Judith Collins
National Party Welfare Spokeswoman

8 January 2006

CYF spending priorities in disarray

National’s Welfare spokeswoman, Judith Collins, says the Department of Child, Youth and Family is spending up large on conferences for management while frontline staff are struggling to deliver positive outcomes for our most vulnerable children.

Answers to parliamentary questions show that in the 2004/05 financial year CYF spent more than $300,000 sending senior staff to conferences, including conferences on accounting and property management and others which were held in Australia, South Africa and the United States.

The $300,000, which is an increase of 75% on that spent in the previous financial year, does not include the cost of travel and accommodation that CYF says it cannot calculate.

Ms Collins says this massive increase in spending and the creative accounting around it is an insult to the families of children who have fallen through the cracks of the stretched child welfare system.

“It seems very strange that CYF staff are attending some of these courses at all. It is a bit excessive to send two staff to Australia to learn about property management at a cost of more than $7,500 when property management is a whole different ball game in Australia.

“But it seems even more strange that the department can’t provide costs for travel and accommodation. What does Ruth Dyson have to hide?”

Ends

Attached: breakdown of CYF expenditure on conference attendance, excluding airfares and accommodation – 4 pages.

2002 / 03

Available records show that the Department spent $76,712 on conference costs (excluding airfares and accommodation), as detailed in the following table.

Name Attendees Costs (excluding Airfares & Accommodation)
ACC & OHS Conference 1 1,695
ACCN Conference 1 993
AIFS Conference 1 658
ANZASW Conference 4 480
Australian Evaluation Society Conference 2 6,762
CFSS Conference 1 960
Child Abuse & Neglect Conference 2 1,560
Child Law Conference 3 2,985
Children’s Issues Conference 11 20,355
CLANZ Conference 1 311
Drugs & Young Persons Conference 2 949
Film & Videos Conference 1 275
Foster Care Conference 12 2,951
Gartner Symposium 1 3,857
Gathering Momentum Conference 27 5,339
Governance & Accounting Conference 1 1,695
IAFYJM Congress 2 2,457
ICANZ Conference 1 250
IFRS Conference 2 1,990
NNSVS Conference 2 720
NZACAP Conference 2 300
NZATD Conference 2 1,670
NZCCP Conference 5 1,440
NZPS Conference 1 76
QUGAP Conference (Melbourne) 1 2,247
SPRE Conference 10 1,161
Youth & Family Congress 1 440
YSS 5 5,284
Other Conferences (not identified) 12,230

2003 / 04

Available records show that the Department spent $173,992 on conference costs (excluding airfares and accommodation), as detailed in the following table:
Name Number of Attendees Costs (excluding Airfares and Accommodation)

Supervision and Practice Managers 31 13,539
ACCN Conference 12 11,991
Adoption Conference (Adelaide) 2 725
AES Conference 1 3,280
AIC Conference 2 1,694
ANZATSA Conference 32 12,910
Attendance Counselling Conference 1 311
Child & Family Support Services Conference 9 1,547
Child Abuse & Neglect Conference 3,558
Child & Family Law Conference 7 7,124
Children’s Issues Conference 1 413
HRINZ Conference 3 3,235
Human Resources Conference 1 1,720
HR Summit 1 608
International Adoption Conference 1 1,295
NZ ACAP Conference 1 382
NZ ACSAS Conference 5 645
NZ CCP Conference 1 666
NZ FFCC 19,944*
NZ FFCA Conference 1 295
NZ FWW Conference 1 44
NZ Property Institute Conference 3 2,134
NZ PSSM Conference 1 523
OZIRIS Conference 2 4,301*
Pathways Leadership Conference 1 303
Recovery Symposium 3 10,204*
Resiliency Approach to Intervention Conference 8 880
SMSP Conference 3 1,500
Te Rau Tipa (MMH) Conference 3 331
Youth Justice Conference 37,399*
Other (not identified) 30,491

*Note that the department also co-sponsored these conferences and, included in these totals, are sponsorship costs, as follows:

NZFFCC $19,944 
OZIRIS $4,289
Recovery Symposium $9,137 
Youth Justice $36,083

2004 / 05

Available records show that the Department spent $304,461 on conference costs (excluding airfares and accommodation), as detailed in the following table:
Name Location Number of Attendees Costs (excluding Airfares and Accommodation)

Supervision and Practise Manager 5,418
Team Leader Conference 2,245
ACCN Conference 40,000*
ACSC Conference 1 450
ACWACS Conference Sydney 1 1,449
AJJA Conference 1 433
American Humane Conference 1 578
ANZASW Conference 2 1,472
Asian Health Conference 1 295
BTTB Marketing Conference 2 707
Child & Family Law Conference 1 1,990
Child & Family Policy Conference 3 8,818
Child Summit 12 1,173
CISMFA Conference 1 693
eGovernment Conference 1 2,366
Foster Care Conference 1 53,104*
Future Search Conference 1 2,544
Global Social Work Congress Australia 1 2,084
Harakeke Conference 3 572
Industrial Relations Conference 2 3,590
IPSCAN Conference Brisbane 22 30,340 
IQPC Conference Australia 1 1,458
IQPC Property Conference Sydney 2 5,703
IQPC Better Practice Financial Management for Government Canberra 2 8,414
Leading with Delegation Conference 1 1,150
Millenium Conference 1 6,113
NZ CSS Conference 1 140
NZ FC Conference 13 2,185
NZ Law Society Conference 1 2,395
NZ ACAP Conference 1 219
NZ FFCF Conference 9 2,135
NZ Institute of Management Conference 2 78
NZ LS Youth Advocate Conference 1 484
NZ PS Conference 3 1,471
Office Safe Conference 1 295
Official Information Act Symposium 5 1,700
Oscar Conference 4 20,564*
Pegasus Conference Boston 1 6,480
PMA Conference 1 337
Power Summit 1 1,895
Property Management Conference Australia 2 7,525
NZ PSSM Conference 32 14,311
QSP User Group Conference 1 2,111
Risk Management Conference 2 3,590
Severe Conduct Disorder Conference 32 18,413
Social Policy Conference 16 6,485
SOPAC Conference Australia 1 2,356
Stopping Violence Conference 4 1,383
Strengths Conference 53 8,939
Understanding Trauma Conference 3 626
Violence Free Conference 21 4,756
Vision Conference 1 4,790
What Works Conference 1 266
World Congress on Family Law & Children’s Rights South Africa 1 1,647
Youth Justice Conference 2,000
Other (not identified) 3 1,726

*Note that the department also co-sponsored these conferences and, included in these totals, are sponsorship costs, as follows:
ACCN $40,000 
Foster Care $50,778
Oscar $18,365

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