CHILD POVERTY :
THE NEED FOR URGENT ACTION –
CHILDREN LEFT FURTHER BEHIND
BACKGROUND ISSUES
• WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CHILD POVERTY
– INCOME
– LIVING STANDARDS
• WHY IT MATTERS – POSITION OF CHILDREN:
NOW AND AS FUTURE CITIZENS
• CHILDREN : WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY ?
KEY POLICY QUESTIONS
• WORKING FOR FAMILIES – DISCRIMINATION
– HIGH COURT CASE
• CHILD POVERTY (21%) AND POVERTY AMONG
OLDER PEOPLE (7%)
• A MATTER OF POLITICAL WILL
SOME DATA
• APPROXIMATELY 20% LIVING BELOW 60% AHC
POVERTY LINE
• LIVING STANDARDS
• RECENT NEW ZEALAND REPORTS
–
–
–
–
–
MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
EVERY CHILD COUNTS
TE ARA HOU
NATIONAL CHILD AND YOUTH HEALTH MONITORING
CHILD POVERTY ACTION GROUP
Numbers of poor children in New Zealand
(ie the number of children in households with incomes below
the selected thresholds)
BHC
AHC
BHC ‘moving AHC ‘moving AHC ‘moving
line’ 60%
line’ 50%
line’ 60%
AHC ‘fixed
line’ 60%
(07 ref)
2001
250,000
215,000
310,000
380,000
2004
270,000
200,000
290,000
320,000
2007
210,000
170,000
240,000
240,000
2009
210,000
190,000
270,000
230,000
2010
215,000
170,000
270,000
230,000
Child poverty rates (%) in selected European countries, Canada, the US,
Mexico and Australia. c 2009: 60% of median threshold (BHC)
Turkey 2006
Mexico 2004
United States 2004
Latvia
Canada 2004
Italy
Spain
Lithuania
Greece
Poland
Portugal
Luxembourg
Australia 2003
Estonia
United Kingdom
Hungary
36
30
29
26
25
24
24
24
24
23
23
22
22
21
21
21
New Zealand 2009
EU-27 average
Ireland
Belgium
France
Slovak Republic
Germany
Netherlands
Austria
Czech Republic
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Slovenia
Denmark
Iceland
20
20
19
17
17
16
15
15
13
13
13
12
12
11
11
10
LIVING STANDARDS MEASURES
• ACROSS WHOLE POPULATION
• FOUR ELEMENTS:
OWNERSHIP, SOCIAL PARTICIPATION,
ECONOMISING, SELF RATING
• SEVEN POINT SCALE:
SEVERE HARDSHIP
VERY GOOD
Distribution of ELSI-3 scores for age groups (2008
50
46
Population percentage
40
31
30
27
25
23
22
22 22
20
26
23
23
20
17
15
14
14
12
11
10
10 10
10
9 9
7
8
6
8
8
6
6 6
2
2 2
3
0
0-17 years
18-24 years
25-44 years
45-64 years
65+ years
)
Deprivation rates for children relative to overall population deprivation rate
EU-25 - MT + NO + IS +NZ (EU 2007, NZ 2008)
Ratio for deprivation rates - children:population
2.0
NZ
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
SI GR LT LV CY PT PL SK NO EE FI HU IT FR DK CZ AT IS DE ES NL BE SE LU IE NZ UK
LEFT FURTHER BEHIND :
A BRIEF SYNOPSIS
• BACKGROUND – WORK, WHĀNAU ORA,
PACIFIC CHILDREN
• WORKING FOR FAMILIES AND TAX CREDITS
• HEALTH AND WELLBEING
• EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
• COSTS OF POVERTY
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
• Monitor major indicators of child poverty and report these on a regular
basis with specific target reductions to be met on the way to ending child
poverty by 2020; and fund child-impact assessments of existing and future
national and local policies;
• Create a senior Cabinet position with responsibility for children, such as a
Minister for Children, to support the move toward a child-centred
approach to policy and legislation;
• Remove work-based rules for child financial assistance and pay the
equivalent of the In-Work- Tax-Credit to all low income families. Simplify
administration of tax credits.
Contd.
• Acknowledge the vital social and economic contribution made by good
parenting: ensure that affordable, appropriate childcare and early
childhood education, including kohanga reo and playcentres, is available
for all children; and ensure that training allowances support sole parents
education where appropriate;
• Provide free access to healthcare for all children under age six, 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week;
• The Government develop and fund a national housing plan to address the
emerging housing shortages identified by the Department of Building.
Meanwhile, ensure that housing is affordable and appropriate (eg address
overcrowding, dampness, cold);
• Provide adequate funding for low decile schools to ensure that all children
have access to high quality education.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION – KEY
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Government commit to reducing reliance on private sector provision
of early childhood education and care as a long-term objective,
aligning the early childhood sector with primary education in terms
of accepting government responsibility for both quality and access
expectations in order to ensure equitable provision;
• Government enable adequate funding provision to ensure that all
early childhood education centres are fully staffed by qualified
teachers, and further require ratios of teachers to children and unit
sizes to be maintained in accord with quality guidelines;
• Establish a model of ECE provision that is more intentional in terms
of who it serves, where it is located and what else it provides to
support parents and families;
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS CONTD.
• Base the new model of ECE provision on a neighbourhood by
neighbourhood and a town by town assessment of future
early childhood education needs;
• Start thinking about travel distances in terms of pushing
strollers rather than in terms of driving SUVs.
COMPULOSORY EDUCATION
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
• That the New Zealand Government acknowledge that
international research suggests that the National Standards
policy may have perverse and damaging effects;
• That the Government investigate such effects thoroughly and
respond accordingly rather than pushing ahead with the policy
regardless of its impact;
• That the Government look for ways to avoid further damage
being created by ‘league tables’ of National Standards
achievement, acknowledging that it is not feasible to take full
account of school context in such tables;
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS CONTD.
• That the Government takes sustained action towards addressing the
supply of quality teachers to low decile schools in ways that do not
involve mirroring charity and business-based models which overseas
research have shown to be largely ineffective;
• That teacher education providers take greater account, in teacher
education and postgraduate courses, of the social justice issues
surrounding education and children in poverty;
• That teacher education providers actively develop and promote courses
for teachers wishing to teach in lower decile schools. Such courses
would focus on empowering and culturally appropriate teaching and
learning in lower socio-economic contexts.
WHERE TO NOW ?
• A NATIONAL COMMITMENT TO ACTION
• SUSTAINED FOCUS ON THE NEEDS OF ALL
CHILDREN
• AND IN ADDITION,PARTICULARLY
• ON THE NEEDS OF THE MOST DISADVANTAGED
CHILDREN – POSITION OF MĀORI AND PACIFIC
• CRUCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF INVESTMENT FOR
NOW AND FUTURE
• SUSTAINED COMMITMENT
SOURCES
• CHILD POVERTY ACTION GROUP WWW.CPAG.ORG.NZ