17 Feb 2016

Children's Commission forced to cut CYF visits

3:39 pm on 17 February 2016

The Children's Commission has had to cut back its visits to Child Youth and Family sites from annually to every 18 months, the head of the organisation says.

child poverty

Photo: 123RF

Russell Wills appeared before the social services select committee as part of its annual review and told MPs it had made the cut because of limited resources.

Dr Wills said two cases in particular made him realise that the environment children lived in could deteriorate rapidly and visiting every 18-months was not good enough.

He had raised the issue with Social Services Minister Paula Bennett.

Dr Wills said he could not understand why the government still had not put a plan and targets in place to reduce child poverty.