The latest report about how children are doing in New Zealand shows the Government needs to step up with urgency so that all children can thrive, says Chief Children’s Commissioner, Dr Claire Achmad.

The Government’s Annual Report on the Child and Youth Strategy/the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy and the Child Poverty Related Indicators shows that across a significant number of areas, instead of things getting better for children, the situation is worse.

“I want to see all children in our country flourish to their full potential. This Annual Report shows a deeply concerning reality for the children of New Zealand, across a range of indicators. It shows that on the most basic things, like having enough healthy food, safe and healthy housing, and physical health, we are majorly letting children down. We are going backwards. This Annual Report shows how urgent the situation has become, across many parts of children’s lives. For mokopuna Māori, as well as mokopuna whaikaha and Pacific mokopuna, the impacts of things like food insecurity are even more extreme. The Government must step up with urgency to fulfil its duties to children,” says Dr Achmad.

She says that the Government needs to respond quickly, by putting a central focus on children in Budget 2025. This is necessary to deliver on the Government’s stated commitment in its Child and Youth Strategy to ‘make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child’.

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“The data in this Annual Report shows the depth of struggle that a significant proportion of our child population is experiencing every day. The Government needs to invest in policies that will help lift the burden of material hardship off children, so we can get child poverty reduction back on track. This report provides more hard evidence showing that the Government needs to make ending child poverty an ongoing project of national significance. Investment and commitment through Budget 2025 next month needs to be the first crucial step,” Dr Achmad says.

Without such a commitment, Dr Achmad says that thousands of children will continue missing out on the basics during childhood, a crucial period of development that impacts the whole life-course.

She says “This week I have been visiting children and young people in Te Tai Poutini, the West Coast, who have told me about the harsh realities of poverty for many families and whānau and their mokopuna. This tracks with what I’ve heard from many mokopuna around the country – that without the basics, it’s really hard to thrive in childhood. As a small, relatively rich nation, we shouldn’t have thousands of children missing out on a thriving start in life. This goes to the heart of children’s basic rights, and it’s going to have a detrimental intergenerational impact if the Government doesn’t act.”

Dr Achmad highlights that reducing child poverty is achievable, along with making progress across the wider areas of child wellbeing measured in the Annual Report. “I want to see the Government following through now on its Child and Youth Strategy commitments to reducing child material hardship, preventing child harm, and supporting children, families and whānau in the first 2000 days. Children, young people, families and whānau have been very clear about the policies and investments that will make a difference – reducing the high cost of food and transport, lifting household incomes, affordable and healthy housing, quality inclusive education, and accessible, timely mental health support. Government action on these through Budget 2025 is urgently needed, so children can experience their most basic rights.”

Notes:

Find the report here: https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/child-wellbeing-and-poverty-reduction/reporting.html

Some of the key measures that have worsened (since the previous year or the baseline year of 2019/20) include:

• Food insecurity: one of the clearest signals that children are bearing the brunt of economic pressures—and that the current response is falling short.
• One in four children (27.0%) now live in households where food runs out often or sometimes— compared to 21.3% in the previous year.
• Mokopuna Māori, Pacific and whaikaha children are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, at the following rates:
• 1 in 2 Pacific children (54.8%)
• 1 in 3 mokopuna Māori (34.3%)
• 41.0% of whaikaha children
• There has also been a worrying drop in uptake of immunisations (77.3% compared to the baseline of 91.3%)
• Mental distress: The rate of high or very high psychological distress among young people (15–24) has more than doubled – from 11% in 2019/20 to 23% in 2023/24.
• While school attendance has improved by 6 percentage points since last year—a slow recovery from pandemic disruption, it remains below the baseline level (53.7% compared to 66%).
• NCEA achievement is also off track, with a drop in achievement from the baseline level (77.9% compared to 82.4%).

There has been limited positive signs of progress in relation to some areas:

• There has been positive progress in reducing youth offending and increased access to maternity care since the 2019/20 baseline.
• More children are attending early childhood education.
• More young people are making positive choices around alcohol and cigarette usage, compared to 2019/20.

The importance of measuring what matters:

• The Government’s refreshed Child and Youth Strategy, launched in November last year, uses a set of 13 indicators to help measure progress against the Strategy’s priorities and outcomes, down from the 34 indicators included in the previous Strategy.
• While this year’s Annual Report reports on the full suite of the previous Strategy’s indicators, future reports will not. This means we risk losing insight into some of the things that children and young people themselves tell us matter to their wellbeing – feeling safe, quality time with parents, and family wellbeing.
• Having a broader set of measures, including those that capture the voice and lived experience of mokopuna, is a key way of supporting accountability for progress on the things that matter to them, and this latest Annual Report shows the importance of maintaining a wider range of data about children’s lives to understand their experiences and outcomes.
• Robust, disaggregated, and long-term data is essential. It’s a cornerstone of effective policy and accountability, and it must not be weakened.

Mana Mokopuna has been clear on the need to ensure that whānau have the resources they need to provide healthy, nutritious food for their children, with adequate income levels and supports that ensure healthy kai is never out of reach for mokopuna. Alongside this, Mana Mokopuna advocates strongly for the need for continued commitment and investment in the Ka Ora, Ka Ako the free healthy school lunches programme, to ensure its success (including regular review points along the way to understand how it is working for mokopuna, whānau, schools, kura and communities, and ensure the programme is directly informed by their views and voices). See the recent Statement from Chief Children's Commissioner on the school lunch programme | Mana Mokopuna

Mana Mokopuna – Children and Young People’s Commission is an Independent Crown Entity, the independent advocate for all children and young people in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Chief Children’s Commissioner is the full-time, visible advocate for all children and young people, and is the Chair of the Mana Mokopuna Board.

Mana Mokopuna’s role in the oranga tamariki oversight system is to advocate for the interests, rights, and wellbeing of all children - and - where needed, help mokopuna and their whānau navigate the system to resolve problems.

As an oversight of oranga tamariki system partner, Mana Mokopuna works closely with the two other partner organisations in this system, Aroturuki Tamariki – Independent Children’s Monitor, and the Office of the Ombudsman. www.manamokopuna.org.nz

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