We finally know the true extent of abuse in state care. It is shocking

Wednesday, 27 March 2019

ANALYSIS: The figures released this month by Oranga Tamariki into the extent of child abuse in state care are shocking.

There's no way you can look at these statistics – 220 children physically, sexually, and emotionally abused and neglected in a mere six month time period – and not be appalled.

These children are uplifted from their families, from their homes, to a place that's meant to be safer. In many cases, it is not. In some cases, it is worse.

The fact it has taken so long for the state to finally come clean about how ill-treated some of our tamariki are – and in particular Māori, who are over-represented in both state care placement and abuse statistics – is shameful.

I spent the best part of last year researching the decisions social workers make to uplift children and investigating whether this is really the best solution as part of Stuff's 'Who Cares' project.

Our analysis found there have been almost 10,000 decisions to take kids into custody in the past five years. That is, on average, more than five removals every day.

While Oranga Tamariki say a decision to uplift a child is not made lightly, the rate of kids in care is at a ten-year high, and climbing. These children are more likely to be imprisoned, lack education, and be in poor health.

My interest in state care was partly sparked by the difficulty I have encountered over the years as a journalist trying to seek accurate information about what is actually happening to these children.

In 2011, the Social Development Ministry refused to provide me with the figures for child abuse by Child, Youth and Family caregivers, saying the information was not held centrally.

After seven months and an investigation by the Ombudsman, they were made to manually review 150 case files to release the data from 2010. This showed 71 cases of caregiver and third party abuse.

At the time, they pledged to report the information annually from then on.

This never happened.

In fact, just last year, I asked for the data again under the Official Information Act only to be refused for a similar reason as eight years previously: it would take them too long to collate the figures.

Over the years, haphazard reviews have placed the extent of abuse at less than one per cent of all kids in care.

But in 2016, a more substantial report suggested the true rate was more like 12 per cent.

Now, for the first time, we can see the true extent of what children are experiencing in our state care system. The importance of this can not be underestimated. Oranga Tamariki chief executive Gráinne Moss deserves some credit for setting up the Safety of Children in Care unit, which is set to report these figures quarterly.

'Who Cares?', a special project by Stuff, told the true story of Jesse and Gabriel, two girls removed from their father's care by Oranga Tamariki.

The figures are bad. Otago University social work researcher Emily Keddell says if you theorise the figures will stay stable across the year, that's around 8 per cent of all kids in care who are not safe.

On the face of it, kids in the general population actually appear to be safer than those in care – based on Oranga Tamariki's substantiated abuse findings, around 1.3 per cent of kids overall were found to have been abused in 2017.

But Oranga Tamariki says a full-year figure could not be forecast from quarterly reports. And Keddell agrees it is more complicated than that.

'It's important to consider that children in care are subject to a higher level of scrutiny and monitoring than other children, as they should be, when the state assumes parental status, so this may push up the numbers.

'Also, many caregivers and families require ongoing support and are really stretched - unfortunately in some cases this can lead to ongoing harm for children.'

New care standards, caregiver recruitment and more support would hopefully improve this, Keddell says.

But, as state care abuse victims activist and social worker Paora Moyle says, the figures in this month's report are unlikely to be the true number. Australia's Royal Commission into child sexual abuse last year found the average time it takes for a survivor to fully understand and reveal what has happened to them is 21 years after the trauma.

'There's only a handful of kids that actually come forward and disclose,' says Moyle. 'This is just what we know about, and there will be many more children in harmful situations. Survivors would say we know this, and we've known this for years.'

Moyle says social workers caused trauma by being too quick to uplift kids, and need to shift focus to supporting families and dismantling institutionalised racism.

While it has been a long time coming, this new reporting does appear to suggest – and this is a hope shared by Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft – that the culture of secrecy is changing.

'This is courageous, necessary, and long overdue. There's no longer that defensive mentality where you have to use the OIA and no-one knows what's going on. While it's terrible news, we can all see now what's going on and I'm cautiously optimistic it's part of a culture shift.

'Now, nothing short of a revolution is required, especially when it comes to Māori children.'

From July, Oranga Tamariki will be legally required to improve and report on outcomes for Māori. Transparency is one thing. Whether change can actually happen, we'll all have to wait and see.