2. Vulnerable Children Legislation Changes
Support for Permanent Caregivers and Special
Guardianship, that takes effect on 1 July 2016
Vulnerable Children Legislation Changes

3. Amendments to the CYP&F Act
Permanent caregiver support:
Financial and other assistance for permanent caregivers (s388A - new obligation to provide better support to permanent caregivers)
Special guardianship (s113A offers you an alternative means of securing the permanent placement of a child)

4. Amendments to the CYP&F Act
The legislative amendments also:
establish review and appeal mechanisms when permanent caregivers are dissatisfied with decisions made about assistance.
prevent permanent caregivers getting support via section 86 Service Orders and some support orders after 1 July 2016. (Existing services orders will expire on the first review due after 1 July ) 

5. Amendments to the CYP&F Act
Home for Life caregivers have been able to get any ongoing and necessary support through a court order - either a services order or occasionally a support order. In addition, and sometimes alternatively, Home for Life caregivers have been offered the Home for Life support package which includes phone and face-to-face meeting support.
From 1 July 2016 the new approach offers more individually tailored support to meet the needs of a child or young person placed in the permanent care of a caregiver by CYF or an approved social service provider

6. Intention of the changes
The intent of these changes is to:
better support caregivers in meeting the needs of children and young people who have been placed with them permanently.
Provide support so children/young people have long term stable homes and consequently have better life outcomes

7. The Permanent Caregiver Support Service
The obligations of the CE of MSD to provide financial and other assistance to permanent caregivers have been delegated to Kiistone
Kiistone through the Permanent Caregiver Support Service will provide financial and other assistance to permanent caregivers, both kin and non kin, in accordance with the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989.

8. PCSS - role

9. Who is entitled?
From 1 July 2016 a “permanent caregiver” will be legally defined as either:
a special guardian, or
a person who has obtained orders under the Care of Children Act in substitution for orders or a section 140 agreement under the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act.

10. Who is entitled?
*Caregivers who provide a permanent living arrangement with no legal orders after the discharge of custody orders under the CYP&F Act will be defined by CYF as a Permanent Caregiver.
Caregivers with custody under s101 CYP&F Act ?
Home for Life caregivers ?

11. Criteria - financial and other assistance
s388A(2) – must provide
s388A(1) – may provide
S389 – may provide to a small group

12. Criteria - s388A(2)
Financial and other assistance to permanent caregivers of children/young people must be provided when the need arises from the child’s:
Care and protection needs or
Extraordinary health needs or
Extraordinary education needs or
Extraordinary developmental needs, and
The need for assistance arises from the care and protection needs of the child/young person – such needs may arise from:
The circumstances that led the child/young person being placed into care in the first place. This would cover assistance that is required to address a need that is a result of any kind of abuse or neglect
The child or young person’s experience in care.
Assistance may be required to help a child and/or caregiver to manage the cumulative effect of abuse, neglect or other harm, or behavioural difficulties. This could include any trauma therapy or counselling, behaviour management, attachment work and possibly support to build up a child’s sense of belonging or even self-esteem.
The information you might need to make a decision under this paragraph includes:
The circumstances relating to why the child/young person came into care in the first place - the grounds for the declaration would give some indication of the circumstances and the affidavit evidence filed in court
Any information about the impact of those circumstances on the child/young person - there will be immediate impact hopefully outlined in the affidavit that went with the application for declaration and then there will be impact that becomes obvious afterwards recorded in case notes and court reviews eg shown in their behaviour, meeting developmental milestones, ability to learn, ability to self-regulate, form good relationships etc.
The circumstances relating to the child’s/young person’s time in care and the impact of this on them – whether they were placed with whanau/non whanau, in a cross cultural placement, how long they were in care, how many placements they had and their duration, what their experience was like in care? How did they get on in the caregiving family? How did the time in care impact their behaviour, education, health, sense of belonging, self-esteem, ability to self-regulate, form good relationships etc?
Any measures that were put in place while the child/young person was in care to address issues arising from the circumstances that led the child to come into care or relating to their experience of care.
The need for assistance arises from the extraordinary health needs of the child/young person – extraordinary must be ‘out of’ the ordinary or ‘over and above’ what is ordinary, unusual, unexpected. It is pretty normal for children and young people to have health needs at times. Maybe a health need becomes extraordinary because it’s something unusual or the impact on the child is over and above ‘ordinary’.
A health need could be something a child was born with, something that has become evident subsequently or as a result of accident or illness.
[NB It is possible that the health need may relate to paragraph (a) as a need arising from care and protection. If so it doesn’t have to get over the ‘extraordinary’ hurdle.]
The need for assistance arises from the extraordinary education needs of the child/young person – again extraordinary must be ‘out of’ the ordinary or ‘over and above’ what is ordinary. All children have education needs. An extraordinary education need may relate to a particular learning difficulty or something that has affected a child’s education eg frequent moves, English being a new/second language. It is possible the need to have a child assessed to determine the cause of education difficulties may be an extraordinary education need.
[NB As with health needs, education needs may relate to paragraph (a) as a need arising from care and protection. If so it doesn’t have to get over the ‘extraordinary’ hurdle.]
The need for assistance arises from the extraordinary developmental needs of the child/young person – again extraordinary must be ‘out of’ the ordinary or ‘over and above’ what is ordinary. A developmental need would arise where a child/young person is not meeting the normal developmental milestones. The extent or severity of the ‘delay’ is relevant to determining whether the need is extraordinary.
[NB As with health and education needs, developmental needs may relate to paragraph (a) as a cost arising from care and protection. If so it doesn’t have to get over the ‘extraordinary’ hurdle.]

13. And…….
meeting those needs is more than a permanent caregiver can reasonably be expected to provide, and
the needs cannot be met by existing sources of support and are unlikely to be provided otherwise, and
it is reasonable to be provided by the CE, and
it is consistent with Ministerial direction.
Paragraph (b)
Paragraph (b) provides that the needs that meet paragraph (a) must also be greater than it is reasonable to expect the permanent caregiver to meet. Here consider:
The cost of meeting the needs
The financial circumstances of the caregiver
Whether the impact of meeting those needs would, or would be likely to, cause financial or other hardship to the caregiver or the caregiver’s family
Whether, and to what extent, support is available from the child’s or young person’s family group.
Paragraph (c)
Paragraph (c) provides that needs meeting criteria in paragraphs (a) and (b) must not be able to be met by existing sources of support under the CYP&F Act or any other Act (ie by government support) AND are unlikely to be provided otherwise.
To make a determination under this paragraph consider potential sources of support such as:
Support for health or disability needs or other special assistance from WINZ
Support for educational needs via the Ministry of Education
Support for health or disability needs under the NZ Public Health and Disability Act 2000.
Paragraph (d)
A need that meets all other criteria then needs to meet paragraph (d) as well. Paragraph (d) provides that it is reasonable in all the circumstances for the CE to provide assistance. To determine this consider:
The impact of not meeting the need on the child/young person and on the caregiver.
Whether providing the assistance is consistent with assistance provided under section 388A(2) to others in similar circumstances
Whether the assistance would achieve, within a period, a defined outcome in relation to the need
Whether the assistance would meet the need adequately
Evidence on what support is effective

14. Discretion under s388A(1)
“…may….provide financial and other assistance to a permanent caregiver of a child or young person for the purpose of assisting the permanent caregiver to care for the child or young person.”
To exercise this discretion on a case by case basis the PCSS needs to act within the law and in accordance with principles of rationality, proportionality, consistency, non-discrimination, transparency and due process.

15. Discretion under s389
For caregivers who took the care of a child or young person without orders but after the discharge of CYF custody….. “…..may….provide financial assistance to any person for the purpose of assisting that person to care for any child or young person…”

16. How will caregivers get the support
Support to meet costs – PCSS payment cards
Support from a social service provider in the caregiver’s local area
Paragraph (b)
Paragraph (b) provides that the needs that meet paragraph (a) must also be greater than it is reasonable to expect the permanent caregiver to meet. Here consider:
The cost of meeting the needs
The financial circumstances of the caregiver
Whether the impact of meeting those needs would, or would be likely to, cause financial or other hardship to the caregiver or the caregiver’s family
Whether, and to what extent, support is available from the child’s or young person’s family group.
Paragraph (c)
Paragraph (c) provides that needs meeting criteria in paragraphs (a) and (b) must not be able to be met by existing sources of support under the CYP&F Act or any other Act (ie by government support) AND are unlikely to be provided otherwise.
To make a determination under this paragraph consider potential sources of support such as:
Support for health or disability needs or other special assistance from WINZ
Support for educational needs via the Ministry of Education
Support for health or disability needs under the NZ Public Health and Disability Act 2000.
Paragraph (d)
A need that meets all other criteria then needs to meet paragraph (d) as well. Paragraph (d) provides that it is reasonable in all the circumstances for the CE to provide assistance. To determine this consider:
The impact of not meeting the need on the child/young person and on the caregiver.
Whether providing the assistance is consistent with assistance provided under section 388A(2) to others in similar circumstances
Whether the assistance would achieve, within a period, a defined outcome in relation to the need
Whether the assistance would meet the need adequately
Evidence on what support is effective

17. PCSS - process

18. Intake - Referral
“a caregiver in the process of securing permanent orders or contemplating providing a permanent home for a child referred by CYF or an approved social service provider.”

19. Intake - Referral Referral – planning with referring social worker
Permanent Care Support Plan
Permanency achieved casenote

20. Intake - Request
“A caregiver who is providing a permanent home for a child and contacts the PCSS for assistance.”

21. Planning - Requests
Does the caregiver fit the definition of ‘permanent caregiver’?
Does the caregiver fit into the special category where the caregiver took care permanently without orders?

22. Planning – Assistance criteria
Section 388A(2)
Section 388A(1)
Section 389

23. Transition Arrangements - H4L
Caregivers in the Home for Life database have been exported into the PCSS database
Each H4L caregiver needs to know what the changes are, how it is likely to affect them and what they need to do.

24. Transition Arrangements
All H4L caregivers can continue to have the 4 phone calls and 2 visits per annum until the three year period is up
These caregivers and children/young people need to be referred into the PCSS with the phone calls and visits in the 12 month support plan
If a caregiver reports they have an arrangement with CYF to provide any support CYF will need to be involved in the transition planning

25. Questions Fostering Kids role? What do you need from us?
Any questions?