Leading from the front issuu

intervention suffered accordingly. To add to the misery,
budgets were actually being cut resulting in social work
vacancies. The answer — as always another review and
another restructure. The result — the same.
THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE,
WHAT IS AND WHAT CAN
WORK
I shifted from New Plymouth to Hawke’s Bay in May
1992. I had been managing the New Plymouth Office of
CYF and was offered the Hawke’s Bay job on promotion.
I knew very little about Hawke’s Bay but my wife Helen
had grown up in Maraenui and we had some friends living
here so we thought we would come over for maybe a
couple of years and we are still here today.
I guess I had the common view of those outside of HB,
that it was a wealthy part of New Zealand, the wealth
built on sheep farming and horticulture, Leopard beer
and Morrison Motor Mowers.
Unfortunately my arrival in HB coincided with the two
big freezing works closing down and the impact of Rogernomics,
so illusions were somewhat dashed. We also
looked forward to living in a part of the country with two
cities within a few minutes reach, a pleasant change
from the isolation of New Plymouth.
Initially I had the overall managerial oversight of the
Wairoa, Napier, Hastings and Waipukurau offices and
within two years the Gisborne office was added. I soon
found that all these offices operated quite differently and
all had their unique culture. While on the one hand this
made things interesting, on the other it was difficult to
bring about changes and install consistent standards of
practice across the whole rohe. I found that the principles
of the CYP&FA were not well embedded in practice,
one result being that there were more children in care
than was the case in Taranaki.
The interaction with the community and iwi was also
inconsistent. All NGOs were keen to get their share of
the putea and apart from direct approaches there was
also considerable lobbying through the political system.
This did not always mean that resources went to where
they could be most effective. Also to an outsider the unbelievable
level of animosity between Napier and Hastings
meant getting “Bay Wide” initiatives to work was
challenging. It’s not surprising then with rising levels of
unemployment and poverty, that the organisation struggled
to meet demands and provide a quality service.
There were however some bright spots. The then
National Government was keen on devolving services,
thus providing the chance to give life to s. 396 of the act
and establish iwi social services. After much korero we
Artwork by Jesse Sipaia, Flaxmere Primary School.
Napier Pilot City Trust – for a kinder, fairer city 153