By Ruwani Perera
The Ministry of Social Development, which is in charge of Child, Youth and Family (CYF), has paid almost $18 million in historic claims for people who have experienced abuse or neglect while in state care.
Since the resolution process was set up for historical claims in 2006, the Government has worked directly with claimants to resolve their issues without having to go to court.
This is in addition to the 87 one-off or ex-gratia payments the ministry has made in the past seven years, totalling more than $600,000.
Donna, who we can't name in full to protect the identity of her children, went to the ministry's chief executive advisory panel with her concerns about her treatment by social workers.
"There's so many hundreds and thousands of cases with Child Youth and Family," she says. "When are they going to wake up and come from the top and work with the ones at the bottom to stop these cases from happening?"
In their review of Donna's case, the ministry admitted her kids did not receive the level of service she could reasonably have expected to receive from CYF and was offered $16,000 in a one-off payment.
Donna lost primary custody of the care of her kids to her ex-partner. She would only see her daughters in the weekend.
To this day, she still doesn't fully understand why she didn't get her kids the majority of the time, but says she was young and naïve.
"I didn't even have a chance and I would've been 23. I only had two days to make up while I'm not there. It was like my heart was getting ripped out of my chest."
Donna had serious concerns for her children while they were in their father's care and complained to CYF on several occasions.
"I notified CYF about everything and that still wasn't a problem to them."
After four years of complaining to CYF and no action, in 2009 Donna ran away to live in Australia.
"I just gave up basically fighting the system - I wanted to make a better life, and send money back to my girls," she says.
In the three years she lived in Australia, Donna would report concern for her daughters while they were in their father's care.
She complained her ex was starving his girls, living in filthy conditions, and also feared they were living in an unsafe, sometimes violent home.
CYF said it would investigate, but Donna's phone calls and emails went unanswered.
"I tried to ring up Child Youth and Family from my end, I've emailed them, which I have records of and nothing, no one got back to me, no one contacted me."
The ministry's expert panel also faulted CYF for not letting Donna know about the outcomes of her reports of concern.
They also agreed that there were "significant practise failures" in Donna's case and have undertaken remedial training with the staff involved.
"I don't have any confidence in the system at all," says Donna who rejected the ministry's chief advisory panel's payment of $8,000 per child in an ex-gratia payment.
Her daughters' father has been convicted for their physical abuse.
The Hui
