Kerre Woodham: If it's working, let's keep doing it

The Government yesterday announced the launch of a new youth intervention programme, designed to deal with the small group of recidivist young offenders who are responsible for so much damage being done by ram-raiding.  

The little oiks and their families will be assigned an intensive support social worker to develop a plan for the young person and to provide ongoing support to the wider family. Services could include mentoring, alcohol and drug treatment, surely a game the whole family could play, access to housing and education, mental health support and cultural support.  

This is very, very like the social investment policy Bill English and Dame Tariana Turia put together all those years ago. Identifying complex cases in their families and putting resources into them so that the problems aren't exacerbated and the problems don't become intergenerational. Other countries do it. And in fact, New Zealand has been doing it in a in a minor form within the last year or so. Ten to 13-year-olds are being given wrap around support within 24 hours of being caught offending. Within 48 hours, the different agencies and community organisations come together to create a plan with the family, to give them the help and support that they need, and apparently it's working.   

Since its launch, 230 children have been involved. Of those 230, 78% have not reoffended. And given that they were basically on a merry go round of offending - they're being caught, picked up, put back on the streets, out again offending -  you would have to say that that sounds like a success.  

And if it's working, let's keep doing it.  

I think I saw a piece with John Campbell going out to visit the wider group that had been formed after a young person had been caught ram raiding. And it was police, and it was Oranga Tamariki, and it was social welfare workers, sitting around a table working out a plan tailored to that person and their family, but obviously, there were broad brushstrokes that they can apply to each family that they are involved with. 

Now, for those who are still offending, the Governments announced the launch of an even more intensive program. I have never and I have no problem with spending money on these sorts of programs because if we don't spend the money now, it's only going to cost us a mountain more down the track. As Chris Cahill from the Police Association said on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, the program might be expensive, but it is worth it in the long run.  

We've heard on this show from parents who are doing their best. We've had a couple of parents ring in and say I don't know, I don't know how this happened. The other kids are absolutely fine but this one has decided that he wants to go looking for trouble. You know, the other kids are doing OK. We don't know what it is in terms of our parenting.  

Then of course, we know that there are parents who shouldn't even have the classroom guinea pigs in their care for the weekend. You wouldn't let them pat a stray cat for fear of what might happen. These woeful parents, though, have come from somewhere.  

Think of all the dead babies and you'll have your favourites that you remember in your heart. All of those babies that we were forced to meet over the past 30 years when their killers went on trial. All of those dead children had siblings. Some of them may have escaped the horror of their reality. The vast majority would have been trapped within the same toxic environment where they would have seen a small child brutally beaten to death.  

So what skills would the ones who escaped have once they started their own families? If intensive supervision helps turn around lives, and so far it appears it does. If intensive supervision can take an adrenaline-addicted young person who sees only for the moment, only that they've managed to get more than 300 likes on TikTok or whatever, if you can help see a kid, get beyond that it is a worthwhile investment. 

It's not every kid that needs it. It's not every family that needs it. If it's the money, we'll be saving ourselves a fortune in the long run. If it's the realization of human potential, I truly believe we're going to be that much richer if we give it a go. 

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