The Green Paper for Vulnerable Children - Ministry of Social ...

Make child-centredpolicy changesThe Green Paper for Vulnerable Children asked New Zealanders for their ideas aboutchild-centred policy. The feedback received is presented under three broad topic headings.• Review changes to government spending to get better results for vulnerable children• Vulnerable child-first allocation policy• Watching out for vulnerable children, including information-sharing.Submissions relating to each of these topics will be discussed separately. First, we summarisethe submissions’ ideas for each of the three topics, then report in more detail what submitterssaid in answer to specific questions in the Green Paper followed by what the free-formsubmissions covered.Review government spending to get better resultsfor vulnerable childrenThe Green Paper asked three questions about reviewing government spending to get betterresults for vulnerable children.• Do you think the Government should provide more targeted services for vulnerablechildren? If yes, from where should funding be taken to do so?• Should the Government reprioritise spending to provide more early intervention – that is,more services for younger children and/or services for children that address problems asthey are beginning to surface? If so, from where should the funding be taken?• Should the Government focus its spending on programmes and services that have a soundevidential basis?SummaryTargeting vulnerable children: Submissions showed strong support for providing tailoredservices to vulnerable children. Most argued all children need to have their basic needs metby universal services, but that vulnerable children should receive additional services to meettheir specific needs.Early intervention: Most submissions supported a stronger focus on early intervention.Submissions argued the early years were critical in a child’s development and prevention wasbetter and cheaper than cure. Some submissions qualified this position by arguing that weneed to make sure this would not reduce support for older children. These submissions wereparticularly keen to see that the needs of vulnerable youth are not overlooked.108 Show Leadership