• Social Worker Registration Bill
• Future Of Tertiary Education In Wanganui
• Preventing Family Violence
• Community And Government Sector Steering Group
• Government Can't Do It Alone

SOCIAL WORKER REGISTRATION BILL
The Social Workers Registration Bill was introduced to Parliament last week by Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey.

The Bill provides a framework for the registration of social workers and puts in place a number of measures designed to protect the safety and well being of all New Zealanders from poor social work practice.

Under the Bill, registration will be based on a person's competence and fitness to practice social work. To become registered, social workers will require an educational qualification and practice experience followed by an assessment of competence.

A Social Workers Registration Board will be set up to administer the new system and will determine professional standards for social workers. In particular it will be responsible for:

• registering social workers by assessing their competence;
• establishing and maintaining a code of conduct for registered social workers;
• setting minimum requirements for educational qualifications for registered social workers;
• promoting the benefits of registration to Government departments, other crown agencies, others who employ social workers as well as the public and social workers themselves; and,
• promoting high standards of practice and professional conduct among registered social workers and the employers of social workers.

The Bill also establishes a Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal to administer the complaints process and exercise disciplinary powers over registered social workers.

While the Bill will not prevent people from practising social work, uncertified practitioners will not be able to call themselves a 'Registered Social Worker'.

It is anticipated that some social workers will be immediately eligible for registration, while others will have to work towards this goal. The Bill allows for provisional registration, which will be limited to five years per social worker.

* it is anticipated that once the bill passes its first reading it will be referred to the Social Services Select Committee and that public submissions will be sought. The Bill has been posted to Steve Maharey's website at www.executive.govt.nz/minister/maharey z

FUTURE OF TERTIARY EDUCATION IN WANGANUI
Public consultation is to start this week on a viable option to deliver tertiary education in Wanganui. Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey said he is considering officials advice to pursue a partnership with Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic (WRCP) with UCOL ? who successfully provide education in Palmerston North, Levin and the Wairarapa ? and to preserve community involvement in the polytechnic through the development of a Community Charter and the establishment of a Wanganui Advisory Committee. The future of the polytechnic's Rangahaua faculty is being considered separately from the rest of the institution and it is unlikely to form part of any new partnership between WRCP and UCOL.

The continued availability of quality tertiary education is an essential tool in the development of a regional development strategy for Wanganui.

The Government has been considering a number of options to preserve educational provision in Wanganui. WRCP has been in a precarious financial position for the last twelve years. Losses have been incurred in all but two of those years. By the end of 2001 the Government will have provided more than $11m of debt funding simply to keep the WRCP operating.

Mr Maharey said a combination with UCOL would offer students a richer range of courses and greater professional opportunities for staff and he has invited UCOL, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, to develop a proposal around this option.

PREVENTING FAMILY VIOLENCE
Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey last week released a Plan of Action that identifies five key areas where future efforts should be focused to prevent family violence. The Review of Family Violence Prevention in New Zealand Plan of Action draws on the results of four community workshops held earlier this year, written submissions, interviews with key experts and an extensive review of New Zealand and overseas literature. Mr Maharey said he has asked for a draft five year strategy to be drawn up by the end of October which the Government can use when deciding how the plan is to be implemented.

Family violence is a significant social issue in New Zealand and a 1994 study estimated it affected one in seven families and cost $1.2b annually. While some progress has been achieved, more needs to be done including greater coordination and cooperation amongst agencies working with families.

Government and non-government agencies have been working together for the past year to establish what is and what is not working in reducing and preventing violence within families/whanau. They agree that we should focus on five core areas:

• raising public awareness of family violence;
• ensuring prevention and intervention services are meeting a wide range of needs;
• placing more emphasis on the provision of prevention and early intervention strategies, such as parenting education and school-based programmes;
• ensuring that family violence prevention services are culturally relevant; and,
• maintaining a high level of commitment and consistency by government and non-government agencies as a whole to addressing family violence.

The Action Plan is a significant contribution towards the goal of reducing family violence as contained in the Government's Crime Reduction Strategy.

The Government is now considering how the plan can be implemented. The Family Violence Focus Group, an expert advisory group made up of government and non-government agencies, has been asked to develop a five-year implementation strategy for the Government to consider.

COMMUNITY AND GOVERNMENT SECTOR STEERING GROUP
A ten member Steering Group to work on practical ways of improving the relationships between the community sector and government agencies has been appointed.

The Steering Group's work programme would be based on the recommendations of the Community and Voluntary Sector Working Party, which reported to the Government in April. The Working Party looked at the reasons why the community sector's relationship with government was under strain and what might be done about it.

Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Steve Maharey said the Government largely agreed with the Working Party's recommendations and I have asked for a joint community and government work programme to look at three main areas:

• improving participatory processes around policy development and policy making;
• improving funding and accountability arrangements; and
• strengthening the community sector.

Threading through each of these work streams will be work to improve public servants understanding of community and voluntary sector organisations. The Steering Group is due to report to Mr Maharey in June 2002.

* the Community and Voluntary Sector Working Party's April 2001 report can be accessed at www.mosp.govt.nz/voluntary/

GOVERNMENT CAN'T DO IT ALONE
New Zealand needs to radically shift the balance of power away from the state and into the hands of communities if we are to solve the nation's social problems, Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey told a forum on social capital in Whanganui last Friday. While the contribution of the non-government 'third sector' has grown considerably in recent years it still encounters considerable obstacles trying to develop local solutions for local problems.

Mr Maharey said arguments about big government or small government miss the point entirely. The real question is who holds decision making power and whether the resources follow decisions to turn rhetoric into reality. Perennial problems such as reliance on welfare, child abuse and neglect and local employment creation all lend themselves to community leadership and the challenge for Government is to back local people and organisations that make a difference.