An Act of Empowerment: The Children, Young Persons and their Families Act (1989)

Abstract

In 1989, New Zealand introduced child protection legislation that embraces a model of family decision making. The model, based on traditional indigenous decision-making practices, has revolutionized social work with children and families in the child care and protection area. This paper considers the development of the legislation in terms of its antecedent factors and its vision. It looks particularly at some of the care and protection provisions of the legislation, and explores, by use of case study, some of the issues of using a family decision-making process as a practice model.