....social workers who have not been taught the skills to work well with Māori.
There are concerns that universities are churning out social workers who have not been taught the skills to work well with Māori.
Last week, Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft released a report revealing harrowing stories of Māori mothers experiences with social workers in the state care system.
The report was looking at how to keep Māori babies in the care of their whānau, as data showed Māori newborns were five times more likely to be taken in care than non-Māori.
Judge Becroft found that Māori mothers experienced unprofessional social work practice which hesaid was disappointing and causing harm.
Oranga Tamariki said its social workers worked hard in challenging and complex environments and were trained to understand colonisation and their Treaty of Waitangi responsibilities.
However, Massey University lecturer in social work Dr Paule Ruwhiu said university programmes lacked cultural capacity training.
"There were one or two papers specialising in Māori content but it wasn't scaffolded throughout the degrees," she said.
"It happens every year that we have a graduation where I can pinpoint or question or raise my eyebrows at the graduands that we are putting out into social work."
Dr Ruwhiu said the lack of decolonisation and cultural training in social work degrees was a concern, and risked sending naive social workers into the field.
Full article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/419060/oranga-tamariki-social-workers-te-ao-maori-knowledge-questioned
