WHO BENEFITS FROM OOHC?

It was my 60th birthday before Christmas.

While I don’t plan to retire for another 5-10 years it was inevitably a time of reflection both personally and professionally. Since gaining my social work qualification in Paisley Scotland way back in 1984, almost my entire career has been spent working in or with statutory child welfare. While I hope that I have made at least some modest contributions to the field over those years, there’s no disputing that I have also earned a good living from it.

Back in the 80’s my salary as a residential social worker was insufficient to buy a house in and around London where I started my professional career. However it was enough for us to buy an apartment in rural Aberdeenshire on our return to Scotland (back then in the UK 100% mortgages were the norm for first-time buyers) and that’s where we chose to first bring up our three children.

As I then moved through a variety of management roles in Scotland and finally New Zealand, the salaries and benefits rose too. While I have spent the second half of my career working independently as a consultant and researcher, my income from the knowledge that I accumulate and the skills that I develop, now exclusively comes from statutory social work and out-of-home care in particular.

In New Zealand the inaugural chief executive of Oranga Tamariki (New Zealand Ministry for Children) who resigned last year following political and public pressure, was on an eye-watering salary of over NZ$600k (A$580k, C$510k, US$400k, GBP295k and EUR350k). With an expectation that she would “transform” the sector, hers was arguably the toughest and highest profile job in the New Zealand public sector (and paid lower than some other heads of other government department and functions). However, it is still a hell of a lot of money. At one point she also had eleven deputy chief executives (recently “slashed” from 10 to 6) who, along with their respective numerous directors, general managers, managers and specialists, were largely non-operational.

Aside from any professional foster carers, those who benefit financially directly or indirectly from OOHC include:

  • NGO Chief Executives

  • Children’s Commissioners, Ombudsman bodies, and other advocacy organisations

  • Child welfare and OOHC regulatory bodies

  • Lawyers

  • Professional bodies

  • Universities

  • Training organisations

  • Global management consulting companies i.e. KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers

  • Independent consultants and other consulting firms

  • Research organisations

  • Comms and media consultants and firms and

  • arguably other departmental chief executives, government Ministers, and MPs/Select Committees.

I do not know whether I am worth what I am paid, and I certainly don’t know whether you are. However, what I do know is that all too often children and young people are still the last in a long list of those who benefit from OOHC, and that’s when we generously assume that none of them are actually being harmed by it.

So here’s a question for you. What do you think our crisis-driven systems and organisations might look like if we really put children and their better outcomes first? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

OOHC LeadershipIain Mathesonbenefits, salary, outcomes, transform