This annual report - Taranaki District Health Board

Note 2: The numbers in this section may differ from those presented in previous NZCYES Reports as Child,Youth and Family no longer include the intakes received under court order (S19 of the Children, YoungPersons, and Their Families Act 1989 and s132 of the Care of Children Act 2004) in routine reporting, as theyare not considered to be care and protection notifications.Note 3: Since July 2010, Police family violence referrals that require no assessment by Child, Youth andFamily have been received separately in the CYF database. However in this section, they have been includedin the main analysis in order to preserve continuity with previous years.Note 4: CYF notification data does not include any information on the ethnicity of individual children and youngpeople, although this information is available for those requiring further assessment. Thus in this section,ethnicity data is presented only for those for whom further assessment was required.New Zealand Distribution and TrendsNumber of Notifications and Proportion Requiring Further AssessmentIn New Zealand during 2011, a total of 150,747 care and protection notifications werereceived by CYF offices, with 38.4% being thought to require further assessment. Whilethese figures reflect a progressive increase in notifications since 2004, when 40,939 werereceived, the proportion requiring further assessment declined (86.3% required furtherassessment in 2004). The absolute number of notifications requiring further assessmenthowever continued to increase, from 35,350 in 2004 to 57,949 in 2011, an increase of63.9% over this period (Table 77, Figure 125).Notifications Requiring Further Assessment by EthnicityIn New Zealand during 2004–2011, the number of care and protection notificationsreceived by CYF that required further assessment increased for children and young peopleof all ethnic groups (Table 78). During the 2011 financial year, 45.6% of notificationsrequiring further assessment were for Māori children and young people, while 32.0% werefor European, 11.4% were for Pacific, and 1.9% were for Asian children and young people(Figure 126).Source of CYF Care and Protection NotificationsIn New Zealand during 2004, family members and the police were the most frequentsources of CYF care and protection notifications, followed by the education and healthsectors. While the number of notifications received from all referral sources rose during2004–2011, the largest increases were seen for Police family violence referrals. Thus by2011, Police family violence referrals were the most frequent source of CYF notifications,followed by the Police (other referral types) and the health sector. However, the proportionof Police family violence referrals which required further assessment declined, from 70.5%in 2004 to 15.4% in 2011. While similar trends were seen for other referral sources, themagnitude of these declines was much less marked (Table 79).Assessment Findings for Cases Requiring Further InvestigationOf those notifications which were assessed further during 2004–2011, a large proportionresulted in no abuse being found. Where abuse was found however, physical andemotional abuse, and neglect were prominent. Behavioural and relationship difficultieswere the most frequent non-abuse findings (Table 80). Because of the nature of thereporting system however, and the fact that a single child may appear in a number ofcategories, it is difficult to determine what proportion of cases related predominantly to aparticular type of abuse (e.g. physical, emotional, sexual).In interpreting these figures, it must also be remembered that a single child may have beenthe subject of multiple notifications and that there were also significant changes to thenotification system during this period.CYF Notifications - 330