The expert panel looking at modernising Child, Youth and Family has highlighted the disproportionate number of Maori caught up in the child protection system.
About 57 per cent of children seen by CYF by the time they are aged five are Maori, twice the percentage of Maori children in the wider population.
Maori children are disproportionately represented in families with high levels of need and disadvantage.
They’re nearly four times more likely to have a parent who was involved with CYF as a child and four times more likely to have a mother who has been dependent on a benefit.
They’re almost four times more likely to be born into a single parent household, and it’s three times more likely there was a police referral of family violence in the five years before their birth.
In its report, the panel says Child Youth and Family needs a high degree of cultural competency and confidence to support the needs of all children, including Maori children.
While CYF has committed to address cultural connection, including developing a bi-cultural practice framework and establishing memorandums of understanding with iwi, reviews over the past three decades have pointed to a lack of consistent capability to work successfully with Maori.
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