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

Providing services and support that help families in their parenting roleSubmissions also argued for specific services to help families in their parenting role.Each cluster of services is discussed below.Parenting programmes: Submissions endorsed the provision of parenting programmes.Submitters argued parenting programmes could be a critical preventive measure that wouldmitigate the need for government to intervene in families. Submitters argued both for universalparenting programmes as well as parenting programmes for groups of parents experiencingparticular challenges; for example, teen parents, refugees, parents in prisons, fathers and fosterparents. Submissions from other organisations and community meetings were most likely tosuggest this strategy (about half in all), with NGOs, frontline workers and the general publicless likely to comment on parenting programmes.The provision of more parenting courses can help strengthen the family where there isa vulnerable child. We suggest the adoption of programmes which build resilience andcoping skills and that are facilitated by trained professionals who network with supportorganisations. Attendance at such a course could even be linked to the domesticpurposes benefit – an extra payment could be made for attending a course. (NGO)Better maternity services: Submissions called for better maternityservices. Submitters argued for longer hospital stays for new mothers anda more joined up approach between antenatal and post-natal services,including enrolment with GPs. Submitters recognised new parents are mostlikely to be receptive to support and this was a good time to hook theminto the system. Submissions from other organisations and communitymeetings were the most likely to raise maternity services (about half),followed by frontline workers, NGOs and the general public.ZzzzAll aspects – from the length of hospital stay after birth, lactation advice, midwife andmedical support, Plunket in-home support, parenting advice and guidance, paid parentalleave and the ability to return to work flexibly, warm and dry housing, nutritional care –will all impact on the quality of a child’s care and therefore development. We believe weneed to better focus and direct our country’s resources towards these issues to improvethe care of our children. (NGO)More family support programmes: Submissions argued for giving families the basic skillsthey need to function well. These include budgeting skills and relationship skills, as well aswrap-around services such as broadly focused home visitation programmes. A large minorityof community meeting submissions raised this issue, followed by submissions from otherorganisations and NGOs. A minority of submissions from frontline workers and the generalpublic commented on family support programmes.Make parental support and parenting education universally available, but providedin a manner that meets the different needs of different families. (NGO)More health visitor support: Submissions argued for more health visitor support, includingPlunket, public health nurses and midwives. Frontline workers and community meetings weremost likely to raise this as an issue (a minority), followed by the general public, NGOs andsubmissions from other organisations.56 Share Responsibility