Wananga system fails to vet social work students
April 22, 2011, 7:10 am (From the NZPA) – Full article posted here (in case it gets pulled from Yahoo later).
“Te Wananga o Aotearoa says a “human error” allowed a woman convicted of cruelty to a child to enrol in a social work degree.
Kylie TeKani was taking classes at the Porirua campus towards the first-year certificate in social service (biculturalism in practice) and follow-up bachelor of social work (biculturalism in practice), despite being sentenced to eight months’ home detention in 2008 after pleading guilty to three charges of cruelty to a child and assault with a weapon, Kapi-Mana News reported.
Children in her care, aged five, six and eight, were beaten with a broom handle, had to rummage in rubbish bins for food and were often locked outside of their Porirua home until dark.
Ms TeKani’s partner, Norman Makai, received five years in prison.
The paper quoted a source who said at least one other student that had withdrawn from the social work course, who had been “struggling to sit in the same room as her [Ms TeKani]”.
The 2010 social service certificate applicants were not given mandatory police checks by the tertiary provider as per procedure due to a “human error”, and some of them were now students of the bachelor course, a Te Wananga spokesman said.
“We have instigated a complete review around this blatant breach of policy … to ensure this cannot happen again. The staff member concerned has been reprimanded and will undergo intensive training around the importance of adhering to our policies.”
The spokesman said a new system mean here had been “disruption” of police vetting, but was confident a more efficient checking process was now in place.
Te Wananga would not say whether Ms TeKani was still studying at the campus.”
In my experiences with CYFS, one could argue that a woman convicted of cruelty to a child would already be suitably enough qualified to join the ranks of her fellow social workers at CYFS.
