Of all the abused children, it is a petite 5-year-old who lingers in Christine McKenna's memory.
"She had a black eye, bruising to her jaw, torn skin behind her ears," the Child, Youth and Family Otago urban site manager says.
"Hair had been pulled out of her head. She'd been hung on a clothesline and locked outside."
McKenna recalls taking the fair-haired child to hospital where staff assessed and photographed her injuries.
These included burns to the inside of her mouth from being forced to eat chili peppers and bruises on her bottom. There was no pink skin left so she couldn't sit down.
The father who beat her received a community-based sentence.
At first glance, the Rattray St premises where the former foster parent is seated could be any office in Dunedin.
Smiling faces pass by and there's the smell of freshly-baked scones from the tea room.
But the pleasant environment belies the disturbing reality these care-and-protection social workers face daily. The 38-strong team is constantly balancing existing caseloads with urgent incoming work and support for families with children's safety - each decision potentially life-changing.
Child abuse. Social Development Minister Paula Bennett describes it as New Zealand's ugly secret and says unless there is a cultural change, we will continue to lead the world in beating and neglecting our children.
The Government's Green Paper for Vulnerable Children recently generated more than 9000 submissions, many calling for greater information-sharing, more support for parents, monitoring of children from birth and mandatory reporting of suspected abuse and neglect.
These will be considered as a 10-year children's action plan is developed.
And last week, new legislation took effect, making it an offence to turn a blind eye when it is known that a child or vulnerable adult is at risk of death, grievous bodily harm or sexual assault.
Last financial year, there were more than 22,000 confirmed cases of abuse and neglect nationwide, including 344 - almost one a day - in Dunedin.
Since 2004, notifications have increased by 268% and substantiated cases by 161%, which is partly attributed to people being more aware of child abuse and more inclined to report it.
Every week, there are nearly 2900 calls from people concerned enough about a child's safety to notify authorities. These go first to Child, Youth and Family's national contact centre in Auckland, where they are given response times, and then to offices nationwide.
The period in which social workers must assess the safety of the children involved ranges from 24 hours to 28 days but regional staff armed with local knowledge can upgrade or downgrade this timeframe.
Today, a handful of social workers are meeting for the second time to discuss a woman who drove drunk while her young children were with her.
Her car hit another vehicle and when police stopped her, she had a breath-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit. She already had previous drink-driving convictions.
The woman's living arrangements mean her social worker is concerned she will have to rely on her car for transport and there will be no family present to monitor her drinking.
Details are written on a whiteboard - risks on one side, strengths on the other and down the middle, the grey areas or things they don't know. Is she depressed?
Does her partner use alcohol?
Everyone chips in where they can.
Though the woman interacts well with her children, she can't keep them safe when she is drinking. And that could lead to the older child taking on the role of parent.
McKenna suggests gathering information from the children, using a worksheet on which they list their worries, strengths and dreams. Some wish for a pony.
Others want Mum and Dad to stop fighting.
The meeting ends with the workers assessing how much risk of harm the children face, on a scale of one to 10, and reaching a consensus about what they will do next. That will partly depend on the length of the woman's disqualification and whether she goes to jail.
Adapted from the US state of Minnesota, this "group consult" is an example of how key decisions at the agency are never made alone.
Though the social workers say they don't consciously think about one of their cases becoming the next newspaper headline, they are subject to increasing political and public scrutiny. A 2005 paper described them as "stage managers of uncertainty".
"There was collaborative decision-making before," Justine Hansen says, "but this makes it much more of a group process and takes a lot of stress off people because they don't feel like they're making a decision with just [their co-worker].
"We get a lot of cases that aren't clear cut and it's really, really difficult."
Most of those reports involve neglect, which is more common than physical abuse, and includes children not being fed, not having their medical needs met or not being supervised.
"It's a lot harder to get a handle on what's causing it and how bad it is ... so there's been a real focus on that recently."
Supervision and external counselling help staff cope with the weight of such decision-making, the grim situations they encounter and the abuse they cop from some parents. But each worker also has his or her own way to unwind - from physical exercise to photography and playing the piano.
McKenna says they are passionate about all the young people they work with.
"People think that we're unfeeling, that we're just there to do a job. But underneath there is a human who shares the same emotions as sometimes the family are going through."
One reason for the rise in notifications is that police now advise the agency every time they attend afamily-violence incident and find a child present. Last year, there were more than 57,000 such reports, including 541 in Dunedin.
A team of social workers, police and Women's Refuge representatives meets weekly to review all such events in the city and decide what further action, if any, needs to be taken.
Research shows the emotional impact of even seeing violence is "hugely traumatic" for children and affects their brain development, team member Gabby Bruce says.
"So we make sure parents are aware that that's a reality for their children."
If children have been victims of serious abuse or neglect, Child, Youth and Family will investigate with police.
However, most cases result in a child and family assessment, where staff address concerns and look for strengths that might help families overcome them. If there are no care-and-protection issues but families could do with support, they are connected with services in the community.
The latter is the likely course of action for some of the cases being considered by supervisors today. For some reason, several of the reports that have come in overnight involve 15-year-old girls.
Two of the young people are reported to be out of control, causing their parents or caregivers to fear for their safety. One of them is using cannabis and refusing to attend school. The other is repeating a family pattern of violence.
A third wants the service's support to address ongoing issues with her mother.
Unhappy that she is not allowed her own living space at home and is expected to look after her brother after school, she wants "respite care" at a friend's house. McKenna feels it is proactive of the teen to seek help but others think she is manipulative.
Another report involves a "confident middle-class woman" whose parenting is said to be punitive. The woman tells her children frightening stories about what might happen to them if they get out of bed at night.
"Oh, poor kids," laughs one worker, who senses that another organisation wants Child, Youth and Family to go in with a "big stick" and "enforce change".
Whatever the reason for them visiting someone's home, social workers know families "don't exactly want to see them", McKenna says, adding they go out in pairs and sometimes alert the police.
"Often the first thing people think when we come to the door is that we're going to take their children ... But taking a child into care is a life-changing event for that child and it's something we would consult widely on before making a decision."
For social workers such as Bruce, Emily Scoones and Ross McIvor it is a matter of getting parents on board, explaining the processes and eliciting their side of the story. Ideally, they want families to address the problems that have been identified. Removing children is a last resort.
Even so, 3885 children were in Child, Youth and Family's care last year (down from 5103 in 2006). And while many children removed by family agreement or Family Court order will be looked after by relatives, it is not always an option.
That's the case with Jessica*, who was "badly knocked about" by her mother.
The girl has been with foster parents since the age of nine but her social worker has noticed a pattern. Several months into a placement, she decides she no longer wants to be there and runs away.
That was what she was doing when her social worker was out for a run recently and bumped into the girl "doing a runner".
The pair ended up sitting on the roadside until the on-call social worker arrived.
While some teens regularly communicate with their social workers by text, in this case staff can only speculate on how she is feeling. She may be sabotaging the placements because she feels she is betraying her mother. Or she may think that getting close to someone will mean getting hurt.
The aim will be to find her a "home for life", a relatively recent innovation that allows children to move from the agency's care to a permanent home without going through a legal adoption process.
More recently, a social worker has also been based at Dunedin Hospital, working with the district health board to reduce abuse and neglect through identification, assessment and intervention.
Such abuse is not limited to one sector of the community, duty supervisor Mike Oliver says.
"We see cases here that are probably as serious as you might see in Auckland. We just might not see them as often."
A recent survey found 58% of people believed child abuse was a cultural issue, butchild-abuse-prevention organisation Child Matters says it is carried out by all cultures, all socio-economic groups and both sexes. Maori are over-represented in child-abuse statistics, not because they are Maori, but because they are over-represented in many other factors that make their children more vulnerable to abuse, it says. These include young mothers, poor education, mental-health issues and poverty.
There are other things the social workers would like the public to know, too. The importance of sharing concerns - if not with Child, Youth and Family, then other professionals such as teachers or doctors - that care-and-protection workers want to help, not to blame, and that there is a "huge" need for caregivers.
But ask why New Zealand's rate of child-abuse cases is so high and there is a long silence.
"It's something the people in Wellington are working on all the time," Bruce eventually offers. "We just try to get on with each one that comes through the door."
Likewise, McKenna has not figured out why some abused children make "stunning recoveries" and others don't.
However, she does know the earlier staff start working with families, the better the chances of children reaching their full potential.
Last time McKenna saw the 5-year-old abused by her father, she was living permanently with relatives, attending high school and involved in community groups. She had a good set of friends and understood why she couldn't return to her parents.
"For all that she's been through, she's done brilliantly."
* Name changed to protect privacy.
More information
If you suspect child abuse or neglect, or are worried about a child or young person, call the Child, Youth and Family freephone number any time: 0508 FAMILY (0508 326-459). For more information, see www.cyf.govt.nz/keeping-kids-safe/index.html
The facts
• New Zealand has the fifth worst child-abuse record out of 31 OECD countries.
• On average, one child is killed every five weeks.
• Most of these children are under five and the largest group is less than a year old.
• Ninety percent of all child deaths are perpetrated by someone known to the child.
• Children living in homes with unrelated adults are at much higher risk of injury or death.
• Most child abuse is caused by women. However, when men abuse children, they usually do more physical damage.
• Child abuse costs New Zealand about $2 billion each year.
• Studies have found abused and neglected children to be at least 25% more likely to experience problems such as delinquency, teen pregnancy, low academic achievement, drug use and mental health problems.
Source: Child Matters, www.childmatters.org.nz
