Investing in child health

Investing in child health

The Public Health Advisory Committee (PHAC), which provides independent public health advice to the Minister of Health, is calling for changes to be made to the way child health and well-being are addressed in New Zealand in its recently released report The Best Start in Life: Achieving effective action for child health and well-being.

The report highlights the state of child health in New Zealand. “New Zealand is a great place for children if their parents are employed, have a good income, are well-educated and their family lives in a dry house,” states PHAC Chair Pauline Barnett. “But there are a number of children who are not in this position. They have dramatically different life chances and health outcomes based on early life experiences.” These disparities are a major reason why New Zealand ranked 29th out of 30 countries for “health and safety” in the OECD 2009 report on children – Doing Better for Children. The health and safety ranking was based on New Zealand’s performance across indicators including infant and child mortality, breastfeeding, birth weights and immunisation rates. New Zealand data was predominantly from the years 2003 to 2007.

“Responding to child health requires more than addressing any one health issue,” Barnett explains. “It requires a change to our investment, planning and delivery of services.”

The Best Start in Life states that New Zealand’s investment in children under five is low by international standards. Barnett says, “research across health, education and welfare sectors has repeatedly shown that investing in children makes sense. It makes sense for child development and it makes sense for their outcomes as adults. We see poor child health outcomes mediated by lost educational opportunities tracking into adulthood, leading to increased demand for health services, increased crime and a less productive workforce. Yet there is more and more evidence about what policies work for children. Let’s start acting on the evidence.”

The Best Start in Life calls for four major initiatives for children: government leadership to champion child health and well-being, a whole-of-government approach for children, integrated service delivery and consistent child health monitoring.

Many changes are already underway. Initiatives such as Whānau Ora and Drivers of Crime may help agencies work better together and focus on preventive health. However, Barnett emphasises that “there’s a lot that needs to happen to integrate policies and services – from funding and contracting to workforce development to better information systems. We need to ensure initiatives are sustained across time and above all, that they prioritise children.”

The Best Start in Life: Achieving effective action for child health and well-being was tabled in Parliament on Thursday, 3 June 2010. It is available on the PHAC website: www.phac.health.govt.nz.

ENDS

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