MEDIA RELEASE

Friday, 8 April 2016

PSN welcomes radical changes in care and protection services

Social services provider Presbyterian Support Northern (PSN) has welcomed the Government’s plan to transform current structures and provision of services for the most vulnerable children and young people.

The Government has released a new report outlining a range of state care reforms, including an overhaul of Child Youth and Family (CYF). The report clearly conveys we are failing the most vulnerable children and youth.

PSN plays a big role in supporting vulnerable Kiwi children through its subsidiary Family Works.

Dr Rod Watts, CEO of PSN, says the organisation backs the Government’s desire to make fundamental changes to get much better results for the most vulnerable children and youth.

“We are pleased to see the strong focus on implementing a child-centred operating model. The needs of the child are absolutely central to our processes,” he says.

“Front line staff work incredibly hard to help change the situation vulnerable children are in, to help them have a better future. All too often the structures and current funding mechanisms impede achieving results. There is considerable room for improvement, and the announced decisions are a great step forward to bring about transformative change.”

PSN looks forward to learning about the Government’s plans for the sector in more detail, Dr Watts says.

“Family Works already has meaningful partnerships with several key agencies, and has just merged with Shine to do better in relation to family violence. We look forward to doing what we can to bring about substantially better results for our most vulnerable children.

“One of our goals is for New Zealand to be the best place in the world to raise children,” he says.

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Family Works supports at-risk children and their families to help them address complex issues like violence and conflict. Our services include counselling, including child abuse counselling, social workers in schools, youth workers in secondary schools, budgeting advice, emergency food parcels, family dispute resolution, family violence programmes, community and in prison parenting programmes, reintegration services for women being released for prison. We’re part of Presbyterian Support Northern, a charitable social services provider which works alongside children and families in communities across the upper North Island.

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