Announcement by Anne Tolley regarding PAFT funding.

It was a sad day for the Trust with the announcement of the reprioritising of PAFT funding programmes. SPACE NZ Trust has held a PAFT contract for the past four years, servicing over 292 families with PAFT and delivering 18 PAFT/SPACE programmes in the Wellington region.

Our wonderful PAFT team have been offering home visits and SPACE programmes to diverse families, vulnerable families, at risk families, and those who required extra support in the Wellington region.

As the only PAFT provider in the Wellington region servicing some high risk families, we are gravely concerned that these families are safely transitioned to alternative services. In addition, there is huge uncertainty of how the needs of the at risk families in Wellington region will be addressed with this new direction.

While we understand and support the governments focus on vulnerable children, we are hugely concerned about the future of parenting education and support programmes in NZ, with potentially all funding being directed to targeted families.

There are 33,000 first time parents ‘born’ in New Zealand each year. The Trust believes every parent counts. Underpinning this belief is the knowledge that by providing all first time parents with quality postnatal support, New Zealand’s children will get the best start.

SPACE takes a universal view, underpinned by the common bond of parenthood, for the delivery of its programmes. SPACE connects parents from across the spectrum of socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. A key strength of this approach is the reach of the SPACE programme to include vulnerable and at risk families who may also currently being targeted by specific Government initiatives, as well as those who are not. Benefits of this approach include increased levels of community connectedness and not stigmatising or labelling those parents and babies who may otherwise feel ‘targeted’.

As a Trust we will continue to advocate for all parents and work towards supporting parenting today for tomorrow.

For those SPACE partners who are delivering SPACE, this is an opportunity to raise the profile of your existing SPACE programmes that are supporting parents in your community, and to share your stories about the success of this universal, responsive, and strength based model.

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