The new Ministry for Vulnerable Children opens its doors this morning and is promising to work more closely with caregivers.

Currently around 230,000 children under age 18 may be at significant risk of harm during their childhood, and around six out of 10 of this group are likely to be Māori.

Each year about 60,000 children are notified to CYF, and at any point in time about 4,900 New Zealand children are in statutory care.

The new department will provide five core services: prevention, intensive intervention, care support (or support for foster families), youth justice and transition support (for older young people, who can perhaps begin transitioning out of care)

Chief executive Grainne Moss told Rachel Smalley this morning when the ministry and caregivers get it right, the outcomes for kids are fantastic.

"If we give the caregivers the right training and support, then very often they are able to make a huge difference to the lives of children," Moss said.

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However, social worker Daryl Brougham is deeply sceptical about the rearranged ministry. Brougham was starved, beaten and sexually abused during 17 years in 79 foster homes, after being abandoned as a baby.

"You've got a lot of trust issues and a lot of identity issues," he said. "You don't know where you belong and you lose a part of who are you."

Brougham believes the reform won't change anything unless the people in charge of it consider things from the perspective of the children involved.

"Look in the mirror and say, 'When I was seven, how did I feel at that age. Would I have been like to have been moved twenty times by the age of seven? How would I feel? How would I react?'"