Study shows nearly one in four New Zealand children reported to welfare agencies

Nearly a quarter of New Zealand children born in 1998 ended up being reported to the country’s child welfare agencies, a new report has found.

The study by the Auckland University of Technology tracked 55,443 children born in 1998 until the end of 2015. By the age of 17, 23.5% of children had had at least one report made regarding their welfare to child protection services, while almost 10% had been subject to substantiated abuse or neglect, and 3% had been put into foster or alternative care, with boys being more affected.

Last year, 60% of children in state care were Māori.

According to Unicef, New Zealand has one of the worst rates of child abuse in the developed world, with more than 150,000 notifications of child welfare made to the ministry of children every year.


Source :- theguardian