Help our at-risk children

Anger at the ongoing lack of funding and resources to deal with at-risk children, such as a 12-year-old regularly using drugs, has prompted a Dunedin school principal to write an explosive open letter to several Government ministers.

Within a couple of hours, the letter elicited assurances from the Government that the issues raised were being addressed.

Dunedin North Intermediate principal Heidi Hayward, a teacher since 1999 and principal from 2010, emailed a letter to Anne Tolley, Paula Bennett, Nikki Kaye and Hekia Parata yesterday expressing ‘‘deep concern’’ about two of her pupils.

One was living with their drug-addicted parent, and regular drug deals took place in the home.

The child was removed from the house by Child Youth and Family  (CYF) and placed in the only bed available.

"They ran away from this carer after two nights and has subsequently been returned home, where they have now been for a month," Ms Hayward said.

"Their behaviour and general demeanour has deteriorated hugely in this time and, at 12 years old, the child has now started regular drug use."

She said the child was  attending school only about twice a week and was hanging around with 15-year-olds who were frequently in trouble with police.

"We have made numerous CYF notifications. When I spoke to CYF again yesterday to express my growing concern, I was told that there was simply nowhere else for this child to go."

She said another child (12) was living with a parent who had serious mental health issues and had started drinking and falling asleep in the early evening.

Recently, the parent was asleep while an older family member shared "a bong" in the living room with friends.

"The issues we are faced with currently are not new. They have been around since I started teaching," she wrote.

"However, there was a time when I took solace in the belief that while I could not educate some of the at-risk children, I could at least provide comfort, safety and security for them five days a week.

"More and more, I feel that this is no longer possible and it is truly heartbreaking to be able to offer so little support, let alone an education, to these children."

She said the parents loved their children but did not have the capacity to parent or the support to manage.

"Consequently, these children are becoming more and more interested in gangs, and I can understand this, given that they have so little support from the adults in their lives," Ms Hayward said.

"While incredibly saddening, I am aware of the low probability of supporting these children in time, to prevent them from an almost inevitable prison sentence."

Ms Hayward said she had written to MPs in the past, held meetings with local social services agencies and made countless phone calls, but nothing changed.

She met Dunedin list MP Michael Woodhouse late last year and expressed her concerns, and was told a review was under way and she could expect to see changes within the next 10 years, but 10 years was "too late".

"I simply cannot sit by and be a party to yet more children being let down by the adults, and service agencies involved.

"I want to be on record as having warned you. I want to be on record as having formally asked for the resources to support these children now, and prevent them from a predictable future of crime, drug use and dysfunction," she wrote.

Ms Hayward said she hosted a meeting at Dunedin North Intermediate this week with police, CYF, contributing schools, Otago Youth Wellness, the Salvation Army, Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour, the Ministry of Education, the Child and Family Mental Health Team and Te Hou Ora Whanau Service representatives.

"Without exception, these services gave the message that they are overwhelmed and under-resourced. We are hamstrung.

"One worker at CYF told me that ‘we have no beds, no facilities. This country has the best website of any I’ve worked in, but the worst resources to back it up. We are a third-world agency’.

"Consequently, both of the children I have detailed above continue to live in dangerous and dysfunctional homes."

Ms Hayward said it "beggars belief’" the Government was willing to spend $100,000 keeping an adult incarcerated, but not spend the same on intervention to avoid incarceration.

Her school was just one of thousands struggling to keep its head above water in "a tidal wave of social issues" it was not funded or equipped to deal with.

"If we really want to see change, we have to start funding the clifftop and not providing the ambulance at the bottom."

Otago Secondary Principals’ Association secretary Gordon Wilson said many principals around the region shared Ms Hayward’s concerns.

"We too see students on a downhill trajectory towards full-time state care."

After receiving Ms Hayward’s letter yesterday, Minister for Social Development Anne Tolley called for CYF to investigate the issues at Dunedin North Intermediate "immediately".

She said the recent Budget made an extra $347 million available to fund cost pressures and the transformation of the care system.

"We know things need to change, which is why I am leading an overhaul of the care and protection system, following an independent review, which will see the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki, begin operating next year."

Mrs Tolley said it would work with families earlier to prevent children from needing to go into care.

"And if they do need to be taken out of their family, we need to get them into a safe, loving and stable home as soon as possible.

"We will also support these young people to transition into adulthood like any responsible parent would do."

She said the overhaul also involved attracting high-quality foster carers, alongside increasing the financial and operational support for those people, who opened their lives and homes to look after New Zealand’s most vulnerable children.

Ms Bennett’s office referred ODT questions to Mrs Tolley’s office.

Education Minister Hekia Parata said in the next year, $12.3 million would be specifically targeted at pupils in long-term benefit-dependent households who were most at risk of underachievement.

"Dunedin North Intermediate is a decile 7 school, which means it has a lower proportion of students from low socio-economic communities than most other schools.

"However,  the school is still receiving a share of the targeted funding to help those students who are at risk of underachievement."

Mr Woodhouse confirmed he met  Dunedin North Intermediate staff, but said it was before the Government’s response to the inquiry into Child Youth and Family and the many things that were being done to support vulnerable children through the establishment of the Ministry for Vulnerable Children.

"Although I don’t recall putting a timeframe on the changes, what I do know is that these are complex issues that will take some time to address."

Mrs Kaye was unavailable for comment.

john.lewis@odt.co.nz