ago, I have spoken on this topic from time to time.  I accept that simply talking about the problem of child abuse will not make a substantial difference, but I hope that the combined effort of so many New Zealanders such as yourselves, with some assistance from me and other influential people, might make noticeable inroads into reducing the risks that so many of our children face. 

The truth is that the number of suspected child abuse cases has not diminished.

The sobering figures coming out of Child Youth and Family earlier this year showed that the Department received ten thousand calls more than the year before, and that there was a worrying rise in the number of suspected critical cases. 

There will always be factors which will temper those figures.  We know for example, that there are some wrongful claims - sometimes deliberate and sometimes mistaken.  We know too that greater awareness leads to more notifications.  But there can be no denying that the overall picture remains grim.

I know that you are only too familiar with the depth of the problem.  And that Child Abuse Prevention Services, like other New Zealand and international organizations, has isolated some solutions that might reduce the incidence of child abuse - because one thing we do know, is that detection and punishment are far less effective preventative measures, than finding ways to stop the abuse happening in the first place. Addressing poverty and stress will always help, but how do we deal with the notion that somehow children lack the rights of adults to have a say in how they will be treated by those around them?  Children's rights are a vital part of the equation - fundamental rights such as the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to be free of violence.

Our Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Rosslyn Noonan, has said that we should be ashamed of how the human rights of our children are neglected.  In the view of the Commission, children and young people have emerged as the sector of society most at risk of having their human rights denied.

One thing the child abuse figures do make clear, is that today more than ever, we need organisations like Child Abuse Prevention Services.  So it is very pleasing for me to note the steady progress you have made over the last four years.  Your service now has 13 regional affiliated agencies and ten associated member organisations.  On an operational level, you are dealing with some 5000 cases annually.  Most of these are self-referred, a fact that indicates that you have a much higher profile of late. 

Your 0800 number in particular is a very useful resource. I am told for example that, following a recent article in a parenting magazine, you received a significant increase in calls.  Each call you deal with is a direct intervention in a difficult child-parent relationship.  Five thousand interventions in cases of possible child abuse - that certainly is significant. 

While a lot of your work is preventive and educational, increasingly you are asked to work directly with those at risk.  It is in these conversations or interventions with parents that we are reminded that we are not dealing with numbers and statistics, but with individual lives.  It is now understood clearly that it is virtually impossible to stereotype the perpetrators of child abuse.  They come from all backgrounds.  But a common thread, particularly among those seeking help and support, is that many are not failures but people just trying to do their best. 

If there is one positive feature, it is that more and more of those parents who are at risk of harming their children are recognising this and are seeking help.  These are parents or caregivers who are, with your help, trying to break the cycle. 

And the really positive feature of successful intervention is that every child saved from getting hurt now, will in effect protect children of future generations.  This is reward enough, but the fact that parents may say 'thank you, you helped me when I was under stress,' or 'you have made me a better or more confident parent' is worth all the effort, expertise and stress that you may experience. 

I want to take this opportunity to say a few words about non-governmental organisations.  In New Zealand we have traditionally been a country with a very large number of voluntary workers.  This has extended to an organised and highly structured non-governmental sector that is increasingly effective in delivering services to the community and to at risk groups. 

I think there is an ever-growing appreciation of the important role played by NGOs in New Zealand society.  Take for example the planned changes to the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act, which provide for approved NGOs and other bodies to take a greater role in carrying out child and family assessments and in service provision.

There has also been a greater emphasis by NGOs on professionalism within their particular area of expertise.  This is a move I wholeheartedly endorse, while at the same time acknowledging that it is very difficult to give time voluntarily AND spend time or money to train and improve skills.

The face of those working with NGOs has also changed.  We are now seeing people move from government departments to work directly for NGOs.  For all these reasons, overall the quality of NGO staff around the country is improving. This broadening of the NGO knowledgebase will only serve to strengthen the sector further. 

Child Abuse Prevention Services is a good case in point of an NGO that now has quite a number of highly experienced and professional ex-government department workers in its ranks.  This ensures that the knowledge of how government works in the field can be utilised directly.  It is a positive move, and one that will improve trust and understanding between government and NGO.

The increased professionalism of your organisation, for which both leaders and members can take credit, is also now apparent to all.  Child Abuse Prevention Services New Zealand have come a long way in the past twenty years.  Until a few years ago there wasn't even a national office.  Now there is national governance, national coordination, planning and strategy.  You have a competent and experienced board and, even though I know it is a constant struggle to keep any NGO afloat, the signs are very encouraging.  The latest annual report is ample illustration of the level of excellence and professionalism that permeates your organisation today.

It is also pleasing in this context to hear from your leadership that there have been signs of increased cooperation between CYF and Child Abuse Prevention Services.  I very much hope that this positive engagement will continue in the future.  I have no doubt that this type of cooperation will result in tangible improvements in the general structure of the child protection sector as a whole.  Any sharing of knowledge, skills and expertise can only be beneficial to the children and families for and with whom you work.

May I also talk briefly about a couple of very positive initiatives, which I believe are worth highlighting.  One is the Child Protection Project.  This initiative is aimed at training teachers and school staff to recognise the signs of abuse in children.

This is a nationwide project.  The idea is to increase the safety of children by training a child protection resource person from each school and early childhood centre.  The project is an important step in closing what you could call something of a 'safety loophole' - the anomaly that teachers, who are often the first people to have close contact with children outside the family unit, receive no training in observing behavioural changes that might indicate abuse.

The Child Protection project will give teachers the knowledge and confidence to identify those signs and symptoms of potential abuse.  It is a delicate and difficult area, and one which, particularly overseas, has sometimes been misunderstood or too enthusiastically adopted.  This is an area within which it is necessary to move with great care, and to be sure that the training and expertise given to resource people will be thorough.  While we want to ensure every child is safe, mistakes in identifying abused children can be used against those who are working to protect children from ongoing abuse.  Knowledge, skill and commonsense are essential in this field.

Another positive initiative is the  "Family Safety Teams" which are being set up across the country over the next few years.  This is a joint initiative between the Police, the Ministry of Justice and CYF, one that promotes collaboration and information exchange between agencies dealing with at-risk families.  When Police and advocates for adult and child victims work together to ensure that the full range of needs for a family experiencing violence are addressed, the likelihood is that fewer children will fall through the cracks.

It has to be said that the project is still in the early stages and that the scale is somewhat limited. While only nine teams will be set up nationwide, it is a step in the right direction.

I would like also to mention the various internet projects by the ECPAT NZ group.  ECPAT, for those of you not familiar with the group's work, aims to end child prostitution, child pornography, child sex tourism and trafficking in children.  They have set up two excellent websites.  The first one is called 'stopdemand.org' and works to raise public awareness about sexual violence against children in New Zealand.  The second one is called 'cyberkidz' and promotes internet safety for children.  These are both positive initiatives that fit nicely with the other initiatives to which I have just referred. 

All these projects are pieces of the big puzzle that is child abuse prevention.  You are also a key piece in that puzzle.  I want to pay tribute to each one of you for the wonderful contribution you are making towards protecting our children.  Many of you work very long hours, often unpaid, or only partially paid.  You must also do several jobs. Counselling and therapy is as much part of your job, as administration and the production of documents and information sheets.  Thank you for taking on this work, for working cooperatively with other relevant agencies and for upskilling and keeping up to date with modern trends in prevention of child abuse. 

I want to wish you well for this meeting and I hope you come away feeling positive, not just about your own contribution but about the prospects of being collectively successful in reducing child abuse.

Children's advocacy has been much more visible in recent years.  Your work has helped achieve that.  In spite of all the hurdles and barriers you face in your work each day, I applaud and thank you for your determination in pursuit of your vision, that "all children and families are valued and nurtured within society, free from abuse and neglect."  I am proud to be Patron of an organisation that sets itself such a noble and difficult goal.  Like so many helping agencies, you will not be satisfied until you reach your ultimate goal which, ironically, is to do yourselves out of a job.  I hope you will succeed. 

I now declare the 2004 Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Child Abuse Prevention Services New Zealand open.

Tena koutou katoa.