October 29, 2013
National plan to place tamariki
The head of Ngapuhi Iwi Social Services says iwi need to take a national perspective if they are taking responsibility for placing children who come to the notice of the Child, Youth and Family Services.
Only a fraction of the more than 2000 tamariki and rangatahi in state care are placed with iwi agencies, but Liz Marsden says Ngapuhi has a good record of working with the department to get children placed with whanau.
Last year Te-Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngapuhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Child, Youth and Family to work together and make joint decisions when Ngapuhi mokopuna are placed into care or commit criminal offences.
She says that doesn't mean dragging them back to Tai Tokerau.
"We don't want to disrupt their lives we want to minimise that if they're in Dunedin we'd be looking for whanau in that area too so that the kids as much as possible can continue to be part of the same networks that they are part of in the same schools if possible so that makes it even more of a challenge," she says.
Ms Marsden says Ngapuhi's tribal registration process is a good start when the iwi social services is looking for whanau to provide safe care to tamariki.
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