6 September 2007

Conference calls for local policies and plans for children

All local authorities should have a policy and action plan for children, with senior council staff resourced to implement it, said Family’s Commissioner, Lyn Campbell, at yesterday’s Every Child Counts conference in Wellington.

“This would mean ensuring that children were factored in when planning everything from roading to new sub-divisions. It was not enough to appoint a children’s advocate who then had little but a token role in policy making and implementation.”

Lyn also talked about the need for champions for children, in every community, local body, business association, sports club and family. 

“We need them to make sure the focus stays on children. If you take the spotlight off the child, you lose the child.”

Lyn was one of a number of speakers to focus on the serious need for policy makers to take children into account.

Principal Advisor to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, Dr Emma Davies presented data at the conference, on child poverty, health spending and the safety of children to illustrate how New Zealand fails to invest in the most important years of a child’s life – the early years from birth to age three.

“If we learnt from the explosion of findings in developmental science in the last decade, we’d prioritise getting it right for every child in the first three years of life - when the brain is most malleable and we can make the most difference in people’s lives,” she said.

“Society’s institutions – central government, local government and community agencies – need to become more child-focused, wrapping their infrastructure and services around New Zealand’s children.” 

Every Child Counts is encouraging all voters in the local body and District Health Board elections to question their candidates about their commitment to children and vote for those who support their community to improve the well-being of children.

Deborah Morris-Travers, Every Child Counts Project Manager, said:  “While there’s no doubt New Zealanders talk about wanting to reduce child abuse, end child poverty and treasure our children more: what we need now is action. 

“Whether it’s the simple act of building friendships with parents in our communities and supporting them, or the more challenging act of prioritising government spending for children, we will all benefit when children are central to what we do.  The costs of leaving children on the margins are just too high.”  

 “To maintain positive momentum for children, we call for local authorities to identify policies and plans that will complement community work in support of children. 

“Similarly, we need central government and parliament to recognise the value to the nation of investing in, and implementing policies for children. Sustainable development – of society, the economy, and our environment - is a distant goal if children are not central to political considerations,”

The conference concluded that while children are not yet at the centre of considerations, progress is being made. 

More than 100 delegates from community agencies, government departments as well as individuals attended the day-long conference.

Every Child Counts presented its inaugural awards to Beth Wood, a lifetime advocate for children, and to Parliament for passing into law the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act.  Parliament was represented by the Speaker Hon Margaret Wilson and Deputy Speaker, Clem Simich.  

A cross-party panel of MPs also discussed the initiatives they would pursue to help place children at the centre of political considerations.

Ends

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