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New Zealand - Second periodic reports of States parties due in 2000: Addendum [2003] UNCRCSPR 4; CRC/C/93/Add.4 (12 March 2003)
UNITED NATIONS
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CRC
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Distr. GENERAL
CRC/C/93/Add.4 12 March
2003
Original: ENGLISH
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COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
CONSIDERATION OF
REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 44 OF THE CONVENTION
Second periodic reports of States parties due in 2000
NEW ZEALAND* **
[19
February 2001]
* For the
initial report submitted by the Government of New Zealand, see
CRC/C/28/Add.3, for its consideration by the Committee,
see documents
CRC/C/SR.363365 and CRC/C/15/Add.71.
** This document has been submitted
as received without formal editing.
GE.0340653 (E) 310303
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 4
Development
of this Report 4
Treaty of Waitangi 5
The Committees Suggestions and
Recommendations about New Zealand’s
Initial
Report 6
Part 1 General Measures of Implementation
26
A. Measures taken to harmonise law and policy with the
Convention 26
B. Mechanisms to coordinate policies relating to children
and
monitor implementation of the Convention 35
C. International
cooperation 46
D. Measures to make the principles and provisions of the
Convention
widely known 47
Part 2 Definition of the Child
52
Part 3 General Principles 55
A. Nondiscrimination
(article 2) 55
B. Best interest of the child (article 3) 58
C. The
right to life, survival and development (article 6) 58
D. Respect for the
views of the child (article 12) 62
Part 4 Civil Rights and
Freedoms 70
A. Name and nationality (article 7) 70
B.
Preservation of identity (article 8) 71
C. Freedom of expression
(article 13) 73
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (article
14) 74
E. Freedom of association and of peaceful assembly (article 15)
74
F. Protection of privacy (article 16) 74
G. Access to
appropriate information (article 17) 75
H. The right not to be subjected
to torture or other cruel, inhuman,
or degrading treatment or punishment
(article 37(a)) 76
CONTENTS (continued)
Page
Part 5 Family Environment and
Alternative Care 79
A. Parental guidance (article 5) 79
B.
Parental responsibilities (article 18) 84
C. Separation from parents
(article 9) 87
D. Family reunification (article 10) 90
E. Illicit
transfer and nonreturn (article 11) 93
F. Recovery of maintenance for the
child (article 27) 93
G. Children deprived of their family environment
(article 20) 94
H. Adoption (article 21) 95
I. Periodic review of
placement (article 25) 97
J. Abuse and neglect (article 19), including
physical and
psychological recovery and social reintegration (article 39)
98
Part 6 Basic Health and Welfare 111
A. Children
with disabilities (article 23) 111
B. Health and health services (article
24) 112
C. Social security and child care services facilities
(articles 26 and 18) 127
D. Standard of living (article 27)
129
Part 7 Education, Leisure and Cultural
Activities 132
A. Education, including vocational training and
guidance (article 28) 132
B. Aims of education (article 29) 157
C.
Leisure, recreation and cultural activities (article 31) 159
Part
8 Special Protection Measures 160
A. Children in situations of
emergency (articles 22, 38, and 39) 160
B. Children involved with the
system of administration of juvenile
justice (articles 40 and 37)
163
C. Children in situations of exploitation, abuse and neglect
including physical and psychological recovery and social
reintegration (articles 3236) 173
D. Children belonging to a
minority or an indigenous group
(article 30) 185
Conclusion
192
Introduction
- This
is New Zealand’s second periodic report to the Committee on the
Rights of the Child (the Committee) covering June 1995
to September 2000.
- This
report includes New Zealand’s relevant developments in law, policy
and practice since its Initial Report as well as plans to improve
children’s rights. Details include legislative, judicial, administrative
and other adopted measures
that affect the provisions of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC/Convention).
Development of this Report
- This
report is prepared in accordance with:
- the general
guidelines adopted by the Committee on 15 October 1991 (contained in document
CRC/C/5) and
- the general
guidelines regarding form and content of periodic reports adopted at the
Committee’s 13th session, 11 October 1996.
- This
report should be read in conjunction with the Core Document on
New Zealand (Core Document) and New Zealand’s Initial
Report on the Convention.
- This
report has eight parts based on the clusters of articles set out in the
Committee’s guidelines.
- Background
information and statistics about New Zealand children are contained in
Appendix 1. Information about how New Zealand considered
the
Committee’s concluding observations from the Initial Report is in
paragraphs 18 to 95.
- Drafts
of this report were circulated to nongovernmental organisations and the general
public for comment. Views were sought about
what is happening for children in
New Zealand.
- As
part of the consultation process, the Ministry of Youth Affairs developed an
information kit that included:
- a summary of the
Convention’s articles
- an introduction
and some basic information about the Convention
- how people
should contribute.
- Each
kit included a summary of each part of the draft report with key issues
highlighted (attached as Annex 1). Some “starter”
questions were
included to spark people’s thoughts and help identify the relevant issues.
These questions were based on UNICEF’s Implementation Handbook
for the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Over
50 submissions were received from individuals and nongovernment organisations
(NGO). A copy of the submissions was given to
Action for Children in Aotearoa
which is developing an NGO report to the Committee.
- Other
government agencies were given a summary of the submissions to fill the
“information gaps” and respond to concerns
that were raised.
- This
report combines all this information and reflects the comments, questions and
observations received from the consultation process.
Youth Affairs summarised
the public submissions, reporting in good faith both criticisms and positive
comments in keeping with an
open reporting process. The Summary of Public
Submissions (Annex 76) is government’s interpretation of public
comment. NGOs will comment directly to the Committee at the appropriate
time.
- It
was not possible to respond to all concerns raised during public consultation.
However, this report provides the Committee and
New Zealand people with an
understanding of the range and nature of issues affecting New Zealand
children so New Zealand can work
together to address them.
The Treaty of Waitangi
- The
Treaty of Waitangi is fundamental to achieving and sustaining the rights of
Maori children and young people in New Zealand. (Information
about the
Treaty and its importance to New Zealand’s social and political
system is contained in the Core Document.)
- During
consultation, concerns were raised that international instruments (which are
typically derived from a western paradigm of human
rights) place greater
emphasis on the rights of the individual rather than the collective
group.
- The
traditional Maori view of human rights is rooted within the collective
obligations and responsibilities of the whanau, hapu and
iwi (please see
paragraph 356) for a definition and explanation). There are concerns that an
inherent tension is created for the
collective interests of Maori, whanau, hapu
and iwi when agencies attempt to develop child policies using these
international instruments.
- Although
both frameworks are recognised and offer value to policy and services
development, it is not clear what the exact nature
of this relationship is and
what it means in practice for Maori (and other ethnic) children. It is clear
that New Zealand needs
to further debate the relationship between the
Treaty of Waitangi, indigenous and cultural rights, and human rights’
instruments
(including UNCROC).
The Committee’s Suggestions and Recommendations
about
New Zealand’s Initial Report
- The
Committee’s concluding observations about New Zealand’s
Initial Report includes a series of suggestions and recommendations to
further implement the Convention. The Committee also noted a number of positive
factors, including:
- increasing
emphasis on monitoring and evaluating the effect of proposals on
children
- the wide range
of support services for children
- the introduction
of age discrimination measures
- Following
is an overview of how New Zealand has considered each of the
Committee’s concerns and recommendations.
- There
has been criticism within New Zealand about the length of time it has taken
us to respond to the Committee’s concluding
observations that were issued
in 1997. New Zealand acknowledges that progress has been slow, however,
the reporting process has
helped to increase the priority given to this work.
In April 2000 New Zealand decided to deal with the Committee’s
concerns
by developing a consolidated work programme (UNCROC work
programme.)
- The
work programme divides the Committee’s suggestions and recommendations
into two categories:
- issues that
require new work to address the Committee’s concerns
- areas that
relate to the Committee’s concerns and where work is already
underway.
- Rather
than establish separate policy projects, responses to the Committee’s
concerns are being developed as part of existing
work wherever possible. In
September 2001 Government will reassess progress to ensure that existing work is
in fact addressing the
Committee’s concerns. Further information will be
provided when New Zealand’s report is presented to the
Committee.
The reservations and extension to Tokelau
Committee’s concerns
“The Committee is
concerned about the broad nature of the reservations made to the Convention by
the State party, which raise
questions as to their compatibility with the object
and purpose of the Convention. Moreover, the Committee regrets
that the State party has not extended the Convention with respect to the
territory of Tokelau, which is not at present a sovereign
State and remains a
nonselfgoverning territory in important respects.”
Committee’s recommendation
“In the spirit of the Vienna Declaration
and Programme of Action adopted
by the World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993 which urged States to
withdraw reservations to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child, the
Committee wishes to encourage the State party to take steps to withdraw
its reservations to the Convention. Furthermore, the Committee
encourages
New Zealand to extend the application of the Convention with respect to the
territory of Tokelau.”
The Reservations
- New Zealand’s
commitment to ensuring national laws and policies are consistent with the
Convention has continued during the
reporting period. However, New Zealand
has the following three formal reservations to the Convention.
(i) Children unlawfully in New Zealand
This reservation is to article 22 and concerns the
nonprovision of benefits to children unlawfully in New Zealand:
Nothing in this Convention shall affect the right of the Government of
New Zealand to continue to distinguish as it considers appropriate
in its
law and practice between persons according to the nature of their authority
to be in New Zealand including but not limited to their
entitlement to
benefits
and other protection described in the Convention, and the Government of
New Zealand reserves the right to interpret and apply the
Convention
accordingly.
(ii) Protection of children in employment
This reservation is to article 32(1) and concerns
the adequacy of measures to protect children in employment:
The Government of New Zealand considers that the rights of the child
provided for in article 32(1) are adequately protected by its
existing law. It
therefore reserves the right not to legislate further or take additional
measures as may be envisaged in article
32(2).
(iii) Agemixing in prisons
This reservation is
about the mixing of juvenile and adult prisoners:
The Government of New Zealand reserves the right not to apply article
37(c) in circumstances where the shortage of suitable facilities
makes the
mixing of juveniles and adults unavoidable; and further reserves the right not
to apply article 37(c) where the interests
of other juveniles in an
establishment require the removal of a particular juvenile offender or where
mixing is considered to be
of benefit to the persons concerned.
- The
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties prohibits reservations that are
“incompatible with the object and purposes of the
treaty”.
New Zealand does not consider that a reservation is, in itself,
incompatible with the purpose and object of the Convention,
and
New Zealand’s practice in entering into reservations is to ensure
full compliance when ratifying international instruments.
However,
New Zealand notes the Committee’s concerns and the Government has
asked for work to consider the removal of the reservations
to be afforded high
priority on the UNCROC work programme.
(i) Children unlawfully in New Zealand
As indicated in the Initial Report
(paragraph 336), the reservation under article 22, reserves the
New Zealand Government’s right to distinguish between persons
according to the nature of their authority to be in New Zealand.
New Zealand provides a wide range of services and entitlements for
people (including children) who are lawfully in New Zealand, whether
as
citizens, residents, refugees, or asylum seekers. However, under
New Zealand law persons who are unlawfully in New Zealand are
not
entitled to receive statefunded income support or education. A practical
concern is that children unlawfully in New Zealand
may not be receiving the
health, education and welfare services they need because of their immigration
status.
Owing to data collection problems and problems associated with positive
identification, it is extremely difficult to know the exact
number of children
unlawfully in New Zealand. There are approximately 18,900 22,400
overstayers currently in New Zealand (as at
July 2000), with 5,700 7,700
who have been in New Zealand continuously for five years or more; no
breakdown of this number by age
is available. In March 2000 there were 1,807
removal orders issued for people to be removed from New Zealand. Of these,
172 were
for children under the age of 16 and 82 were for people aged 16 to 20
years.
By March 2001 the Government will see if the reservation can be removed once
it identifies possible difficulties and considers options
for addressing those
difficulties.
(ii) The protection of children under labour
law
New Zealand has reserved the right not to
legislate further or take additional measures because existing law adequately
protects
the rights of the child provided for in article 32(1).
The Committee raised related concerns about the fact that New Zealand
does not have:
- a comprehensive
policy to deal with child labour
- a basic minimum
age of admission to employment, or a range of minimum ages for different types
of work and working conditions.
(Please see paragraphs 48, 9091 and 918944 for more information about
children and work.)
The New Zealand Government does not consider all forms of employment
for children are harmful. New Zealand society has a long established
tradition of children being employed in parttime and holiday work (such as
picking fruit and delivering newspapers). The employment
of young people
encourages them to develop skills and foster an attitude of independence for
their own and the society’s benefit.
A number of current initiatives and
existing protections cover children and young people who work. (These are
described in paragraphs
918944.)
However, in recognition of children’s vulnerability and special needs
in the workplace and in response to the Committee’s
concerns, by September
2001 the New Zealand Government will clarify the minimum age requirements
under UNCROC and assess what steps
would need to be taken to remove this
reservation.
(iii) Agemixing in prisons
The third reservation is about the mixing of
juvenile and adult prisoners.
Comments on this reservation were made in paragraph 360 of
New Zealand’s Initial Report.
This reservation was entered into because New Zealand wanted
flexibility to accommodate high inmate populations and separate troublesome
juvenile offenders from other juveniles. Developments during the reporting
period may help to address the facilities shortage.
Youth Units are being built
in male prisons to help avoid mixing young men with older inmates. The
Department of Corrections (Corrections)
is undertaking research and further
policy work to determine if changes are needed to manage young female inmates.
(Please see paragraphs
910911 for further information on these
developments.)
Department of Child, Youth and Family Services (Child, Youth and Family)
policy initiatives will increase the sentencing options
available to the Courts
and may have an indirect effect in reducing the number of young people who
receive prison sentences. (Please
see paragraphs 877878, 893896.)
In light of these developments Government is clarifying, by September 2001,
the nature of any remaining difficulties for New Zealand
in removing this
reservation in order to assess whether there are steps that might be taken
toward such removal.
Extension of the Convention to Tokelau
- The
Committee encouraged New Zealand to extend the application of the
Convention with respect to the territory of Tokelau because
Tokelau is not
currently a sovereign State and remains a nonselfgoverning territory in
important respects.
- New Zealand
is yet to extend ratification of the Convention to Tokelau, which remains
New Zealand’s last nonselfgoverning territory.
In 1993 (the same
year New Zealand ratified the Convention) both New Zealand and Tokelau
began to work on constitutional changes
to allow greater Tokelau selfgovernance
and work towards eventual selfdetermination. In 1996 the General Fono
(assembly) of Tokelau
gained the power to make rules which will have the force
of law within the Tokelau jurisdiction.
- The
issue of the Convention’s extension to Tokelau has been discussed in
Tokelau and between New Zealand and Tokelau during
the reporting period.
In 1996 Tokelau Government representatives worked with the regional UNICEF
office to produce a Tokelauan translation
of the Convention. This has been
widely distributed to increase awareness of the issue in Tokelau.
- Tokelau’s
primary focus however, continues to be on the larger issue of its constitutional
development. Its goal is to be as
selfreliant as possible and the economic
dimensions are as important as the political. This is a daunting agenda for a
community
of 1,500 people, located on three widelydispersed atolls in one of the
world’s remoter locations.
- Tokelau
understands the rights set out in the Convention and the obligations which would
need to be fulfilled if New Zealand extended
ratification to Tokelau. For
the present, Tokelau prefers to defer any decision on this matter. This
reflects its overriding contemporary
focus on the goal of nation building.
Equally, and more practically, following an extension of
New Zealand’s ratification
of the Convention, Tokelau, would want to
be certain of its ability to fulfil the several obligations that would follow
from that
extension.
- The
New Zealand Government remains fully prepared to provide Tokelau with
whatever assistance or advice that may be required to facilitate
the extension
of the Convention to Tokelau, including by undertaking the necessary
international ratification procedures.
- However,
for now the New Zealand Government has agreed to oblige Tokelau’s
position of deferring any decision on ratification
and no further action will be
taken unless requested by Tokelau.
Comprehensive child policy statement to guide support
services
Committee’s concerns
“The Committee
regrets that the State party’s approach to the rights of the child appears
to be somewhat fragmented, as
there is no global policy or plan of action which
incorporates the principles and provisions of the Convention, encompassing all
areas covered by the Convention.”
“While viewing with interest the extensive delegation to
nongovernment organisations of delivery of certain support services
to children
and their families, the Committee considers that the ultimate responsibility for
the quality or such Governmentsupported
services rests with the State party be
it at the central or local level and that delegated programmes need careful
monitoring and
evaluation. In this regard, the Committee also notes that the
public funding of such nongovernmental organisations may raise questions
as to
their independence.”
“The Committee notes with concern the insufficient measures adopted
to ensure effective coordination between different governmental
departments
competent in areas covered by the Convention as well as between the central and
local authorities. The Committee is
concerned that this may not only result in
a lack of a central focal point for coordinating governmental action, but also
lead to
inconsistency in government action.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee suggests that the State
party prepare and adopt a comprehensive policy statement with respect to the
rights of
the child, incorporating the principles and provisions of the
Convention, that could provide guidance to all those involved in support
services delivered or funded by Government.”
- Submissions
strongly endorsed this Committee recommendation and referenced the Waitakere and
Christchurch City Councils which have
implemented First Call for Children to
ensure any policies, decisions etc. are monitored for their effect on children
and young people.
This was put forward as a possible model for
Government.
- Comments
were also made about the need for New Zealand to have a comprehensive
policy statement for children, rather than piecemeal
policies. Where there are
broad policies (such as the Health Strategy and legislation on sexual health and
reproductive health)
people felt that they needed to include a focus on children
and young people.
- During
the reporting period there has not been a single comprehensive policy statement
that incorporates the principles of the Convention.
However, New Zealand
supports the use of policy statements to guide the design and implementation of
support services. To help
guide
services provided to children, a number of policy statements were issued
across a range of sectors including health, social welfare
and education
covering matters such as child health, specialist mental health services for
children and young people, suspension
from school. (Details of these are
outlined elsewhere in this report.)
- The
Government is developing a Children’s Policy and Research Agenda (the
Agenda) to provide a framework to inform policy development
and research
relating to children. The Agenda will be based on the Convention and cover the
0 to 18 age group.
- The
Government is also progressing a Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa (the
Strategy) over the next two years, which covers the
12 to 25 age group. The
Strategy will take a developmental and preventative approach to the issues
facing young people and set out
a range of integrated responses. It will be
consistent with the Convention.
- There
are strong links between the Agenda and the Strategy and steps are being taken
to ensure these two initiatives complement each
other, particularly for the 12
to 18 age group where there is overlap. Children and young people will be
involved in the development
of both initiatives. (Further information on both
initiatives is contained in paragraphs 143150.)
- The
Committee’s concerns about the need for a global policy or plan of action
will be taken into account in developing the Agenda
and the Strategy. The
Committee will be updated when New Zealand presents this
report.
Bring existing legislation into line with the
Convention
Committee’s concerns
“The Committee notes with concern the lack of conformity of relevant
domestic laws with the definition of the child under the
Convention, especially
with regard to the minimum age for charging a child with serious offences and
the minimum age of access to
employment. The Committee further notes with
concern the appearance of a wide range of age cutoffs which do not appear to be
necessarily
consistent under legislation administered by various government
entities for eligibility for different types of government
support.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee recommends that the
Government pursue the process of bringing existing legislation into line with
the principles
and provisions of the Convention. In this regard, the Committee
suggests that the minimum age for being charged with very serious
criminal
offences and for access to employment be reviewed as a matter of
priority.”
(Please see paragraphs 105112 for information about
the processes for ensuring legislation complies with UNCROC.)
(i) Minimum age for criminal prosecution
- The
minimum age of criminal responsibility in New Zealand is 10 years old.
This only applies to offences of murder and manslaughter.
Children cannot be
prosecuted for other offences unless they are at least 14 years at the time of
the offence.
- During
the reporting period New Zealanders have debated whether the age limits for
criminal prosecution should be changed. The weight
of public opinion seems to
favour lowering the age limit of 14 years, which applies to the majority of
offences. Policy work on
ages in 1998/99 recommended no change. However, the
issue being considered was lowering the age of prosecution from 14 years, not
raising the minimum age from 10.
- New Zealand
notes the Committee’s concern about the presumption that someone who
is 10 years old may have the capacity to offend
with criminal intent and
the appropriateness of using the adult justice system to deal with serious
offences committed by children,
including testing capacity. It is also noted
that although the Convention does not prescribe a particular age for criminal
responsibility
the Committee has indicated that even 14 years is too young. It
also has concerns that the process for proving capacity may breach
children’s rights.
- In
light of the Committee’s concerns, the Government has considered whether
work should be done on the minimum age for criminal
prosecution.
New Zealand has had a few cases where a 10 to 13 year old has killed
somebody and there would be merit in considering
the issue before
New Zealand faces this situation again. There is a reasonably, widelyheld
public belief that young people are not
held sufficiently accountable for
offending. Therefore there is a risk that putting the minimum age for criminal
prosecution on
the agenda may lead to additional pressure to lower the 14 year
age, not raise the minimum age of 10 years.
- The
Government has directed the Ministries of Justice and Social Policy to identify
the reasons for and against raising the minimum
age for criminal prosecution and
report jointly to their Ministers in September 2001.
(ii) Upper age of the Children, Young Persons and Their
Families Act
- The
upper age of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989
(currently 17 years of age) does not match UNCROC’s
upper age
limit. This was identified as an issue by officials and in submissions during
consultation on the draft UNCROC report.
In respect of youth justice, extending
the jurisdiction of the Youth Court to include 17 year olds was considered as
part of a 1998/99
Review of Youth Court Jurisdiction and Sentencing. The review
recommended that the Ministry of Social Policy raise the proposal
again in 2002,
to allow work on the effectiveness of the youth justice system to be completed
so that there is more information available
on the merits (or otherwise) of
raising the age limit.
- Government
has agreed that a review of the upper age limit of the Children, Young Persons
and Their Families Act (both Care and Protection
and Youth Justice provisions)
be conducted by the Ministry of Social Policy in 2002. (This timing allows work
on the effectiveness
of Youth Court Sentences to be completed and taken into
account.)
(iii) Conformity of age limits with definition of
child
- The
lack of consistency in age limits affecting children is a concern for children
and young people and generally creates confusion.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs
has completed a project looking at the range of legal ages affecting young
people. The project culminated
in a booklet Does Your Policy Need An Age
Limit? A Guide to Youth Ages from the Ministry of Youth Affairs. The
booklet encourages policymakers to avoid discrimination and develop a consistent
approach to the treatment of young people,
and respect for their active
participation in society. It provides information about the Convention and
guidelines for its use in
determining whether an age limit is necessary and, if
so, what that age limit should be. (A copy of the booklet is attached, Annex
2.) For example, the booklet was used when considering the age of adulthood in
the youth minimum wage review.
- The
Government will continue to coordinate work to bring legislation in line with
the principles and provisions of UNCROC as the opportunity
arises.
(iv) Minimum age for access to employment
- There
are a number of age restrictions on children’s work (see paragraphs
918944). Government will be clarifying the minimum
age requirements under
UNCROC in order to assess, by September 2001, what steps would need to be taken
to remove this reservation.
Review of policy, practice and legislation
Committee’s recommendation
“While the
Committee is encouraged that a review of all government policy, administrative
practice and legislation is under
way to determine consistency with the Human
Rights Act 1993, the Committee suggests that a separate or complementary review
take
place, taking into account the principles and provisions of the Convention,
of all aspects of government policy, administrative practice
and legislation
having an impact on children.”
- When
New Zealand presented its initial UNCROC report, the Human Rights
Consistency 2000 project
[1] (Consistency 2000)
was underway and the Committee noted it positively. It appears the Committee
had Consistency 2000 in mind when suggesting a similar process for
assessing consistency with UNCROC of all aspects of government policy,
administrative
practice and legislation having an impact on
children.
- The
Consistency 2000 project has provided a useful insight into whether and,
if so, how to conduct a review of policy, law and practice in light of the
Convention. It is unlikely such a review will be considered at least until the
Government clarifies the inconsistencies between
existing legislation and the
Human Rights Act.
- Work
that specifically relates to this recommendation is also likely to be covered in
developing the Agenda it will also help assess
consistency with UNCROC of
government policy, administrative practice and legislation having an impact on
children.
- In
the meantime, the Government has continued to integrate the Convention into
policy development in a number of ways. The Ministry
of Youth Affairs is
fostering a forum where government officials can get help in developing policy
by sharing information and working
through children’s rights issues. It
has also developed a template (Annex 3) for agencies to use to assess the
Convention’s
applications in policy development.
- Lack
of information on, and understanding of, the Convention suggests that it is
necessary to continually develop better ways to integrate
the Convention and
children’s rights into the government policy development
process.
- These
issues apply to human rights generally in New Zealand. There has been a
Ministerial Reevaluation of the Human Rights Act 1993
and the roles,
interrelationships, operation and structures of human rights agencies in
New Zealand. The reevaluation team’s
recommendations to improve how
international human rights instruments are used in New Zealand’s
domestic policy are currently
being considered by the
Government.
- The
Government has asked officials to consider the Committee’s concerns as
part of developing the Agenda, the Strategy and work
arising from the
Ministerial Reevaluation of Human Rights and to report on its progress in
September 2001.
Strengthen the Office for the Commissioner for Children
Committee’s recommendation
“Furthermore, the
Committee suggests that the Office of the Commissioner for Children be
strengthened and that consideration
be given to how the Office could have
increased independence and be made accountable directly to
Parliament.”
- New Zealand
has remained committed to providing a separate office for the Commissioner for
Children (see paragraph 9 of the Initial Report). Submissions showed
strong support to strengthen the Office of the Commissioner for Children and
increase its resources. The Social
Services Select Committee is currently
considering a Bill proposing that the Commissioner for Children be made an
Officer of Parliament
and that the Commissioner’s powers of investigation
be increased.
- The
Select Committee is required to provide a final report by 31 December 2000. An
interim report has been made to inform policy
work on the Commissioner for
Children Bill. The key conclusion was it does “not support the intent of
the bill to make the
Commissioner an Officer of Parliament” but it does
“support the intention of the bill to strengthen the independence
and
powers of the Commissioner”.
- The
Select Committee considered that making the Commissioner an Officer of
Parliament could be inconsistent with the Commissioner’s
primary role as
an advocate for children. Other options for increasing the Commissioner’s
independence are:
- establishing the
Commissioner under a separate statute
- standardising
the provisions relating to the appointment process, and the negotiation of terms
and conditions of appointment, with
those of similar
Commissioners.
- The
Ministry of Social Policy is leading work on amending the functions and powers
of the Commissioner for Children to give better
effect to the Convention in
New Zealand. The status and independence of the Commissioner’s
office is being considered as well
as the merits of extending their powers and
functions.
- The
Commissioner’s functions could be extended to include the following
rightsbased functions:
- promoting
awareness and understanding of children’s rights and
UNCROC
- providing an
explicit advocacy function
- promoting the
participation of children when making decisions that affect their
lives
- promoting the
establishment of an accessible and effective complaints mechanism by
organisations dealing with children, and monitoring
the nature and level of
complaints.
- It
is also considering whether the Commissioner should have the power to request
written information and documents, and what the Commissioner’s
role should
be in relation to judicial proceedings.
- This
work will address the Committee’s concerns. Updated information will be
provided to the Committee when New Zealand presents
its
report.
Data collection, indicators, and complaints
registration
Committee’s concerns
“The Committee is
concerned about the insufficiency of measures to collect disaggregated
statistical data, including in relation
to the registration of complaints from
children, and other information on the situation of children, especially those
belonging to
the most vulnerable groups. The absence of qualitative and
quantitative information on the status of children makes the assessment
of
implementation of the Convention difficult.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee recommends that a review of
the system of data collection be undertaken, giving priority attention to the
identification
of appropriate disaggregated indicators, including in the field
of complaint registration, with a view to addressing all areas covered
by the
Convention and all groups of children, particularly the most
disadvantaged.”
- There
have been a number of data collection developments. Rather than establish a
separate review, the Government has asked officials
to report in September 2001
on existing initiatives that are addressing the Committee’s concerns.
(See paragraphs 167189.)
- Particularly
relevant developments include childhood wellbeing indicators which have been
developed to identify and measure the social
and economic position of children
in New Zealand since 1997. The Ministries of Health, Education and Social
Policy have updated
these measures and will continue to update information and
indicators on an annual basis.
- Statistics
New Zealand is leading a data integration project that proposes
implementing common data standards and integrating variables.
The initial stage
of this work programme is likely to review current practices and the quality of
data across different agencies
and ministries. A recommended work programme
includes an exercise in matching datasets, implementing common definitions and
output
standards across social administrative datasets.
- Other
work that can contribute includes the Child Health Information Strategy that
will link information about children across different
providers, and the
Ministry of Mäori Development (Te Puni Kokiri) Monitoring and Evaluation
Unit’s assessment of the effectiveness
of the Government responses to
Mäori.
Give priority to children in budget allocation
Committee’s concern
“As regards the
implementation of article 4 of the Convention, the Committee is concerned that
the extensive economic reform
process undertaken in New Zealand since the
mid1980s has affected the budgetary resources available for support services for
children
and their families and that all necessary measures to ensure the
enjoyment by children of their economic, social and cultural rights
to the
maximum extent of the State’s resources have not been
undertaken.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee recommends that, with
respect to the implementation of article 4 of the Convention, budget allocations
should
be made to the maximum extent of the State party’s available
resources and should give priority to the realisation of the economic,
social
and cultural rights of children, and that particular attention be paid to
children belonging to the most disadvantaged groups.”
- In
line with the interdependent roles of parents and the State, New Zealand
has continued to allocate budgetary resources across a
mix of sectors, general
familyrelated measures and childspecific initiatives. Significant priority is
given to children and their
families within the budget process.
- Budget
allocations are made sector by sector because of the structure of the executive
and administrative branches of government.
This means that budget allocation
for services to children and their families, except for specific programmes, are
included in general
spending. For example, in the health sector, general budget
allocations for the purchase of health services include health services
available to all New Zealanders (including children) and specific
allocations for children, such as free visits to general practitioners
for
children under 6 years of age. The interrelated nature of the role of the state
and parents in the wellbeing of children suggests
that the development of a
distinct budget for children is unlikely.
- However,
the Government plans to measure and assess the priority it gives to children in
budget allocations by improving tracking
allocations relating to children. This
work is being done as part of the development of the Agenda.
Study the impact of economic reforms on children
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee
also suggests that the State party undertake a study on the impact on children
and their families of the economic
reform process that has been ongoing for the
last several years in terms of its impact on government budgetary resources
available
for support services, as well as on the impact of unemployment on
children, young persons and their families. Conclusions from such
a study could
be a useful starting point for developing a comprehensive strategy for future
action.”
- Submissions
showed a concern about the increasing inequalities in society as a result of
major economic changes. They said 10 years
of economic and societal reform has
affected children’s ability to benefit from education and to participate
fully in society
and their community particularly Mäori. A lack of
resources can prevent programmes with potential from actually working.
It was
suggested that New Zealand should have an official poverty
line.
- There
are a number of projects across the sectors that provide information on the
economic position of children particularly work
on economic and income
disparities, living standards and social assistance and the effects of the
economic reforms on the determinants
of health. (Please see paragraphs
196216.)
- Rather
than working on the historical impact of economic reforms on children,
New Zealand prefers to use existing information to develop
future
strategies. The New Zealand Government has asked officials to report on
progress in addressing the Committee’s concerns
through existing work in
September 2001.
Study the needs of singleparent families
Committee’s concern
“The Committee
regrets the rise in the number of singleparent families and is concerned about
the lack of a concerted strategy
by the State party to address the needs of
children affected by this trend.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee suggests that a study on the
projected needs of singleparent families be made in light of this increasing
trend,
and that measures be taken to supplement those already in place to avoid
potential negative consequences for children in these families
and their parents
in the future.”
- Submissions
showed concern about the plight of singleparent families and cited research that
low employment rates among singleparents
and a relative lack of assistance
places the singleparent family at the greatest risk of poverty. (Stephens,
Frater & Waldegrave,
‘Below the Line: An Analysis of Income Poverty in
New Zealand, (19841998), see Annex 4).
- The
Ministry of Social Policy commissioned a literature review in March 2000
investigating the effects of single parenthood on children.
A draft report is
now being externally reviewed. The Ministry is also leading an evaluation and
monitoring strategy for the reforms
to Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) the DPB
is the key form of income support for singleparent families. The evaluation and
monitoring
strategy will:
- assess the
impact of the DPB reforms for individual DPB recipients, and for children within
sole parent households
- monitor changes
in indicators relevant to the DPB reform objectives
- assess the DPB
reform implementation.
- Government
has asked officials to report in September 2001 on progress in addressing the
needs of singleparent families.
Youth suicide
Committee’s concern
“The Committee
expresses its serious concern at the high rate of youth suicide in
New Zealand.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee suggests that the State
party continue to give priority to studying the possible causes of youth suicide
and
the characteristics of those who appear to be most at risk, and take steps
as soon as practicable to put in place additional support
and intervention
programmes, be it in the field of mental health, education, employment or
another field, which could reduce this
tragic phenomenon. In this regard, the
State party may want to call on Governments and experts in other countries which
also may
have experience in dealing with this problem.”
- Preventing
youth suicide is a high priority for New Zealand. In March 1998, the
New Zealand Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy was
released. Based on
New Zealand and international research and best practice, the strategy is
aimed at government and community agencies
and provides a framework for
understanding what suicide prevention is and steps that must be taken to reduce
suicide.
- The
strategy has two components:
- In Our
Hands a strategy for the general population (Annex 5)
- Kia Piki Te
Ora o te Taitamariki specifically supports Maori efforts to reduce suicide
among rangatahi Maori (Maori youth) (Annex 5)
(Please see
paragraphs 284295.)
- Government
will monitor progress in addressing the Committee’s concerns through the
New Zealand Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Review of corporal punishment legislation
Committee’s concerns
“The Committee
expresses its concern at the authorisation provided by section 59 of the Crimes
Act to use physical force against
children as a punishment within the family,
provided that the force is reasonable in the circumstances.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee recommends that the State
party review legislation with regard to corporal punishment of children within
the
family in order to effectively ban all forms of physical or mental violence,
injury or abuse.”
- Section
59 of the Crimes Act 1961 has not been reviewed during the reporting period and
it continues to provide a defence for parents
to use force that is reasonable in
the circumstances to discipline their children. New Zealand believes it
provides sufficient protection
through:
- the fact that
section 59 does not sanction any form of violence or abuse against children
- the provisions
of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 provides protection
when abuse is substantiated.
(Please see paragraphs 187 to 189 of
New Zealand’s Initial Report.)
- Submissions
criticised Government for not reviewing section 59 of the Crimes Act. One
argument was that physical abuse of children
will remain unreported in the
community because hitting is seen as “standard parental discipline”.
Others thought that
removing it would lead to loss of parental control. The
opponents of corporal punishment recognised parents do need to be
“effectively”
educated and supported if the law is changed.
Reference was made to educational material on alternatives to corporal
punishment
produced by nongovernment organisations, especially EPOCH and the
Peace Foundation.
- In
October 2000 the Government directed officials to report as soon as possible on
how other comparable countries (particularly in
the European Union) have
addressed the issue of compliance with UNCROC, including the education campaigns
that preceded legislative
change.
Recovery of child victims of abuse
Committee’s concerns
“Moreover, the
Committee noted the insufficient measures taken to address the issue of
illtreatment and abuse, including sexual
abuse, within the family, as well as
the issues of physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of
children victims
of such illtreatment or abuse.”
Committee’s recommendation
“It further recommends that appropriate
mechanisms be established to ensure the physical and psychological recovery and
social
reintegration of children victims of such illtreatment and abuse, in
light of article 39 of the Convention.”
- Several
sectors and agencies share responsibility for child abuse victims’
recovery and ongoing work continues within each sector.
The New Zealand
Government has funded services that meet the needs of child abuse victims. For
example:
- the Police,
Child, Youth and Family and Women’s Refuge are working on a project for
child victims of family violence including
multiagency centres for child abuse
victims (being developed by Child, Youth and Family)
- the Ministry of
Justice is developing a child witness programme to provide specialist support
and assistance to child victims and
witnesses and their caregivers who are
required to go to court (to prevent secondary victimisation through the court
system)
- the Department
for Courts (Courts) has undertaken initiatives to enhance representation of
children’s views in the court process
(such as the review of the role of
Counsel for the Child)
- a protocol has
been signed between Courts and Child, Youth and Family, which ensures clear
communication between agencies on cases
that come before the court where care
and protection of children may be an issue. (Please see
paragraphs 537538.)
- the Domestic
Violence Act 1995 provides funding for approved programmes that protect people
and their children. However, although
participation figures are not available,
uptake of the children’s programmes under the Domestic Violence Act has
been low.
- Collaboration
between the sectors is needed to ensure the physical and psychological recovery
and social reintegration of child victims
of ill treatment and abuse. For
example, a medium term strategy is being developed to address the severe mental
health and/or severe
behavioural difficulties of children and young
people. Protocols have been developed between sectors to ensure that
appropriate mechanisms
provide consistent service delivery (Child, Youth and
Family and ACC).
- A
Chief Executive Officers interagency group has been established to ensure
recommendations in the Commissioner for Children’s
report on the death of
James Whakaruru are coordinated and actioned (see paragraphs
532533).
- In
light of existing work, no new initiatives are proposed. Government has asked
officials to report on progress in addressing the
Committee’s concerns
through work to improve rehabilitation services to child abuse victims in
September 2001.
Reducing inequalities
Committee’s concerns
“The Committee notes with concern that the Maori population lags
significantly behind the nonMaori population in most statistics
of wellbeing,
thus reflecting that insufficient measures have been undertaken to protect and
promote the enjoyment of the rights
of this population group, and of Maori
children in particular.”
Committee’s recommendation
“While noting the efforts made by the
Government in the areas of health, education and welfare with regard to the
Maori population,
the Committee encourages the authorities to pursue and
strengthen their programmes and activities to fill the remaining gap between
the
Maori and nonMaori children.”
- Reducing
inequalities is a key priority for the Government. Agencies are developing
innovative ways to address disparities and to
examine existing programmes and
whether they are effective, in particular for Maori and Pacific peoples.
- A
report to the Minister of Maori Affairs in May 2000 looked at the structure of
Maori population and projected future changes. The
report suggests that to
reduce disparities in the future, New Zealand needs to focus on the current
Maori population aged 17 years
and younger. (See Annex 6.)
- The
report does not, however, recommend pouring all the resources available into
assisting those who are under 17 years of age, as
the causes of disparities are
crosssectoral and complex. For example, the lack of Maori participation in
early childhood education,
in part, results from the barriers caused by the low
income of Maori parents. A wider focus for intervention is needed across the
population. When responding to disparities, the Government
will:
- involve and
motivate the Maori community
- place greater
emphasis on agencies to coordinate policies with a range of sectors and
departments.
- The
Government has asked for a progress report in September 2001 on addressing the
Committee’s concerns (see paragraphs 987992).
Review of child labour law
Committee’s concern
“The Committee
notes with regret that the State party does not have a comprehensive policy to
deal with the issue of child labour,
a basic minimum age for admission to
employment, or a range of minimum ages for different types of work and working
conditions.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee recommends that the policy
and law in relation to child labour be reviewed and that that State party
consider
ratifying the ILO Convention No. 138 on the minimum age for admission
to employment.”
(Please see paragraphs 24(ii), 48 of this
report.)
- Information
about policies regarding child labour is contained in paragraphs 918944 of this
report. Ratification of International
Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 138
has not been considered during the reporting period. However, as noted above,
Government
is considering removal of its reservation regarding child labour,
which will include reassessment of New Zealand’s ability
to comply
with the minimum employment age requirements of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. This work may also help to
clarify whether New Zealand is in a
position to ratify the ILO Convention 138.
- Before
the end of the year the Government intends to ratify the ILO Convention No. 182
on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (subject
to the completion of domestic
constitutional processes). Officials are to report back in March 2001 on
options for implementation.
This will strengthen protection against the worst
forms of child labour.
Refugee children
Committee’s concern
“The Committee
expresses its preoccupation that government support services to refugees and
asylum seekers, including children,
appear to be differentiated according to
whether persons are admitted as refugees under agreement with the UNHCR or are
present in
the country as the result of an individual’s application for
asylum.”
Committee’s recommendation
“The Committee recommends that all refugee
children, including asylum seekers coming to New Zealand outside
UNHCRorganised schemes,
be given the benefit of introduction assistance and
Governmentdelivered or funded support services.”
- Asylum
seekers (including children) are entitled to receive the same level of
publiclyfunded social welfare, health care and education
as quota refugees and
other people lawfully in New Zealand. The Government funds programmes for
organisations working with refugees
and communitybased orientation programmes
for refugee families.
- However,
the Government does not consider it practical to provide asylum seekers with the
same sixweek induction programme that quota
refugees go through immediately on
arrival in New Zealand. The majority of asylum seekers lodge their claims
after they have been
in New Zealand for some time (eg, three to six months
after initial arrival and when their visitor or work permit expires). Only
20
to 30 percent of claimants are found to be genuine refugees and they have
usually already been in New Zealand for up to two years
by the time their
claim is determined. Therefore, they would not require the same induction that
is offered to quota refugees.
(See paragraphs 841854.)
Publication of Initial Report
Committee’s recommendation
“Finally, in the
light of article 144, paragraph 6 of the Convention, the Committee recommends
that the Initial Report, and written replies presented by the
State party be considered, along with the relevant summary records and the
concluding observations
adopted thereon by the Committee. Such a document
should be widely distributed in order to generate debate and awareness of the
Convention, its implementation and monitoring within the Government, the
Parliament and the general public, including with the concerned
nongovernmental
organisations.”
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs published and circulated New Zealand’s
Initial Report in 1995. After examination of the report in January
1997, a bulletin was published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
and
circulated widely. This bulletin included:
- information
about the questions asked by the Committee
- the full text of
the Committee’s concluding observations
- the full text of
the Convention.
- Both
documents were sent to NGOs with an interest in children’s rights issues,
public libraries and government agencies. Both
the Initial Report and
the information bulletin are still available on request. (See Annexes 7 and
8.)
PART 1: GENERAL MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATION
Introduction
- This
part of the report provides information about the general steps New Zealand
has taken to implement the Convention and create
an environment in which
children’s human rights are respected. The majority of the
Committee’s concerns and recommendations
from New Zealand’s
Initial Report relate to general measures of
implementation.
A. Measures taken to harmonise law and policy with the
Convention
Reservations
- New Zealand
has three reservations to the Convention relating to children unlawfully in
New Zealand, child labour law and age mixing
in prisons.
- The
Government plans to review these reservations. Information about the
reservations, relevant developments during the reporting
period and
Government’s plans to review them, is contained in paragraphs 2324
above.
International agreements
- New Zealand
has strongly supported and contributed to international efforts to strengthen
human rights protections for children.
Optional Protocols to the Convention
- New Zealand
actively participated in developing both optional protocols to the Convention
and was pleased to be among the first states
to sign both instruments at the
Millennium Summit. These will be ratified once domestic constitutional
processes are complete.
ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child
Labour
- New Zealand
was also an active participant in negotiating the International Labour
Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 182 on the
Worst Forms of Child Labour.
In June 2000 New Zealand signed the Convention upon its adoption by the ILO
and is currently working
towards ratification. The Government has given high
priority to this work and it is hoped that implementing legislation will be
passed and the Convention ratified by the end of the year 2000.
The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and
Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption
- New Zealand
acceded to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in
Respect of Intercountry Adoption on 18 September
1998. Processes for
implementing the Convention are set out in the Adoption (Intercountry) Act 1997
and regulations made under this
Act which came into force on 1 January 1999.
(Please see paragraphs 475484.)
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International
Child Abduction
- As
noted in paragraphs 165 to 168 of the Initial Report, New Zealand is
a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child
Abduction which is implemented through
the Guardianship Amendment Act
1991.
Other Agreements
- New Zealand
took part in negotiating the draft protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, especially women and
children that will supplement the
UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime. New Zealand was also
active in developing the
Ottawa Convention against landmines and ratified this
treaty in 1999.
Conformity of law and practice with provisions of the
Convention
- New Zealand
understands that the Convention emphasises the interdependence and significance
a child’s family and community life
has on their wellbeing. Accordingly,
both parents and the Government have responsibilities to children. The
Convention recognises
that parents are generally best placed to determine their
children’s needs. Governments have a role in both crisis intervention
and
in assisting parents with resources, information and support.
- New Zealand
acknowledges the Treaty of Waitangi is fundamental to the Crown’s
relationship with whanau, hapu, iwi and Maori
communities. Building on the
Treaty principles of partnership, participation and protection, the Government
envisages a greater
role for Maori communities in developing policies and
services that affect them. New Zealand therefore strives to take general
and
specific measures to harmonise national law and policy with the
Convention’s provisions to enhance measures available for both
parents and
children.
- New Zealand
government departments are encouraged to consider the implications of the
Convention when developing policy to ensure
it conforms to the
Convention’s provisions. Following a conference on the Convention in July
1999 (organised by the Children’s
Issues Centre at the University of
Otago, Dunedin), a network was established to provide officials who are working
on various policy
initiatives with a forum to work through children’s
rights issues. This network helps raise awareness and understanding about
the
Convention and the potential for children’s rights concepts to be used to
enhance policy work. It also allows possible
problem areas to be identified as
they arise. The Ministry of Youth Affairs facilitates this forum and encourages
representatives
from different agencies to participate.
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs has promoted using the Convention when developing
policy based on the following principles:
- the Convention
is a tool to help develop child and youth policy
- aligning current
and planned policy work with the Convention’s principles will enhance
compliance
- the reporting
process provides Government with an opportunity to review and endorse its
commitment to children’s and young people’s
rights and
wellbeing
- establishing an
open process for reporting under the Convention will make reporting easier for
both government and nongovernment agencies.
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs advised that government agencies should establish
processes to ensure legislation and policies were
consistent with the
Convention. These agencies responded by asking for assistance with the ongoing
monitoring and implementation
of the Convention. In 1999, the Ministry
developed and distributed a template that helps agencies record progress and
foster improvements
by:
- helping them
contribute to Government reports on compliance with the
Convention
- providing a
process so that agencies can ensure policy measures are consistent with the
Convention.
- As
required by article 4 of the Convention, New Zealand is aware that
consistent and systematic effort is required to ensure that
all appropriate
legislative, administrative and other measures are taken to implement the
Convention.
- Submissions
showed concern that since ratification, legislation has been introduced or
contemplated that may affect New Zealand’s
implementation of the
Convention. For example:
- search and
seizure powers relating to children in residential care (see
paragraphs 380385)
- lowering the age
of criminal responsibility (see paragraphs 3943).
- New Zealand
acknowledges that it needs to do more to ensure the Convention’s
principles in legislative, policy and practice
development are proactively
applied.
Human Rights Act
- As
noted in the Initial Report (paragraph 5) the Human Rights Act 1993
required the Human Rights Commission to examine all Acts, regulations,
Government policies
and administrative practices, and to report to the Minister
of Justice before the end of 1998 on any conflicts with the provisions
of the
Human Rights Act, and any infringements of the spirit or intention of the Act.
This examination was conducted by the Human
Rights Commission in conjunction
with individual government departments and was known as Consistency
2000.
- Early
in 1997, the Government became concerned about the significant resources
committed to Consistency 2000. Due to be completed at the end of 1998,
the Government revisited the project in October 1997 and found that many of the
inconsistencies
identified were repetitive or minor in nature.
- The
Government introduced a Human Rights Amendment Bill to Parliament
on 19 August 1998. That Bill:
- relieved the
Human Rights Commission of its statutory duty to report on the Consistency
2000 project
- clarified the
nonprimacy of the Human Rights Act over other legislation
- added new
exceptions or clarifications to the Act for governmentrelated services in the
areas of social welfare, health, and defence
- preserved
agelinked retirement benefits
- designated a
Women’s Commissioner in the Human Rights Commission.
- However,
this Bill failed to gain sufficient support in Parliament to progress beyond the
introduction stage of the legislative process.
Accordingly, the Government did
not progress that Bill but introduced a second bill, the Human Rights Amendment
Bill (No. 2), which
was passed and came into effect on 1 October
1999.
- The
Human Rights Amendment Act (No. 2) contained the following
elements:
- The expiry date
in respect of the Government’s exemption from the new grounds in the Human
Rights Act (see paragraphs 3539 of
the Initial Report) and the current
status of the Act in relation to other legislation was extended from 31 December
1999 to 31 December 2001.
- The expiry date
in respect of section 126B of the Social Security Act 1964 was extended from 31
December 1999 to 31 December 2001
this provision exempts certain acts done in
relation to the granting of a benefit or assistance from the application of the
Human
Rights Commission Act 1977 or the Human Rights
Act 1993.
- The Minister of
Justice is required to report to Parliament on a sixmonthly basis on progress in
addressing significant areas of inconsistency
between existing legislation and
the Human Rights Act.
- The Human Rights
Commission is empowered to comment on the Minister’s report before it is
presented to Parliament, with any
such comment being included in the
Minister’s report.
- Agelinked
retirement benefits contained in employment contracts in force
on 31 December 1998 are deemed not to be in breach of the
Human Rights
Act.
- The
Human Rights Amendment Act’s primary purpose is to preserve the
government’s compliance with the Human Rights Act
for a limited period so
Parliament has reasonable time to consider the complex issues surrounding
government compliance with the
Act.
- Additionally,
the Government will ensure that all regulations made after 1 January 2000 are
consistent with the Human Rights Act unless
it is specifically authorised in an
Act of Parliament or an exemption had been proposed in the original Human Rights
Amendment Bill
1998. The Government will ensure the Human Rights
Commission is adequately resourced to carry out its role under the Human Rights
Amendment Act.
- All
Cabinet papers must now contain a paragraph on the Human Rights Act implications
of the policy proposal. The Ministry of Justice
has prepared guidelines to
assist policy makers with this requirement.
- The
new Government (elected in November 1999) is committed to improving human rights
in New Zealand and will report to the House of
Representatives on progress
in remedying significant inconsistencies between existing legislation and the
Human Rights Act 1993.
The Government proposes to:
- follow up on
agencies’ current knowledge of inconsistencies between the Human Rights
Act 1993 and other legislation
- confirm the
Government’s expectations regarding agencies’ compliance with the
Human Rights Act 1993.
- There
is a general lack of information and understanding of human rights and their
application in New Zealand. Ways to address these
issues have been
recommended to the Government after a Ministerial Reevaluation of the Human
Rights Act 1993 and the roles, interrelationships,
operation and structures of
human rights agencies in New Zealand. (See paragraph 54.)
Status of the Convention
- New Zealand
does not have a written constitution and operates a Westminster style of
government that includes three independent branches,
the Executive, Judiciary
and Parliament. Because New Zealand has ratified the Convention it is very
persuasive, but it does not
override New Zealand law.
- New Zealand’s
government and legal system are based on the principle of Parliamentary
Sovereignty. (See Core Document.)
- The
Convention has not been enacted into domestic legislation, although several
pieces of legislation reflect its principles. For
example the best interests
principle is in the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 and the
Guardianship Act 1968.
- During
public consultation meetings a question was asked about whether the Convention
can be enforced. The Human Rights Commission
pointed out that the justice
system can provide an avenue for ensuring the Convention’s articles are
adhered to, and that the
Courts have been quite creative in doing
this.
Judicial decisions
- The
Courts have affirmed that the rights in the Convention should not be read in
isolation from one another and that the Convention
should be read as a whole to
ascertain how best to balance those rights (Re Adoption of PAT (1995) 13
FRNZ 651, see Annex 9).
- There
have been a number of significant Court decisions about the Convention. While
jurisprudence on the Convention continues to
develop, the Courts appear to have
found the Convention helpful, particularly where domestic law requires a
decision to be made about
the welfare of a child (see for example Re the W
Children (1994) 12 FRNZ 548, see Annex 10).
- The
Courts have particularly recognised the significance of the fundamental
principles set out in articles 2, 3, 6 and 12 of the Convention
in helping to
balance a child’s rights in a particular case (see for example DGSW v
R (1997) 16 FRNZ 357, see Annex 11).
- Harmonising
the Convention with specific laws has also been the focus of judicial
consideration in a number of cases. For example,
considering:
- a child’s
refusal to receive lifesaving medical treatment (Re W (A minor) (Consent to
Medical Treatment) [1993] 1 FLR 1 CA, Annex 12)
- separating
children from parents in immigration matters (Puli’uvea v Removal
Review Authority (1996) CA 236/95, Keith J);
- a child’s
need for care and protection under child welfare legislation (DGSW v G
(1995) 15 FCNZ 23, Annex 14); and
- However,
a study by the Children’s Issues Centre (based at Otago University in
Dunedin) suggests the Courts are not using the
Convention as much as they might
in their judgements. The study examined Family Court decisions for the years
1990 (before New Zealand
signed the Convention), 1994 and 1998 and looked
at a range of cases relevant to the Convention, including:
- care and
protection
- abduction/wrongful
removal
- other paternity
and guardianship issues.
- The
Convention was mentioned in only 22 of the total 691 judgements
(3.2 percent). The Convention was mentioned in six cases in 1994
and in 16
cases in 1998.
- New Zealand
continues to pay attention to the developing jurisprudence on the Convention,
particularly as this affects policy development.
It is an ongoing issue to
provide adequate resourcing to ensure children and young people have access to
the Courts, such as through
providing access to legal aid and other legal
services.
- Children
can make applications under the Domestic Violence Act with the assistance of a
third party. In other cases children in proceedings
before the Family Court can
be represented by Counsel for the Child. Appointment of Counsel for the Child
is mandatory for proceedings
under the Children, Young Persons and Their
Families Act 1989.
Remedies in cases of violation
- Children
can access a number of agencies if their rights have been violated,
including:
- the Office of
the Commissioner for Children
- the Human Rights
Commission
- the Health and
Disability Commissioner
- the Race
Relations Conciliator
- the Privacy
Commissioner.
- The
Office of the Commissioner for Children is a particularly important avenue for
information and redress as it makes complaints
from children a priority. It
also recognises the difficulties children face when making complaints so
it:
- ensures
complaints are responded to within a childfriendly timeframe
- takes care to
provide clear information and advice
- where possible,
refers the child to help within their own community.
- There
is only one Office for the Commissioner for Children (in Wellington) but since
its website was established, staff have noticed
more direct contact from
children. The website has a page especially for children with information on
how they can make a complaint.
The Office would like to have a freephone to
improve further children’s access.
- The
Commissioner for Children also monitors complaint systems within the statutory
Care and Protection system and ensures that children
and young people have
access to procedural fairness while in and out of home care.
- All
of the agencies noted above accept complaints from children and young people.
In general there are no specific processes for
responding to complaints from
children and it is not clear how many complainants are children. But, for
example, the Office of the
Race Relations Conciliator has a userfriendly process
for making complaints and it encourages people to have an advocate this is
particularly helpful for young people.
- The
Human Rights Commission’s data collection on their freephone line is now
sophisticated enough to identify the age of complainants
and inquirers so it
will now be able to monitor numbers of child complainants.
- Despite
the availability of these agencies, there are not always effective remedies
available to children as the list of issues raised
in paragraph 344 below shows.
These include:
- inability to
report bad experiences with the police
- timeliness of
responses to complaints about residential care.
- Recognising
the need to improve advocacy for students and their parents/caregivers in the
education sector, Budget 2000 allocated
$700,000 over four years to establish a
dedicated Education Advocacy Service in the Office of the Commissioner for
Children. The
Commissioner’s office deals with a significant number of
inquiries and complaints about the education sector and this initiative
builds
on the existing structures and relationships.
National Strategy
- The
Government is developing a Children’s Policy and Research Agenda (the
Agenda) to provide a framework and to inform policy
development and research
relating to children across government over the next five years. The Agenda
will be based on the Convention
and cover the under 18 age group. Development
work on the Agenda will be completed by July 2001 and additional information
will
be provided when New Zealand presents this report to the
Committee.
- The
first step was a Child Policy Seminar held on 1920 July 2000 which
brought together child advocates from the public and community/voluntary
sectors. The purpose was to identify key issues for children and to start
building a consensus about the way forward.
- A
Children’s Policy Reference Group (Reference Group) was established with a
primary objective to provide the Ministries of
Social Policy and Youth Affairs
with direct input into the Agenda’s development. Additionally, the
Reference Group will contribute
to ongoing policy development relating to
children and young people.
- The
members were selected based on their expertise, rather than as representatives
of specific organisations or sectors. They provide
a broad range of interests,
perspectives and expertise that relate to children and young people, and they
offer the network and skills
to encourage children and young people to
contribute to the policy development.
- The
Ministry of Social Policy will also develop advice on research priorities on
children’s issues. This is a separate but
related process as it seeks
input from experts in the children’s research area and involves consulting
widely to develop research
priorities for children.
- The
Government is also progressing a Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa (the
Strategy) over the next two years which covers the 12
to 25 age group. The
Strategy will take a developmental and preventative approach to the issues
facing young people and set out
a range of integrated responses. It will be
developed in close consultation with:
- key youthfocused
organisations
- central
government agencies.
- The
aim is to improve outcomes for young people through a more coordinated approach
to deliver youth services and increase youth participation
in the decisionmaking
process. It will be consistent with the Convention.
- There
are strong links between the Agenda and the Strategy and steps are being taken
to ensure these two initiatives complement each
other, particularly for the 12
to 18 age group where there is overlap.
B. Mechanisms to coordinate policies relating to children and
monitor
implementation of the Convention
Coordination of policies affecting children
- Effectively
coordinating policies and services that affect children remains an issue for
New Zealand. Submissions from nongovernment
organisations noted serious
deficiencies in cooperation between government agencies. The Office of the
Commissioner for Children’s
report into the death of James Whakaruru (see
paragraphs 515516) was an example of the consequences this lack of cooperation
across
levels of government can have.
- The
focus of the previous Government’s work on coordination was the
Strengthening Families Strategy. The main focus of the
new Government is on a
coordinated approach to addressing inequality. This includes coordinating
policies that relate to children.
- In
1998, the Government released the “Strengthening Families for
WellBeing” document (see Annex 16). It sets out the
Strengthening
Families Strategy which operates on several levels:
- local
initiatives where local management groups develop a case management model to
increase the level of services targeted to those
most at risk
- policy makers
and funders constantly scrutinise existing programmes and services to see how
they might be adapted or changed to provide
better forms of remedial or early
intervention and prevention.
Monitoring
- Monitoring
the outcome of policy on children is difficult because of:
- the time it
takes for outcomes to appear
- problems
deciding which outcome can be attributed to which policy
initiative.
- Improving
how the government obtains children’s and young people’s views
should help to monitor the impact of policies.
This will be part of the
Children’s Policy and Research Agenda development.
- The
Ministry of Social Policy is currently undertaking monitoring and evaluation of
a number of policies and programmes including:
- Social Workers
in Schools
- Domestic
Purposes Benefit.
- The
Police programmes Youth at Risk of Offending, and the Youth Education Service
(YES), have been comprehensively evaluated (see
paragraph 959). The police are
currently assessing the best way to monitor and evaluate the additional
resources provided to Police
Youth Aid in the last budget.
Reform of Social Welfare Administration
- There
have been continued structural reforms of social welfare agencies’
configuration. In 1992 the Department of Social Welfare
had six business units:
- Children, Young
Persons and their Families Service (CYPFS) (earlier the Children and Young
Persons Service (CYPS))
- New Zealand
Community Funding Agency (NZCFA)
- Social Policy
Agency (SPA)
- The
Department of Social Welfare no longer exists as a result of the following
reforms:
- In 1998 the
Employment Services and Income Support (Integrated Administration) Bill was
passed to establish the Department of Work
and Income.
- On 1 October
1998 Income Support was integrated with the New Zealand Employment Service
(formerly part of the Department of Labour)
to form the new Department of Work
and Income.
- In 1999 the
Department of Child, Youth and Family Services Bill was passed to establish the
new department.
- On 1 January
1999 NZCFA and CYPFS integrated to form the Children, Young Persons and their
Families Agency (CYFA).
- On 1 October
1999 CYFA became the new Department of Child, Youth and Family
Services.
- On 1 October
1999 SPA integrated with Corporate Office to form the new Ministry of Social
Policy.
- The
Department of Child, Youth and Family Services is responsible for services to
children, young people and their families in relation
to preventing abuse and
neglect through education and public awareness, protection, child and family
support, youth services including
youth justice, family group conference
services and adoption services. The department is also responsible for funding
a range of
community based support services and works closely with other
government and nongovernment agencies.
- The
Ministry of Social Policy’s role is to provide policy and purchase advice,
backed up by indepth knowledge and data. The
policy group has two principle
roles, to:
- provide
strategic social policy advice across social policy departments/ministries
dealing with people who are socially excluded
- provide policy
advice about income support, children, young persons and families, housing,
retirement incomes and positive ageing,
and the community and voluntary
sector.
- The
purchase and monitoring group provides advice to Ministers in relation to social
sector delivery agencies.
Government agencies that promote children’s rights and
monitor implementation
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs has retained responsibility for coordinating
New Zealand’s reports to the Committee. However,
all agencies are
responsible for implementing UNCROC.
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs’ template for agencies to monitor the Convention
has helped in developing this report. This initiative
might also assist ongoing
monitoring and encourage policy development that is consistent with the
Convention.
Commissioner for Children
- New Zealand
has had an Office for the Commissioner of Children since 1989 (see paragraph 9
of New Zealand’s Initial Report).
- Work
is currently being done on the merits of amending the Commissioner for
Children’s functions and powers to give better effect
to the
Convention’s implementation and monitoring. Whether the Commissioner
should become an Officer of Parliament is also
being considered (see paragraphs
5662 above).
Data collection, indicators and complaints
registration
- Qualitative
and quantitative information on the status of children is fundamental to
New Zealand’s ability to report on, and
assess implementation of, the
Convention. Submissions emphasised the need to improve the collection of data
about children. Steps
have been taken to both enhance existing information
collection and data distribution, as well as consider the development of new
information collection systems.
- New Zealand
will continue to seek ways to improve data collection on children and to
identify indicators of wellbeing and it acknowledges
that further work is
needed. The Government will monitor progress in addressing the
Committee’s concerns about data collection
systems and indicators of
childhood wellbeing (see paragraphs 6366 above) and will provide updated
information when this report is
presented to the Committee.
National census
- The
national population and dwelling census, conducted every five years, is a major
source of information on children and was last
conducted in 1996. In addition
to publishing general information from the census, data has been distributed to
highlight the position
of children and young people. Statistics
New Zealand has published a series of books of disaggregated data on
specific populations
such as Children, Young People, Maori, Families and
Households, People and Places (see Appendices 1822). Disaggregated
information profiles on Pacific Islands’ populations were also released in
1998. However,
that information is not agespecific.
- The
current age breakdowns for census data are 0 to 4, 5 to 9, 10 to 14 and 15
to 19 years. Information about 16 and 17 year olds
is not reported
except as part of the aggregated 15 to 19 year age group data. However, this
data can be disaggregated into single
year age groups on
request.
Data relating to Maori children
- Submissions
stressed the need to present negative statistics for Maori children and young
people within the context of the structural
and systemic factors that underlie
and sustain these negative results.
- The
Government has agreed to improve collection of ethnic data across agencies,
including improving processes for collecting data
about Maori. In 1999 Te Puni
Kokiri (the Ministry of Maori Development) signed official data protocols with
Statistics New Zealand.
The two agencies are engaged in ongoing
discussions to improve the collection of data relating to
Maori.
- The
Department of Maori Studies at Massey University is carrying out a longitudinal
study of Maori households. The Te Hoe Nuku Roa
project aims to provide a sound
empirical base that will inform Maori and other planners and facilitate policy
and programme development
appropriate to Maori advancement in cultural, social
and economic terms. The study
incorporates measures for the characteristics of cultural identity. The
stability of these characteristics will be tested over time.
Data obtained from
an initial crosssectional approach will be supplemented by a longitudinal study
so that levels can be continued
over 10 and 20 year periods. The study’s
four aims make it significantly different from others:
- it considers the
major influences acting on Maori society it proposes a Maori framework to gauge
personal and family development
- it examines the
relationships of Maori families and individuals with structures in
New Zealand society at local, regional and national
levels and includes
Maori social structures
- the integrated
nature of the study provides a basis to develop coordinated policies and
programmes, mainly by Maori
- adopting a
longitudinal approach allows the study to chart the natural history of families
and individuals and to assess the impact
of policies and programmes introduced
to address their needs.
- This
study will be relevant to developing indicators specific to Maori children,
especially on the situation of Maori children in
New Zealand.
Sector Specific Data Collection Initiatives
- Some
sectorspecific data collection initiatives have also enhanced the information
available about children.
- The
Social Work Information System (SWIS) used by Child, Youth and Family Services
is designed to record social work interventions
with children, young people and
their families. It uses this information to report to government in aggregate
on key performance
measures that relate to aspects of service delivery. (SWIS
is being replaced by an information system called CYRIS)
- SWIS
also provides information on the number of notifications of alleged child abuse
or neglect and this information can be disaggregated.
For example, information
is available on:
- how many
notifications were sufficiently serious to investigate
- how many
investigated cases led to a finding of substantiated abuse or
neglect
- how many
resulted in emergency protection action
- how many led to
subsequent Family Group Conferences
- how many
resulted in a change in living situation for the child.
- Disaggregations
by demographic characteristics are also possible, including age, gender and
ethnicity data.
- Tracking
in the social services sector means it is now possible to examine the benefit
system for specific children. This makes it
possible, for example, to determine
the length of time that children are continuously dependent on a caregiver that
is reliant on
income support (regardless of changes in caregiver). These give
an insight into the number of children spending extended periods
in poverty.
The Strengthening Families project has also prompted innovative responses to
data sharing. Local initiatives have relied
on agency workers sharing case
information at the local level to ensure service delivery to atrisk families by
different government
agencies is coordinated.
- The
Police have also created a database for collecting hapü/iwi data on Maori
offenders and are currently considering methods
for reliable acquisition of that
data. Presently only ethnicity is recorded a more specific level of data
collection will facilitate
the trend in matching individuals to appropriate
iwibased/hapubased services.
- In
June 1999, the Department of Corrections completed a major information
technology redevelopment. The Integrated Offender Management
System provides a
single offender record that follows all the offender’s sentences/orders,
including any future sentences.
This computerbased system allows key
information to be collected which supports more effective decisionmaking at an
operational
and management level. The department has also developed systems for
measuring its performance in reducing reoffending. The Recidivism
Index will
measure performance on reducing overall rates of reoffending and the
Rehabilitation Quotient will measure performance
on specific rehabilitation and
reintegrative initiatives. Collectively these measures will help prioritise
processes and the purchase
of services to reduce reoffending.
- A
major project is underway to identify and analyse information and reporting
needs for the Family Court to identify the need to further
develop its
database.
- There
are a variety of data collection options that New Zealand wishes to explore
during the next reporting period.
- While
census data provides a sound base of data, other qualitative and quantitative
sources of information should also be developed,
such as:
- creating better
links between universities and research institutions
- getting
nongovernmental and government agencies to work together to gather and
disseminate information
- involving
children and young people in the actual design and collation of
information.
- These
options will be explored when developing the Children’s Policy and
Research Agenda and the Youth Development Strategy.
- Since
1997 indicators of childhood wellbeing have been developed to identify and
measure the social and economic position of children
in New Zealand. The
Ministries of Health, Education and Social Policy have updated these measures
and will continue to update information
and indicators on an annual basis. The
Ministry of Social Policy will develop this further within its work on strategic
social policy.
- Statistics
New Zealand will lead work on reviewing data collection systems. It is
leading a data integration project that proposes
to work on implementing common
data standards and integrating variables. The initial stage of this work
programme is likely to review
current practices and the resulting quality of
data across different agencies and ministries. A recommended work programme
includes
matching datasets, implementing common definitions and output standards
across social administrative datasets. Statistics New Zealand
will provide
progress reports to its Minister annually.
- Other
work that can contribute includes the Child Health Information Strategy that
will link information about children across different
providers. This will
improve children’s and young people’s access to appropriate
services. Submissions concluded that
because child health statistics for the 15
to 17 year olds are missing from the picture, this age group is missing out on
appropriate
health services for their age (see paragraphs 562648 regarding
assessing and improving existing health services).
- The
New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS) is committed to providing
accurate statistics and improving the ethnicity recording
for morbidity and
mortality statistics. NZHIS publishes ethnicity information brochures that
cover what is an ethnic group and why
it is important to ask the question about
ethnicity. Through funding contracts, public hospitals are required to provide
ethnicity
data for all inpatient and daypatient discharges, although outpatient
and accident and emergency information is not available. Doctors
in primary
care are not required to report ethnicity and generally do not collect this
information.
Cooperation with civil society
- There
have been several initiatives in cooperation with civil society, often initiated
by NGOs and frequently revolving around sharing
information and
expertise.
- An
example is the Canterbury Youth Workers Collective’s Global Voice
initiative which grew from meetings with the Ministry of
Youth Affairs and a
representative from Action for Children in Aotearoa, who had been encouraging
the community’s input for
the next NGO report on the Convention. A
working party was formed by the Canterbury Youth Workers Collective to collect
young people’s
views on the Convention. A youth summit was decided as the
most effective forum.
- Global
Voice was held on 26 March 1999 in Christchurch and 256 young people took part.
Workshops were developed around issues raised
by New Zealand’s
Initial Report. The Ministry of Youth Affairs supported Global Voice and
the Prime Minister and Minister of Youth Affairs sent messages of
support.
- Visits
from international experts on children’s rights issues sometimes provides
the opportunity to work with civil society.
For example, the Ministry of Youth
Affairs worked with civil society representatives to facilitate Peter
Newell’s visit in
November 2000 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the
United Nations’ adoption of the Convention. He shared his knowledge
and promoted discussion through:
- a one day
conference (organised by NGOs)
- meetings with
officials from local and central government
- a workshop with
government officials working on the Convention
(Please see paragraph 227.)
- In
1998, Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok was
in New Zealand attending a conference. The Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and
Trade sponsored his visit to Wellington to meet with officials, members of the
legal profession and those
interested in human rights issues. There were also
opportunities to share information with those working on the prevention of child
sexual abuse and child pornography on the internet.
- Also
in 1998 the Ministry of Youth Affairs worked with UNICEF New Zealand to
host a visit by Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of
UNICEF.
Budget allocations relating to children
- Budget
allocations in New Zealand are made sector by sector and allocation for
services to children and their families (except for
specific programmes) are
included in general spending. This poses a challenge for efforts to analyse the
priority given to children
in budget allocation.
- As
part of the Children’s Policy Agenda development and to address the
Committee’s recommendations, the Government will
consider better ways of
tracking its budget allocations relating to children. This information should
provide a basis for future
budget analysis.
- In
the meantime, the Committee’s recommendation (see paragraphs 6769)
highlighted a number of issues about information gaps,
coordination, and
competition within budgets for services for children between prevention services
and expensive remedial services:
- Data and
Evaluation: a lack of data and information is hampering effective policy
development, resource allocation, service delivery
and the agencies’
ability to work together. There remains a need for ongoing evaluation of budget
initiatives.
- Coordination:
better coordination is needed between sectors to ensure that early interventions
target outcomes across all sectors
(health/education/welfare/justice).
- Early
intervention: is demonstrated to be more effective than later interventions in
preventing poor outcomes for children and young
people.
Budget trends
- Budget
priorities are determined by Government’s key policy
objectives.
- Reducing
inequalities has been signalled as a key priority for the
Government.
- The
Government sees that the route toward greater social and economic wellbeing for
communities lies in building the communities’
capacity to better identify
and address their own needs. This approach sees the Government as a facilitator
in developing local
solutions to local problems, rather than providing uniform
solutions at a national level. Maori have made it clear that they see
the
future as built upon the principle of “by Maori for Maori”. The
challenge for Government is not simply to “do
things for Maori” but
to ensure Maori can do things for themselves.
- The
Government has also increased budget allocations for Pacific children and
children in low income families.
- Prior
to the change of Government, there have been a number of budget allocations
giving priority to children, particularly in the
following Strategic Priority
Areas:
- strengthen
families by intervening to break cycles of disadvantage
- improve
individual’s employment outcomes by expecting and encouraging active
participation in work
- significantly
improve the health, employment, education and housing status of Maori by
ensuring better targeting and delivery of services
- prevent youth
offending and reoffending by coordinated interagency and communitybased
action.
- A
wide variety of budget initiatives contributed to these strategic areas.
Emphasis was placed on developing an intersectoral strategy
that meets the
particular needs of Maori children and young people.
Information about budget and income distribution
- Information
has been gathered about budget and income distribution, particularly with
reference to the growth in economic disparities.
This information is used in
policy and budget decisions.
- For
example, the Treasury’s work on the Changes in New Zealand’s
Income Distribution found that income inequality rose in the 1980s and 1990s
in New Zealand.[2] The
rate of growth was fastest in the 1980s. New Zealand’s level of
income inequality has risen substantially relative to
the levels in other OECD
countries. The paper looked at factors contributing to income inequality which
included:
- changes in
household composition (such as the growth in singleparent households and older
households without children)
- the growing
proportion of workers in their prime earning years
- the growing
proportion of workers with higher educational qualifications.
- The
National Health Committee compiled information on the determinants of health,
which are attributed to economic reforms.
- The
Office of the Commissioner for Children is planning to produce a publication at
the end of 2000 on child abuse that will include
comment on the linkages between
poverty and other socioeconomic indicators.
- The
Ministry of Social Policy is conducting research into household living standards
that will provide information on the economic
circumstances of children,
and further research on the determinants of those living standards. This
initial work is due in May 2001.
A second research programme is on family
dynamics and family effectiveness. This Ministry has also commissioned a
literature review
to investigate the effects on children of living in families
reliant on income support.
- The
last five years have seen a number of changes in the means test applicable to
various forms of social assistance. Specifically,
many families have become
eligible for increased assistance and some families (who previously didn’t
qualify) are now able
to receive social assistance. The major change has been
the taxation surcharge removal (income test) applicable to New Zealand
superannuation
and the introduction of a more generous abatement regime for
working age beneficiaries. Additional social assistance was made available
to
low to middle income nonbeneficiary families.
- While
income tests are based on beforetax income, the aftertax income retained by many
families increased as a result of the tax rate
reductions of 1 July 1996 and 1
July 1998. In particular, the secondary tax rate applied to the nonbenefit
earnings of beneficiaries
was reduced from 28 percent to
21 percent.
- The
following changes over the past five years are considered to be
relevant:
- 1 July 1996:
Increasing to $80 per week (from $50 per week or $60 for people with children)
the amount of other income beneficiaries
can earn before their main benefit is
reduced.
- 1 July 1996:
Introducing a more generous benefit abatement regime for domestic purposes,
widows and invalid beneficiaries, designed
to encourage greater participation in
part time work.
- 1 July 1996:
Income thresholds applying to the tax surcharge for recipients of
New Zealand Superannuation who had other income increased.
- 1 April 1998:
Removing the tax surcharge for recipients of New Zealand Superannuation who
had other income.
- 1 April 2000:
Increasing rates of New Zealand Superannuation (over and above the annual
CPI adjustment).
- Increasing the
income thresholds for the community services card (1 July 1996, 1 July 1997
and 1 April 2000).
- Increasing rates
of family support (1 July 1996, 1 July 1997 and 1 January
1998).
- Introducing the
child tax credit (1 July 1996) and its subsequent increase
(1 July 1997) for nonbeneficiary families.
- Introducing the
parental tax credit (1 October 1999) for nonbeneficiary
families.
- The
Department of Labour undertook research on changes in income
disparities.[3] It focused on
the changes that took place in the dispersion (or inequality) of wage and salary
earnings in New Zealand between 1984
and 1997. The purpose was to describe
in detail what changes occurred, not to explain their causes.
- One
important reason for studying the distribution of earnings is that the wage
structure influences the level of New Zealanders’
incomes, and hence
their wellbeing.
- Key
findings of the study include:
- There were
increases in the inequality of hourly and weekly earnings in New Zealand
between 1984 and 1997. The real wages and weekly
earnings of higher paid
employees grew more rapidly than those of lower paid employees over this
period.
- Much of the
growth in earnings inequality occurred between 1984 to 1990, and 1995 to
1997. The changes were slower between 1990 and
1995.
- Differences in
average earnings between workers with different levels of educational
qualifications became larger, particularly during
the 1980s. There was less
change in educational earnings differentials during the 1990s.
- Most of the
growth in earnings inequality occurred within groups of workers with similar
levels of education and age.
- In international
terms, the growth of earnings inequality in New Zealand over this period
was relatively substantial, although it
was not as rapid as the growth recorded
in the United States and the United Kingdom.
- Growth in the
dispersion of earnings is unlikely to have a single cause. Studies of the
causes of rising wage inequality in other
countries suggest that technological
change, the expansion of international trade, changes in the industrial
composition of employment
and reductions in the density of union coverage have
all played a role. Presently there is a lack of New Zealand research
evidence
on the relative importance of these possible causes.
- Inequality was
rising both before and after the enactment of the Employment Contracts Act. The
question of whether or not changes in labour legislation made any contribution
to the rise in earnings inequality could not
be properly addressed through this
study.
- Low
family income impacts on early childhood education participation and
achievement. The childcare subsidy is available to assist
lowincome families
with the cost of early childhood education, although eligibility is reduced if
parents are not working or training.
The Ministry of Education is exploring
other options to reduce financial barriers to early childhood education
participation, such
as access to transport and ability to meet sessional fees.
Lowincome families have less ability to pay for “extras”
related to
their children’s education, but schoolage education remains free and
income is not a significant barrier to participation
in the essential elements
of schooling as set out in the New Zealand curriculum. At the tertiary
level, student allowances are targeted
to students from lowincome households,
and student loans also help to overcome financial barriers to
participation.
C. International cooperation
- A
feature of Pacific communities in New Zealand is the strength of their
ongoing links with Pacific countries of origin. There is
therefore a close
correlation between poverty alleviation efforts in New Zealand and the
objectives of the New Zealand Official Development
Assistance (NZODA)
Programme in developing countries in the South Pacific.
- NZODA
emphasises support for strong economic enterprise based on:
- developing human
and cultural resources
- social
development (particularly education and health)
- promoting the
role of women, minorities and other disadvantaged groups
- recognising the
importance of the environment and the effective management of natural
resources.
- Many
of these objectives mirror domesticallyfocussed initiatives. New Zealand
is currently considering the implementation of a children’s
policy,
including a reference to the “First Call for Children”, to guide the
NZODA administration.
- The
New Zealand Government is exploring some of these synergies in more detail,
through:
- a series of
seminars on the NZODA programme amongst Pacific community groups in
New Zealand cities
- focussing on
NZODA experience in small business development
- exploring the
scope for greater involvement of suitably qualified New Zealandresident
Pacific peoples in the NZODA programme.
- Health
is another area where there is a direct link between NZODA efforts to improve
health indicators in the region and the health
of Pacific communities in
New Zealand.
D. Measures to make the principles and provisions
of the
Convention widely known
- A
variety of measures have been taken to make the principles and provisions of the
Convention widely known. However, feedback to
the government suggests knowledge
about the Convention and its principles is limited. Many people in
consultations on the draft
report referred to the lack of public knowledge about
the Convention and talked of the blank faces that greeted any mention of the
Convention. As one person put it, “It worries me that I am active in the
youth community of New Zealand and I had never heard
anything about it
before I was sent this package” (referring to “Keeping
New Zealand’s Promise” the information
kit published by Youth
Affairs).
- The
results of the Article 42 Project (see paragraphs 231234) indicate that
New Zealand still has progress to make to ensure the principles
and
provisions of the Convention are widely known to children. Increasing the
awareness of children and young people, those working
with or caring for them,
and officials therefore remains a priority. New Zealand sees more work
needs to be done to raise awareness
about the existence of the Convention and
encourage its use in policy development and practice.
Translation
- In
September 1999, on the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention by the
United Nations, Te Puni Kokiri and the Office
of the Commissioner for
Children jointly published a booklet, United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (Annex 24). The booklet was produced as a bilingual
version in both Maori and English to mark the United Nations International
Decade
of the World’s Indigenous People, which runs
from 1995 to 2005.
- Additionally
a colourful poster was produced in English and Maori summarising
children’s rights (Annex 25).
Measures to publicise the Convention numbers of
meetings, broadcasts and publications
- Following
New Zealand’s Initial Report, a number of steps were taken to
publicise the Convention’s principles and provisions. The Initial
Report was published in November 1995 and distributed to government
agencies. In 1997 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Human
Rights
Division, produced a bulletin (Annex 9) about the presentation of the Initial
Report and distributed it to nongovernmental organisations and other
interested parties and organisations.
- In
November 1999, several steps were taken to publicise the 10th anniversary of the
signing of the Convention. The Ministry of Youth
Affairs supported Peter
Newell’s visit (see paragraph 193) which:
- raised awareness
of the Convention amongst New Zealanders
- provided
information on the reporting process
- shared practical
information regarding the implementation of the Convention into all facets of
New Zealand society
- stimulated
discussion on the ways that everyone can promote and protect the wellbeing of
children and young people
- prompted
meetings with NGOs and community people, local bodies and government
officials
- received media
attention.
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs has held several meetings to publicise the Convention
and foster open communication with NGOs. These
meetings have been held in
Auckland (approximately 10 meetings), Wellington (approximately 10 meetings) and
Christchurch (approximately
two meetings). The Ministry publishes a newsletter
twice a year that often has an item on the Convention. In addition there is
some information on its website (www.youthaffairs.govt.nz).
- Various
Ministers of Youth Affairs (there have been four during the reporting period)
have raised the Convention in speeches and presentations.
Steps to make the Convention known to children
- There
have been a variety of steps taken to make the Convention known to children.
However the level of awareness amongst children
is still very
limited.
Article 42 Consultation Project
- In
early 1997 the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Commissioner for Children were
approached by Linda Gilbert, an advocate for children,
and asked to support a
project that had the following aims:
- to find out how
many young people had heard of the Convention and what aspects they would like
to know more about
- to obtain young
people’s advice on ways other young people can be involved in developing
and producing future resources about
the Convention
- to ask young
people how they contribute to decisions about themselves.
- A
Youth Advisory Group worked with Linda Gilbert (who was the project coordinator)
on the project. Information was collected through
a survey. Over 1,000
children and young people responded. Five outreach education sessions were also
conducted with various groups
of adults and young people.
Fiftythree percent of children and young people who answered the survey
knew about rights that children
have but only 23 percent knew about the
Convention.
- Based
on this, the Youth Advisory Group and project coordinator made a series of
recommendations (see Annex 26) including:
- working through
schools to let young people know about the Convention
- developing
policy guidelines so local youth groups and city councils can produce
appropriate information and resources about the Convention
at their local
level
- ensuring
information about the Convention is produced in a variety of
ways.
- As
yet there has been no specific response to these
recommendations.
Global Voice
- Global
Voice was an initiative of the Canterbury Youth Workers Collective (see
paragraphs 191192 above).The information and learning
from Global Voice are
available to help other children and young people take part in the reporting
process.
Children’s Policy and Research Agenda
- The
Convention is fundamental to the Children’s Policy and Research Agenda.
It will be one vehicle by which young people will
be better informed about the
Convention in general (see paragraphs 143147).
Tearaway Magazine
- Tearaway
is a magazine for children and young people. It has a readership of
over 260,000 of 10 years of age and over. It is delivered through
secondary schools and McDonalds’ Restaurants. The Ministry of Youth
Affairs has a page in Tearaway eight times a year that has been used
several times to provide information about children’s rights and the
Convention.
Education to public officials
- Education
for public officials working on policy has largely been through meetings and
comments on draft papers. The Ministry of
Youth Affairs has hosted several
meetings and seminars with other departments to raise awareness about the
Convention and its application
to policy work.
- As
noted above in paragraph 107, in July 1999 a network was established to provide
a forum for officials working on various policy
initiatives to work through
children’s rights issues with colleagues from other departments.
Training of professional groups
- There
has been very limited training of professional groups on the Convention. All
staff working in specialist units in prisons receive
training about UNCROC.
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs has also completed some basic awareness raising with
limited numbers of police officers, trainee teachers
and nurses.
Incorporation on professional training curricula and codes
of conduct
- There
has not been much development in this area during the reporting period. The
Government is aware of one youth worker collective
which has incorporated the
Convention into its code of ethics, and one more that is planning
to.
Steps to promote understanding by mass media
- There
have been few steps taken by government to promote understanding of the
Convention by the mass media. The main measure has
been to promote visiting
experts and facilitate interviews with them (see paragraphs
193195).
- NGOs
have been effective in raising awareness of the Convention within the mass
media, especially the print media.
Participation of nongovernment organisations in awareness
raising
- As
noted above NGOs were active in raising awareness. Many of the measures noted
above have been undertaken at the initiation of
nongovernment agencies and often
with government and nongovernment agencies working together. An area where
these partnerships have
been particularly fruitful is in facilitating visits by
overseas experts on the Convention and making sure their knowledge is shared
with as many people as possible.
PART 2: DEFINITION OF THE CHILD
Introduction
- As
noted in New Zealand’s Initial Report (see paragraphs 16 to
28), there is no overarching law in New Zealand that defines a
“child”. Since then there have
been very few changes to legal age
limits affecting children. (Please see paragraphs 3948 for
New Zealand’s proposed response
to the UN Committee’s concerns
on this issue.)
Sale of tobacco
- The
Smokefree Environments Act 1993 was amended in 1997 to make it an offence to
sell tobacco products to anyone under 18 (previously
the age limit was 16 years
of age).
Minimum age below which children shall be presumed not to
have the capacity to infringe the penal law
- Paragraphs
29 to 31 of the Initial Report set out the age of criminal liability in
New Zealand. New Zealanders have debated whether the age limits for
prosecution of criminal
offences should be lowered. However, there has been no
law change and minimum ages have remained the same throughout the reporting
period. (See paragraphs 3943.)
Ages in employment
- No
new age limits for the employment of young people have been implemented. The
Department of Labour worked with the Ministry of
Youth Affairs to consider new
age limits as part of the youth minimum wage review. Specifically they
considered lowering the age
of the adult minimum wage rate from 20 years to 18
years of age. Government has not yet made decisions on the youth minimum wage
review.
- The
focus in employment legislation is on providing protections for all employees.
Employment legislation does not provide any specific
definition of a child
(young people have the same employment rights as other employees). There
are, however, age limits for types
of employment prescribed in the
Education Act 1989 requiring that children under 16 cannot be employed
during school hours. There
are also minimum wage rates specified (see
paragraph 924) for those young people aged between 16 and 19 years,
employed outside of
school hours.
Access to youth units in prisons
- As
submissions pointed out, the age ranges for the Specialist Youth Units for young
male offenders do not conform to the definition
of a child under the Convention.
Only young men aged under 17 years are automatically placed in youth units.
However, those aged
17 years and older are placed in youth units if vulnerable
in adult prisons. (See paragraph 908.)
Consistency in age limits
- The
lack of consistency in age limits affecting children creates confusion and
concerns children and young people. The Ministry of
Youth Affairs’
booklet Does Your Policy Need An Age Limit? A Guide to Youth Ages from
the Ministry of Youth Affairs (see paragraph 46) encourages policy makers to
avoid discrimination and develop a consistent approach to the treatment of young
people,
and respect for their active participation in society. It provides
information about the Convention and guidelines for its use in
determining
whether an age limit is necessary and, if so, what that age limit should be. (A
copy of the booklet is attached as Annex
2.)
Changes to Minimum Drinking Age and Juries Act
- Two
areas in which the law has changed to reflect the definition of a child as
someone under 18 years of age are changes to the minimum
drinking age and the
age at which it possible to serve on a jury. Both developments are in areas
traditionally regarded as markers
of adulthood so, by implication, they reflect
a growing acceptance that, in line with the Convention, children under the age
of 18
are entitled to special protection.
- Amendments
to the Sale of Liquor Act in 1999 lowered the minimum legal drinking age from 20
years to 18 years. People under 18 years may be given liquor on licensed
premises, other than restricted areas, but only by a parent or guardian
accompanying them. The Sale of Liquor Act 1989 regulates
the sale and supply of
liquor from licensed premises. Consumption of alcohol by minors in private
homes is not regulated by law.
To assist in implementing this law change, an
evidence of age document for minors has also been introduced, such as a
driver’s
licence or a New Zealand or overseas passport. The
documents are not mandatory, but are likely to be requested by liquor suppliers
to ensure that they are not selling alcohol to underage youths or permitting
minors to be in restricted or supervised areas of licensed
premises. There is
no restriction on the age of the seller of liquor except those who sell and
supply liquor in restricted areas
of licensed premises.
- The
Police support the recent amendments to the Sale of Liquor Act because
enforcement has been made easier. There is now greater
clarity in the law.
Evidence of age cards are seen as facilitating identification and enforcement.
The onus is on the licensees
to check ages, and large penalties are in place for
licensees who default. Infringement notices for minor offending make
enforcement
easier and more streamlined. They also result in a lesser
penalty.
- The
Ministry of Health and the Alcohol Advisory Council are concerned that
lowering the legal drinking age and the increased availability
of alcohol
to young people has resulted in alcohol related harm. Studies indicate that,
since the law change, fewer young people
are electing not to drink, and
that more of those that do are engaging in bingestyle drinking.
- In
response to these trends, government agencies have convened two Youth and
Alcohol Summits to develop strategies to address youth
drinking, and further
research is being conducted to establish whether lowering the legal drinking age
to 18 has led to lowering
the “effective” drinking age to 17, 16 or
younger.
- The
Juries Amendment Act reduced the lower age limit to participate in juries
from 20 to 18 years, effective from 30 July
2000.
PART 3: GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Introduction
- Part
3 reports on how the general principles of UNCROC apply in New Zealand.
They are:
- best interests
of the child
- the right to
life, survival and development
- respect for the
views of the child.
- There
are measures in place to protect children’s rights in these areas such as
the Human Rights Act 1992 (which protects children
from discrimination), the
Guardianship Act 1968 and the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act
1989 (which both have a best
interests principle). The steps being taken to
prevent the leading causes of mortality amongst children (Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome,
youth suicide and motor vehicle crashes) are also noted, as is the
increasing recognition of a child’s right to have a say
in matters that
affect them, and to have their views respected.
- Nevertheless
public submissions suggest that New Zealand needs to do more to respect
these general principles, which are central to
effective implementation of the
Convention as a whole.
A. Nondiscrimination (article 2)
- The
legal framework to protect from discrimination has not changed during the
porting period (see paragraphs 32 to 34 of the Initial Report). However,
as noted in paragraphs 113122, in the light of the Consistency 2000
project, New Zealand has reviewed the Human Rights
Act 1993.
- Complaints
about unlawful discrimination on the basis of age may be made to the Human
Rights Commission and a number have been made,
including complaints from senior
citizens.
- Submissions
suggested that the extent to which children and young people face discrimination
is not really known since these complaints
are rarely made to the Human Rights
Commission. A submission from a group of young people suggested that there was
discrimination
in schools and that teachers were too busy to deal with it. It
was felt by others (adults) that very little is known about the extent
of
discrimination.
- Submissions
made it clear that, in a more general way, children and young people do face
discrimination. For example, they may be
banned or not welcome in certain areas
because they are seen as noisy and disruptive. They may be targeted by Police
to a greater
degree and by shop
owners who are more likely to see young people as potential shoplifters than
adults. It was also suggested that Maori have a particularly
difficult time and
are “picked on” by teachers, Police and other young people.
Age discrimination
- Under
section 21(i)(i) of the Human Rights Act 1993 the definition of the
“age” ground of discrimination does not include
people under 16
years. Nevertheless, they are not excluded from all provisions of the Human
Rights Act 1993. For example, subject
to the generally applicable exclusions of
the Act, children may not be discriminated against by reason of their sex, race
or family
status.
- Submissions
showed concern that people under 16 years old are not included in the age
discrimination provisions of the Human Rights
Act and can be discriminated
against simply because they are children.
- Before
the lower age limit in the Human Rights Act 1993 could be removed or adjusted,
substantial work needs to be done to carefully
evaluate the implications of the
change and identify whether any new, corresponding exemptions would also be
required.
- Human
rights protections in New Zealand are currently being reevaluated (see
paragraphs 54 and 122) and the definitions of the prohibited
grounds of
discrimination may be reexamined. However, it is not expected that a review of
the lower age of 16 years will take place
in the near future.
Discrimination against children with
disabilities
- Discrimination
against children with a disability is an issue for New Zealand and was an
area of great concern in submissions. Generally,
the view was expressed that
parents and families with a child with a disability have a particularly hard
time. The Human Rights
Commission confirms this, reporting that it is one of
the major issues raised with them.
- The
Human Rights Act 1993 offers legal protection against discrimination on the
basis of disability and the Human Rights Commission
is frequently contacted by
parents of children with special needs who believe that their children’s
human rights have been
breached. Many of these complaints or inquiries relate
to discriminatory enrolment refusal, students with disabilities not being
catered for at schools, or students being excluded from schools for reasons
which directly or indirectly relate to their disabilities.
- The
definition of disability according to the Human Rights Act 1993 is quite broad
and includes:
- physical,
intellectual or psychological disability or impairment
- physical or
psychiatric illness
- any loss or
abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure
or function
- reliance on a
guide dog, wheel chair or other remedial means
- the presence in
the body of organisms capable of causing illness.
- Different
government agencies funding services for people with disabilities may have
slightly different (often narrower) definitions
of disability on which they base
access and eligibility criteria. The Ministry of Health’s definition to
determine who is
eligible for government funded Disability Support Services
is:
“A person with a disability is a person who has been identified as
having a physical, psychiatric, intellectual, sensory or
agerelated disability
(or a combination of these) which is likely to continue for a minimum of six
months and result in a reduction
of independent functioning to the extent that
ongoing support is required.”
- The
Ministry of Health acknowledges that its definition can cause problems for some
children and their parents, and it has plans to
review it.
- (Information
about the services and support available to children with disabilities is
contained in paragraphs 553561 and paragraphs
707719.)
Other discrimination issues
- Other
examples submissions cited include:
- The Yellow
Triangle scheme introduced by Police in Christchurch in an attempt to cut down
car thefts. Car owners who elect to take
part in the Yellow Triangle Scheme
stick yellow triangles on their car if people under the age of 25 are not
supposed to be driving
it. The Police will automatically stop a car with a
yellow sticker if someone who appears to be under 25 years is driving it.
Opponents
are concerned that it discriminates against young people. The Police
believe that the yellow sticker scheme does not discriminate
against young
people and that it is a useful crime prevention tool.
- Fingerprinting
of children. (Information about the issues of fingerprinting children and young
persons is provided in paragraph 869.)
Sexual harassment
- In
1996 the Human Rights Commission developed a resource Preventing Sexual
Harassment in Schools after schools requested assistance in developing a
learning environment free from sexual harassment. The resource combines the
knowledge,
expertise, and practical experience of teachers, school guidance
counsellors and students who have been involved in developing and
implementing
sexual harassment policies and procedures within their own schools.
B. Best interests of the child (article 3)
- New Zealand
continues to affirm the principle of the best interests of the child. However,
submissions raised concern that the “best
interests of the child”
concept is not driving policy. It is anticipated that developing the
Children’s Policy and Research
Agenda will help to address this (see
paragraphs 3537 and 143150).
- Under
the Guardianship Act 1968 the welfare of the child must always be the first and
paramount consideration in guardianship, custody
and access matters. However,
while the Act clearly states that the welfare of the child must be the first and
paramount consideration,
much of the Act focuses on the custody and access
rights of the parents. The current law relating to custody, access and
guardianship
is under review and will consider whether there should be a greater
emphasis on children’s rights (rather than the rights of
parents) to
advance children’s welfare or best interests. The discussion paper
Responsibilities for Children: especially when
parents part expressly asks
whether more can be done to comply with the Convention’s principles in
this area (see paragraphs
417418).
- Under
the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989, the welfare and
interests of the child or young person are the first
and paramount
consideration, regarding principles set out in sections 5 and 13 of the
Act.
- The
Adoption Act 1955 does not contain a paramountcy provision. This Act is also
currently under review and it is likely that the
review will consider this
issue.
- The
principle of the “best interests of the child” has influenced
Department for Courts’ work on:
- the role of
Counsel for the Child (see paragraphs 331332)
- the supervised
access protocol and Practice Note (see paragraph 536)
- the development
of the joint protocol with the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services
and Practice Note (see paragraphs 537538).
- During
2000 the Ministry of Social Policy’s research project An investigation
into understandings of “good outcomes”
for children in
New Zealand investigated how the concept of “good childhood
outcomes” was understood by families who
are raising children and by
workers who provide assistance to families. It recorded the views of parents
and caregivers, their children
and agency workers/providers. Particular
attention was paid to differences between Pakeha, Maori and Pacific families and
providers.
C. The right to life, survival and development (article
6)
(Please also refer to paragraphs 486489 and
562578)
- New Zealand
continues to affirm the right to life as a civil and political right of
children. There have been a number of judicial
cases affirming this right,
particularly in relation to providing medical treatment.
- In
relation to survival and development, mortality rates for children are highest
in the first year of life. The total infant death
rate has continued to decline
(from 7.2 per 1,000 live births in 1994, to 5.7 per 1,000 live births in
1998). Although the Mäori
infant mortality rate declined more rapidly over
the past half century, it remains significantly higher than nonMäori, a
difference
mainly attributable to a higher incidence of Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome (SIDS). By 1998 the Mäori rate was 9.5 per 1,000
live births.
For Pacific infants, the mortality rate was consistently lower than the
European/Other rate until the mid1980s, but
since then it has been higher on
average. In 1996 it was estimated at 7.3 per 1,000 live births. It should be
noted, however, that
the Pacific peoples rate shows wide fluctuations from year
to year because of the small numbers in both the numerator and the
denominator.
- SIDS
is the leading cause of death for both Maori and nonMaori children under one
year. However, the Maori rate for SIDS has been
consistently higher than
nonMaori at least over the last decade, and decreased only 12.7 percent
over the period 1985 to 1994, compared
to a 62.2 percent decrease for the
nonMaori population. Rates tend to fluctuate over the years because of the
small numbers involved,
but a Ministry of Health analysis of infant deaths
showed that the Maori SIDS rate (6.9 per 1000) was five times higher that the
nonMaori rate (1.4 per 1000).
- For
children over one year of age, motor vehicles are the leading cause of death.
(See paragraphs 645648.) During the reporting period
a number of public
education campaigns have aimed to raise awareness about the use of car seats for
children, seatbelts and road
safety, particularly among young drivers. The need
for ongoing education and awareness raising about infant mortality and road
safety
is a key issue. Reduction in mortality rates is the primary
focus.
- New
initiatives aimed at decreasing disparities in child health outcomes (see below)
are expected to have a positive impact on the
health of tamariki Maori, Pacific
peoples and other children at risk of poor health outcomes because of social and
economic disadvantage.
- The
government is addressing the need for education and raising awareness about
child survival and development in a number of ways.
In 1998 the Ministries of
Health and Education and the then Department of Social Welfare introduced the
Family Start Programme for
parents with new born babies (see paragraphs 402404).
Increased assistance, especially home visits for mothers with young babies,
is a
particular priority (see paragraph 617).
Youth suicide
- The
New Zealand youth suicide rate is now amongst the highest in the OECD
(OECD 1999). Care should be taken in interpreting international
comparisons of suicide rates, as the accuracy and completeness of recording
suicide on death certificates varies across cultures,
depending on the social
stigmatisation and legal implications associated with suicide in
different societies. Nevertheless, it is clear that in New Zealand
young people (15 to 24 years) are over represented in suicide
statistics
compared with all other age groups. Youth suicides represented 25 percent
of total suicides in 1997, despite youth aged
15 to 24 making up
only 14 percent of the population.
- Although
the numbers of suicide deaths for all young people under 18 years are relatively
small, there was a significant increase
between 1995 and 1996 (from 28 to 43)
and a drop to 38 in 1997. The number of suicides for young people under 15
years increased
to 13 in 1998 (nine Maori), up from eight in 1997 (four
Maori) and seven in 1996 (four Maori). Although still small in actual numbers,
this increase concerns the government.
- The
male youth suicide rate has always been much higher than the female rate and
was 3.8 times higher in 1997. The rate for males
almost doubled from 1985
to 1989, but in the following eight years increased only a further
eight percent. In contrast to the trend
in young men, suicide rates for
young women held steady in the late 1980s and even declined a little during the
early 1990s, but
then the rate doubled from 1993 to 1996. For females, the
highest number of deaths both in 1997 and 1998 was in the 15 to 19 year
age
group.
- The
New Zealand Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy was released in March 1998 to
provide a framework to understand what suicide prevention
is and the steps
government agencies, communities, service providers, Maori whanau, hapu and iwi
must take to reduce suicide. The
strategy has two components:
- In Our
Hands (Annex 5) is the general population strategy
- Kia Piki Te
Ora o te Taitamariki (Annex 5) specifically supports Maori efforts to reduce
suicide among rangatahi Maori.
- In
Our Hands aims to reduce suicide for all youth. It is based on the known
risk and protective factors for suicide and outlines the optimal
points for
intervention to interrupt the various pathways to suicide. This approach
involves promoting:
- research and
information.
- Kia
Piki te Ora o te Taitamariki is specifically designed from a Maori cultural
development framework. It recognises that whänau, hapü and iwi are
the
basis of Maori society and reflects a strong community development approach
to promote resiliency factors such as cultural identity
and belonging.
- These
approaches were based on evidence from New Zealand and international
research and best practice. There is also a growing body
of research into
suicide in New Zealand that continues to guide prevention responses. For
example:
- the government
is currently funding (via the Health Research Council) five research
projects on suicide
- government
agencies maintain a close eye on international developments in research and best
practice
- New Zealand
is a member country of the World Health Organisation Worldwide Initiative on
Suicide Prevention (SUPRE) and the International
Association of Suicide
Prevention (IASP).
- The
Ministry of Health has the leadership role for promoting, coordinating and
communicating the Strategy’s implementation.
A Ministerial and
InterAgency Committee have also been formed to oversee the governmentlevel
implementation of the Strategy.
- A
work programme for government agencies was agreed in May 1999. The first
two years of implementation have a strong focus on providing
information
and best practice guidance to ensure that those people who have contact with
“at risk” young people and those
who are suicidal, can identify and
respond appropriately to them. Examples of new resources developed under the
work programme include:
- Guidelines
for Primary Care Providers: Detection and Management of Young People at Risk of
Suicide (Annex 27), published by the Royal New Zealand College of
General Practitioners and funded by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Health
Funding Authority
- Guidelines
for Schools on the Prevention, Recognition and Management of Young People at
Risk of Suicide (Annex 28), published by the Ministry of Education and the
National Health Committee
- Towards
wellbeing. Te Kahu o Te Aorangi (Annex 29), guidelines for Department of
Child, Youth and Family social workers.
- Possible
future priorities are being considered, including:
- working more
closely with communities to encourage and support local responses to the
prevention of suicide
- ensuring all
existing and proposed suicide prevention initiatives are appropriate and
responsive to the needs of Maori
- making sure that
the development of guidelines and best practice resources are followed up by
ongoing training, implementation and
evaluation.
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs funds Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand
(SPINZ) which is a national service that collects,
manages and disseminates
advice and information to the community on youth suicide and youth suicide
prevention. Child, Youth and
Family Service’s key response to the
Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy is the Youth Services Strategy (see paragraphs
877879)
which includes a practice model. The practice model comprises a number
of tools to identify and assess the risk levels of young
people
aged 14 to 16 years, including the risk of suicide. Once risk is
assessed, the strategy enables appropriate specialist care
and programmes to be
provided. Additionally, the Police are reviewing their procedures for managing
suicides in police cells. These
revised procedures will specifically include
information on the managing young people and Maori.
- The
Government is currently reassessing the youth suicide prevention work
programme.
D. Respect for the views of the child (article 12)
- Recognition
of children’s rights to participate in decisions that affect them has
increased. There seems to be general acceptance
that participation by children
is good for them and society as a whole. Best practice issues and how to ensure
participation is
meaningful for children are now being considered. For example,
submissions suggested that best practice guidelines on consulting
with children
would be a useful resource. The Ministry of Youth Affairs is working in this
area which is also included within the
terms of reference for the
Children’s Policy Reference Group and is a key element in the
Children’s Policy and Research
Agenda.
Encouraging Participation by Children
Prime Minister’s Youth Advisory Forum
- The
Prime Minister’s Youth Advisory Forum was established in 1998. Modelled
on other advisory forums, such as the Business
Advisory Council, the Prime
Minister’s Youth Advisory Forum aims to provide 15 young
New Zealanders, aged between 12 and 25,
with the opportunity to meet three
times a year with Cabinet Ministers, including the Prime
Minister.
- The
Forum was initiated by the Minister of Youth Affairs and received an
enthusiastic response with more than 230 young people applying
to be members.
The selection criteria aimed to establish a Forum with a crosssection of young
people from different ethnic groups,
a variety of geographical, rural and urban
backgrounds, and with different educational, employment and life
experiences.
- The
Forum’s aim is to provide a system where a group of children and young
people can speak directly and frankly to the Prime
Minister of the day about
issues that concern them. Members’ views can be sought on all matters
concerning the government,
not just issues considered to be relevant to children
and young people. During the Forum members identify the issues for discussion
and the Ministers they will meet for the next meeting. Ministers can also set
topics for discussion.
- Issues
discussed so far include student loans, bullying in schools, drugs and alcohol,
the treatment of young people by Police, and
strengthening families.
- As
the Forum evolves it will need to develop its own policies and procedures so
that it can become a valued and respected institution
that continues to exist
irrespective of its changing membership or changes in Government. The
Government is currently reviewing
the role and functions of the
Forum.
Youth Parliament
- Another
example of children’s voices in public life is the Youth Parliament that
is held every three years.
- A
young person is chosen by each Member of the House to take their place in
Parliament. Selection methods vary, with some representatives
being voted in by
their peers in a particular region or school, and others being selected by the
relevant Member of Parliament, frequently
through skillbased competitions such
as speech or essay writing.
- The
first Youth Parliament was held for one day in 1994. The second and third were
held over two days and included a Youth Press
Gallery.
- At
each session of the Youth Parliament a mock Bill is debated (the first was on
lowering the drinking age, the second on parity between
student allowances and
the unemployment benefit and the third on the partial decriminalisation of
cannabis for personal use). Alternatively,
Youth Ministers can take part in the
general debate, speaking on an issue of their choice. Copies of the official
record of the
parliamentary debates (Hansard) for the 1977 and 2000 Youth
Parliaments are attached (Annex 30 and 31).
- The
programme for each day follows the usual parliamentary timetable as closely as
possible. Youth Ministers sit as members of select
committees to hear reports
from ministries and departments, and conduct inquiries. There is a question
time held in the House of
Representatives with the “real” Ministers
of the Crown answering questions from the Youth Ministers. The debates and
questions are presided over by the Speaker of the House and published in Hansard
and broadcast live on National Radio.
- In
addition to being a training exercise in parliamentary procedures, Youth
Parliament provides young people with an opportunity to
express their views on
issues of their choice. Because their views are recorded they can be a helpful
resource for policy development.
For example, Youth Affairs used the issues
raised in the 1994 Youth Parliament debate on lowering the drinking age in its
submission
to the Liquor Review Advisory Committee in 1997.
Voice of children in social services
- Child,
Youth and Family and the Ministry of Social Policy have developed a research
agenda that includes children and young people’s
direct experience with
social services. Items include:
- evaluating the
Youth Services Strategy (see paragraphs 877878)
- Outcomes of Care
and Protection Family Group Conferences (including an Out of Family Care
Environmental Scan)
- Outcomes of
Youth Justice Family Group Conferences
- evaluating
Barnados Models of Care Demonstration Project
- evaluating
Social Workers in Schools Strategy (see paragraphs 804806)
- evaluating
Wraparound Service Strategy (see paragraphs 405409)
- evaluating
Programmes for Maori Youth at Risk.
- Under
the Grant in Aid Programme for Postgraduate research (administered by the
Ministry of Social Policy and Child, Youth and Family),
there have been specific
grants made to projects focussed on ensuring children’s voices are heard.
The list includes nine
research and publication items directly relevant to
delivering social services to children and young people.
International Human Rights
- The
New Zealand delegation to the 18th Session of the Working Group on
Indigenous Populations included two indigenous (Maori) youth
representatives,
one was a high school student (under 18 years), the other a university
student.
Local Councils
- Government
acknowledges the work by several local councils to listen and promote
children’s participation in decisionmaking.
For example, the Christchurch
City Council demonstrated its commitment to listening to what children have to
say and incorporating
their views. Its Children’s Policy states the
council’s commitment “to promoting the healthy, happy development
of
children to their full potential, both as children now and for the future
wellbeing of our community”.
- The
Council also has a Youth Policy that incorporates an explicit outcome:
“The views of young people are sought and taken into
account in the
development of the Council’s policies and
activities”.
- To
implement these policies, the Council adopted a Strategy for Children which uses
the key messages “every policy affects children”
and “every
adult an advocate for children”.
- Several
other Councils around the country have also developed child and youth policies,
appointed child and youth advocates and supported
youth
councils.
Youth Affairs Student Representatives in Schools
Scheme
- Each
year the Ministry of Youth Affairs invites all the schools in New Zealand
with students over the age of 11 years to appoint a
Youth Affairs Student
Representative.
- The
purpose of the scheme is to:
- provide
information to young people about issues which affect them
- encourage young
people to be involved in decisionmaking
- increase young
people’s contact with and understanding of the role and work of the
Ministry and Minister of Youth Affairs
- provide
opportunities for school, community and government decisionmakers to hear the
views of young people.
- The
key role of a Youth Affairs Student Representative is to:
- act as a link
between the Minister and Ministry of Youth Affairs, and their
school
- share
information provided by the Minister and Ministry of Youth Affairs with other
students at their school.
- Each
Student Representative is appointed for a year and is asked to do a variety of
tasks including:
- receive,
distribute and display information
- survey student
opinion on various topics and inform Youth Affairs
- advise Youth
Affairs on issues that concern them or other students.
- This
scheme gives Youth Affairs an opportunity to communicate directly with young
people and through them, with their peers. It provides
another opportunity for
young people to learn leadership skills and moves some control of what
information young people receive in
school from the teachers to the
students.
Consent in child health
- A
number of measures have been taken to improve best practice in the delivery of
health services and to enhance respect for children’s
views. In 1999, the
Ministry of Health published Consent in Child and Youth Health: Information
for Practitioners (Annex 32) which combined a range of legislation relevant
to consent in child and youth health care and provided advice about best
practice.
Children’s views in schools
- Several
comments were made in submissions about children’s participation at
school. It was felt that schools should be more
responsive to their
student’s views on how schools should be run. Some people believed that
there needed to be two student
representatives on school boards of trustees so
that they can support each other and be more effective. Another suggestion was
that
children at primary and intermediate level also need a voice on the school
board perhaps through an adult advocate.
- School
students now have a statutory right to speak at board meetings to consider their
suspension from school. Before amendments
to the Education Act in 1998 (Annex
33) this right to speak was not recognised in statute and students had to rely
on board of trustee
members being familiar with and applying the principles of
natural justice (see paragraphs 807815).
- The
Education Amendment Act 2000 (Annex 34) requires all schools with students in
form three (Year 9) and above to have a studentelected
trustee. The Act also
allowed boards of trustees to coopt additional trustees, who may be students of
the school. (Previously student
representatives were optional and an age
restriction effectively prevented more than a single student trustee.) This
amendment has
the potential to increase the number of student representatives on
the board. A student representative on primary schools has not
been considered,
nor has consideration been given to creating a special representative who would
have particular responsibility to
consult students and forward their views to
the board. As meetings of school boards are open and public, there is nothing
to prevent
any student (or person who wishes to speak on their behalf) writing
to a board, or appearing in person, and presenting their views.
Sexuality education
- Boards
of trustees can veto the inclusion of aspects of “sex” education
from a classroom programme and parents and caregivers
are able to withdraw their
young people from specific classes. However, young people are able to access
information about issues
such as contraception from outside the classroom
situation, or from agencies beyond the school.
- Discussion
is currently taking place to ensure that the views of young people are taken
into consideration during the consultation
process, and consideration is being
given to whether boards of trustees should continue to have a veto over
sexuality education.
- Sexuality
education provides opportunities to develop knowledge, understanding and skills
to enhance relationships, for example in
relation to love, families and
parenting. It also helps young people develop positive attitudes towards
sexuality and take care
of their sexual wellbeing.
Children’s views in the legal system
- The
Department for Courts has a number of projects relating to representing children
in the Family Court. Following a request from
the Principal Family Court Judge
in 1997, it commissioned research on current practice and the views and
perceptions of practitioners
about the representation of children in the Family
Court. The research was based on interviews with 20 children and young
people
between the ages of eight and 15 years. After this research and
accompanying policy work, the Department began implementing changes
in the
administration of appointing Counsel for the Child. It is also considering the
representation of children in proceedings
that settle by
consent.
- Children
had several suggestions for lawyers on how lawyers could better assist children,
such as:
- talking less and
listening more
- relating to
children on their level
- getting to know
children and their background
- relating to
children as people.
- The
children surveyed also had suggestions to other children (which could be used to
develop resources for children in this area),
including:
- speak up for
themselves, even if they weren’t asked
- not to feel
bullied or scared
- A
number of these are covered in the best practice guidelines recently issued by
the New Zealand Law Society (Annex 35) in response
to the
Department’s project.
- The
guidelines’ principles include:
- children have
the right to be given the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and
administrative proceedings affecting them in line
with the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child
- child clients
have the right to be treated with the same respect as clients who are
adults
- children have
the right to information about the case in which they are involved including
information on the progress and outcome
of the case
- children have
the right to the highest quality representation from experienced and skilled
practitioners.
- The
guidelines set out specific expectations for matters such as the relationship
and contact with the child, debriefing, confidentiality,
ending the
relationship, relationship with the parties and their counsel, liaison with
specialist report writers and professional
conduct.
- As
a part of the review of the Guardianship Act 1968 (see paragraphs 417418) the
Ministry of Justice has distributed its discussion
paper to organisations which
work with children to obtain information about children’s views in respect
of the laws of guardianship,
custody and access.
- The
Department for Courts will undertake to work with the Judiciary and the
New Zealand Law Society to progress ways in which Family
Court counsel can
effectively and sensitively represent clients from different cultural and
socioeconomic groups.
- (Information
about children’s participation in their families when a parent is in
prison is contained in paragraphs 433444.)
Views of young people in youth units
- The
Department of Corrections consulted with young offenders using focus groups (in
consultation with the Ministry of Youth Affairs)
in developing youth units. The
main purpose was to gain a perspective on what kinds of services and facilities
youth offenders thought
would be most suitable.
Views of young people at work
- Consultation
by the Department of Labour’s Occupational Safety and Health Service
included a focus group with young workers.
It aimed to identify what strategies
are most appropriate to inform young and new workers about health and safety in
the workplace
and of their rights and responsibilities under the Health and
Safety in Employment Act 1992.
- The
views of young people regarding their employment experiences are currently being
addressed through the reevaluation of the Employment
Relations Service (ERS)
information strategy (see paragraph 928). Regarding issues raised about
informing parents of situations
of youth employment, the ERS believe that this
is a technical issue of privacy law and is not specifically related to the
services
delivered to youth by the ERS.
Children’s voice in the Convention report
- The
government sought children’s views relevant to this report and is working
with the nongovernment sector to facilitate children’s
ongoing involvement
in the reporting process.
- Although
only a relatively small number of children were involved, efforts were made to
include Mäori and Pacific children, children
with disabilities, children in
difficult circumstances and children living in rural and urban areas. Different
NGOs were contacted
and asked if they had young people who would be interested
in participating. The groups were sent an information kit (see paragraphs
89)
which included starter questions to spark young people’s thoughts. A
disposable camera was included with the information
and the children were asked
to take pictures to reflect their life in New Zealand.
- A
bookmark containing information about UNCROC and some starter questions was also
sent to approximately 750 Ministry of Youth Affairs
Student Representatives in
schools.
- The
information and comments received from children and young people is collated
into a “snapshot” of life for New Zealand
children (see Annex
36). Issues raised can be followed up through the nongovernment reporting
process, in a child and youth report
and in the policy work that flows from this
report.
PART 4: CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Introduction
- The
general framework to protect children’s and young people’s civil
rights and freedoms remains.
- Submissions
from young people and others speaking on their behalf raised a number of issues,
including:
- protection from
physical abuse that leads to death
- the inability of
young people to easily access their lawyers, especially when held in
institutions
- fingerprinting
children and young persons
- young
people’s difficulty in reporting bad experiences with Police, including
beatings
- responses to
complaints in residential care including timeliness of response
- young people
held in police cells or held on remand in adult prisons owing to insufficient
placement options
- access to drug
and alcohol information and treatment services.
A. Name and nationality (article 7)
- The
Law Commission has completed its review of adoption law. This considered (among
other matters):
- should the scope
of the Adult Adoption Information Act be expanded to cover a wider range of
people?
- at what stage
should an adopted child be entitled to information about their
identity?
- are the current
procedures under the Adult Adoption Information Act still
appropriate?
(See paragraphs 471472.)
- The
Law Commission presented its final report to Government in September 2000 and it
has been referred to a select committee.
B. Preservation of identity (article 8)
- One
important aspect of preserving identity and ensuring children know their parents
(article 7) is the ability to clearly determine
identity and information about
genetic origins. Two Assisted Human Reproduction Bills are currently
before the Health Select Committee.
Both Bills provide for children born from
assisted human reproductive procedures (using donated gametes) to have access to
information
about their genetic origins. The Bills’ information schemes
have the following key features/requirements:
- gamete donors
and people who receive assisted human reproductive services would be told (as a
precondition to donation and the receipt
of services) that information would be
collected and retained so that children born (as a result of donated materials,
“donor
children”) would have access to their genetic
origin
- assisted human
reproductive service providers (providers) would collect certain information
from donors and about donor children and
retain this information for a set
period of time (unless their business ceased to continue)
- when a donor
child is born, providers forward specified core information to the
RegistrarGeneral of Births, Deaths and Marriages to
be held indefinitely and
accessed via a central register
- when the donor
child turns 18 years, they would be entitled to access the identifying donor
information held by providers and the
RegistrarGeneral
- donors would be
entitled to find out if a donation resulted in a birth, but they would not have
access to identifying information
about a donor child until the child turns 25
(unless the child expressly consents to donor access after
turning 18 years of age)
- donor children
and donors would have access to nonidentifying information about each other
prior to the donor child turning 18 years
- the Privacy
Commissioner would have jurisdiction to deal with complaints relating to matters
such as denial of access or wrongful
disclosure of personal
information.
Review of Adoption Law
- New Zealand’s
adoption law about children’s rights to retain and preserve their identity
is currently being reviewed.
A report was published by the Law Commission at
the end of September 2000. The issue is now being reviewed by select committee
which will (among other things) allow the public to make oral and written
submissions on the proposals before the committee.
- Public
consultation is required for any review of existing law or consideration of new
policy and legislative developments. Additionally,
there are particular issues
that require consultation with Maori, particularly in relation to cultural
values and the importance
of whakapapa. Involving children and young people in
these developments are key issues.
- Whakapapa
is the thread that binds a Maori person to everyone and everything else in the
world. It determines relationships as well
as the manner in which those
relationships are exercised. Whakapapa is a social control mechanism that
establishes rights and responsibilities
in the physical, spiritual and
psychological world of the Maori. Land is a physical manifestation of
whakapapa. Existence and connection
to it is an express acknowledgement of
Maori identity.
- In
traditional Maori society, all members of the community were expected to know
who their tipuna (ancestors) were. They were also
expected to share this
information with their children. Whakapapa is important because a young Maori
person develops a sense of
belonging in gathering this knowledge. Today, the
importance of whakapapa has developed a sense of urgency. Loss of language and
breakdown of social structures has contributed to the loss of identity that many
young Maori feel.
- The
reality for many is that the whanau is not the pivotal point in a young
person’s life. Thus, the links between the young
person, family and
community are weakened and the opportunity to gain access to cultural
information, support and experiences is
being lost. The effects of not knowing
have resulted in a generation of young Maori who find it difficult to establish
their identity.
- Contemporary
Maori live in a range of social, economic and cultural realities. The term
whänau has been defined as a unit who
shares a common ancestor, and
maintains within it certain responsibilities and obligations. In modern Maori
society, the term whänau
has been applied to a number of family
configurations, including nuclear families, single parents and reconstituted
families. Nevertheless,
whakapapa (genealogy) remains the
core.
- Family
Law in New Zealand reflects mainly the values, principles and ideology of
contemporary western society. Maori cultural practices
in regard to family
forms are generally ignored.
- The
Adoption Act 1955 sets out the rights and responsibilities of past and existing
parents in adoption situations. In essence the
Act allows new parents to be
substituted for the child’s existing parents. Section 9 of the Adoption
Act 1955 overtly rejects
Maori customary practices by declaring that
“... no adoption in accordance with Maori custom shall be of any
force or effect
...”.
- Traditional
concepts of whanau are founded upon a set of principles that include
manaakitanga (caring), tatou tatou (collective responsibility)
and mana tiaki
(guardianship). The Adoption Act 1955 and Guardianship Act 1968 both fail to
acknowledge these principles. They
also fail to take account of the Maori
understanding that responsibility for children lies not only with parents or
legal guardians
but also with the wider whänau. In this respect, tikanga
Maori in relation to the family, whanau, hapu and iwi are not recognised
by the
legal process.
- The
review of adoption law will have regard to the unique character of
New Zealand society, including the particular cultural values
and needs of
Maori and other cultures in New Zealand. The terms of reference of both
the Law Commission and the select committee
review recognise the need to
investigate the distinctive cultural practices of Maori in the area of
adoption.
(See paragraphs 471474.)
Surrogacy
- There
have been some changes in the area of surrogacy since the Initial Report
(see paragraph 109). In July 1997 the National Ethics Committee on Assisted
Human Reproduction (NECAHR) made an “inprinciple”
decision to
approve noncommercial surrogacy using invitro fertilization (IVF) provided
certain conditions were met. Despite this
approval, every individual
application must be considered by NECAHR. It has also issued guidelines to
providers on the criteria
to consider in particular cases (a copy of the latest
draft dated April 2000 is attached as Annex 37).
- NECAHR
has received 16 applications for noncommercial surrogacy using IVF, six have
been approved and some are still being considered.
There have been no reported
pregnancies to date.
- The
NECAHR will be put on a statutory basis in the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill
that is currently before the Health Select Committee.
The Bill contains a
number of provisions dealing with NECAHR’s appointment, function and
procedures. These provisions include
a requirement for the committee to review
assisted human reproductive proposals to determine whether they are ethical, and
in particular,
whether the rights of the people involved will be protected. The
review will also look at whether proper account will be taken of
the ethical
perspectives of Mäori, and other cultural, ethnic, religious and social
groups in New Zealand.
C. Freedom of expression (article 13)
- The
legal framework for protecting the right to freedom of expression has not
changed. However, technological developments have expanded
the opportunities
for children and young people to express themselves. Schools are enhancing
children’s and young people’s
skills and confidence with these new
technologies. In addition, many New Zealand households have a personal
computer and access
to the internet.
- New
technologies are increasing the need for adequate protection of children and a
balancing the rights of children and adults to
freely express themselves. A key
issue is the question of how to best regulate, if at all. Information on an
internet safety kit
is contained in paragraph 982.
- Government
is currently considering options to ensure broadcasting policy and radio
stations actively support children and young people’s
participation. A
forum of key groups in the industry and a crosssection of young people was
hosted by the Minister of Broadcasting
to canvas options to improve children and
young people’s involvement in this industry.
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (article
14)
- The
right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief (including the
right to hold and adopt opinions without interference)
is guaranteed to everyone
under section 13 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (see paragraphs
87 to 88 of the Initial Report). Parents may guide their children in
exercising their freedoms.
- The
Human Rights Act 1993 continues to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of
(amongst other things) religion, ethical belief or
political
opinion.
E. Freedom of association and of peaceful assembly (article
15)
- In
1996 and 1997 there was concern for young people congregating at night in public
spaces, and some local councils imposed (or attempted
to impose) curfews.
Police and the Ministry of Youth Affairs responded by cofacilitating a workshop
of key agencies to consider
the issues and develop guidelines to assist Police
implement constructive and effective strategies directed at young people who may
be at risk. Issues were raised about whether or not:
- curfews are an
infringement of young people’s rights
- the Children,
Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 is being appropriately
used
- curfews breach
the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
- curfews breach
the Convention.
- Guidelines
were developed to help Police deal effectively with young people “at
risk” or offending at night. These guidelines
make it a clear that
“curfews” or “blanket sweeps” are illegal and
recommended that they not be instituted
(a copy of these guidelines is attached
Annex 38).
F. Protection of privacy (article 16)
- The
Privacy Act forms the basis for protecting children and young people’s
privacy (see paragraphs 91 to 94 of the Initial Report). In
December 1998 the Privacy Commissioner reported to the Minister of Justice on
its review of the operation of the Privacy Act
1993. The Commissioner
recommended a number of changes to the Act, aimed at making the Act more
effective and understandable, but
overall concluded that the Act is firmly
“on the right track”. Other work priorities and pressures mean the
Government
to date has not been able to progress these recommendations
significantly.
- In
1994 the Privacy Commissioner issued the Health Information Privacy Code which
substitutes the Privacy Act in respect of health
information. Rule 11 of the
Code places restrictions on disclosing health information. Health information
may only be disclosed
in limited circumstances, including where the health
agency holding the information believes, on reasonable grounds, that the
disclosure
is:
- to the
individual’s representative (their parent or guardian in the case of a
child) where the individual is “unable to
exercise his or her
rights” under the code
- in general terms
only, when the patient is in hospital and has not otherwise expressly requested
nondisclosure of such information.
- It
is unlikely that a patient who is under 16 years will automatically be found to
be “unable to exercise his or her rights”
under the code. Thus, it
is unlikely that parents or guardians of childpatients will automatically have
access to health information
relating to the child. It is likely that medical
practitioners would consider the child’s maturity and understanding before
deciding whether the child is capable of exercising their rights under the code
and therefore, whether the child’s parents
or guardian should be
informed.
- Disclosure
may also occur where it is not desirable or practical to obtain the
individual’s authorisation, and amongst other
things:
- the information
is disclosed in accordance with recognised professional practice and is not
contrary to the express request of the
individual or their
representative
- the disclosure
is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the life or
health of the individual or another
individual.
- Complaints
to the Broadcasting Standards Authority on violations to children’s
privacy have resulted in an amended code with
increased protection for children
and young people’s privacy.
G. Access to appropriate information (article 17)
- See
paragraphs 78 to 86 of the Initial Report. Exploitation of
children’s welfare by the media has been an issue in New Zealand (see
paragraphs 979981).
- There
have been some developments aimed at enhancing protection for children and young
people in relation to information available
from electronic sources such as the
internet. For example, in relation to sexual abuse Child, Youth and Family has
sponsored the
Police to develop a resource pack on “Internet
Safety”. The pack is designed for parents, teachers and
children to act safely and be aware of potential abuse situations
when using the Internet. The resource pack is also supported by
the Censorship
Compliance Unit of the Department of Internal Affairs and End Child Prostitution
and Tourism (ECPAT).
- To
identify paedophiles and potential paedophiles, Customs, the Police and the
Department of Internal Affairs are working together
to investigate the
manufacture and supply of pornography, including tracing suppliers of
pornographic material on the Internet.
- The
Commissioner for Children is involved in some research with the advertising
sector which seeks to identify children’s views
of the media. It also
facilitated a forum for everyone involved in the media that highlighted the need
for enhanced government funding
for New Zealand programming for children
and young people.
- The
Advertising Standards Authority has responsibility for advertising standards and
currently is revising its Code for Advertising
for Children. The draft revised
Code is based on UNCROC rights and protections and provides guidelines on how
they are to be applied.
It is due to be adopted by the Advertising Standards
Authority before the end of the year 2000.
- The
Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) (see paragraph 82 of the Initial
Report) regulates broadcasting standards. In 1999 the BSA conducted a
survey on community attitudes towards broadcasting standards. The
survey
covered, amongst other things, people’s views on responsibility for what
children watch on television. Respondents
saw parents’ main task as
being, ideally, to know and control what and when children are watching.
Broadcasters were seen
as having responsibility for the censoring and/or rating
of television programmes. Sixtyone percent of respondents said they use
classification symbols and warnings to decide which programmes they and their
children would watch. The BSA has acknowledged the
concern about children being
exposed to inappropriate content and continues to work on child protection
issues.
- The
Government has agreed to a vision that all New Zealanders have the
opportunity to access and effectively use current and emerging
information and
communications technologies (ICT). One step government has already taken is to
increase funding provided for ICT
in schools and improving ICT training for
teachers. The Government has also directed further work on identifying whether
there is
a “digital divide” in New Zealand, and if so, who is
on the wrong side. In keeping with the vision, it will consider
developing
policies to improve access and skills for those who are currently excluded.
This could be through public access sites
such as schools, libraries and
community centres.
H. The right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel,
inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment (article
37(a))
Residential care regulations
- Search
and seizure provisions that allow children and young people in residences to be
searched and any harmful items seized are currently
specified in the Children,
Young Persons and Their Families (Residential Care) Regulations 1996. In 1997
the Regulations Review
Committee reviewed these regulations to consider
if:
- the powers in
the regulations relating to search and seizure of children and young persons in
residences were excessive
- the powers in
the regulations should be specified in primary legislation.
- The
Committee recommended that primary legislation should specify the powers to
search and seize. The Government agreed and on 1
June 2000, the Children, Young
Persons and Their Families Bill (no. 3) was introduced to the House and
proceeded to select committee.
The Amendment Bill sets out, in the Children,
Young Persons and their Families Act 1989, the principles which allow children
and
young people in residences to be searched and any harmful items found to be
seized.
- The
Bill includes definitions of the key terms relating to search and seizure with
sections that describe:
- procedures for
inspecting mail
- procedures for
searching children and young people by a pat down, scanner or strip
search
- restrictions on
searching, including how searches must be recorded
- the procedure
for a child or young person to make a complaint
- the power to
seize articles that may be found during the search.
- The
power to search by an internal examination (which is allowed for in the
Residential Care Regulations) has not been included in
the Bill. This is the
most intrusive and potentially most degrading form of search. Since the
Residential Care Regulations came
into force in 1997, there have been no
internal examination searches of children or young people in residences.
Revoking this power
will not diminish the ability of the Department of Child,
Youth and Family Services to manage departmental residences. The decision
not
to include this provision in the Bill was made after consulting with relevant
government agencies. In particular, the Ministry
of Justice had advised that
this provision was not entirely consistent with the New Zealand Bill of
Rights Act 1990.
- The
amendments in this Bill will clearly authorise the powers that residential staff
have to search children and young people if they
believe they are concealing an
unauthorised or harmful item. These powers are needed to protect other children
and young people
and the staff living in the residence from
harm.
- The
Regulations Review Committee proved to be an effective mechanism for monitoring
and protecting the rights of children and young
people in residential care.
However, there are issues about the time taken to make the changes it
recommended. (The Committee also
made a recommendation about appointing
grievance panels. This did not require legislative change and has been
addressed.)
Police searches of schools with dogs
- The
Police do not have a policy on searching schools with drug dogs. However,
children and young people have the right to be treated
as any adult would be
treated. Police should not search school buildings or students unless they are
responding to an emergency
situation and they have some real reason to suspect
they will find drugs. Any other search at a school will be authorised by a
search
warrant or will only involve buildings where there are no students. A
school can ask parents for consent to search as a condition
of enrolment.
However, regular and unwarranted searches would only discredit the Police and
erode Police/student relationships.
Voluntary student drug testing
- Police
do not have a policy supporting voluntary drug testing of students or any other
sector of society. Periodically a school or
other group will impose voluntary
drug testing as a condition of enrolment or employment. The students or
employees would have the
option to not consent. An exception is where a student
has been involved with drugs. As an alternative to expulsion and to keep
the
individual in school, the Police support voluntary drug
testing.
- Youth
Aid Police Officers consider the proper approach for dealing with drugs in
schools is to involve students and the wider community
in education
programmes.
PART 5: FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE
Introduction
- Part
5 contains information about family structures within New Zealand and
support for parents and families in caring for children.
The main focus over
the reporting period has been on enhancing support for parents and families, the
basic legal framework has remained
unchanged. Guardianship and adoption laws
are being reviewed at present and information on any changes to the legal
framework will
be provided when this report is presented.
A. Parental guidance (article 5)
- Children
in New Zealand live in a variety of family and household types. Although
most children live with two parents in a onefamily
household, there is growing
diversity of living arrangements as a result of trends such as:
- growth in the
number of nevermarried single parents
- increases in
marital dissolution
- growing ethnic
diversity.
(See paragraphs 10571063.)
- Patterns
of family formation and the type of families and households in which people live
show considerable variation both within
and between ethnic groups. The cultural
differences, economic pressures and general social trends are all important
influences on
people’s living arrangements.
- Maori
are more likely than nonMaori to live in extended families, this indicates the
continuing importance of the traditional whanau.
Maori adults most commonly
live in twoparent families with children. Maori are considerably more likely
than nonMaori to live in
households containing two or more
families.
- The
Government remains committed to assisting families where necessary with the key
focus on strengthening families by:
- improving
coordination of services at the local level for “at risk”
families
- providing more
effective support programmes such as intensive home visiting, school based
support for children and their families,
support for families of prisoners and
parent education
- increasing
universal family support services in child health and early
education
- increasing
intensive specialist services (eg, “Wraparound”
programmes).
- There
are over 70 local communities managing a coordinated Strengthening Families
approach to casework services across the health,
education and welfare sectors.
(See paragraphs 152153 for more information about the Strengthening
Families Strategy.)
- The
general legal responsibilities of parents to their children have not changed
(see paragraphs 104 to 107 of the Initial Report. The Summary Offences
Act 1981 prohibits parents and guardians from leaving children under the age of
14 years for an unreasonable
period of time without providing supervision and
care for the child (regarding all the circumstances). The Crimes Act 1961 also
prevents parents or guardians of children under the age of 18 years delivering
children to another person with the intention that
the child shall be exploited
for their labour.
- The
previous Government considered ways to encourage and support parents to meet
their responsibilities, including a code for parents.
Government concluded that
a prescriptive approach would not be as effective as better support
programmes.
Parenting education and family support
- Several
submissions from young people called for more basic life skills education in
housekeeping, budgeting etc. to equip them when
they leave home. They also
wanted more emphasis on parenting education in schools and something similar for
new parents.
- There
is a range of services for new parents:
- Midwives will
visit mothers at home between five and 10 times in the first six weeks after
they are discharged from hospital (this
is much more intensive than the previous
arrangements in early weeks). Midwives provide parenting information and
ongoing support
as required.
- In addition to
Lead Maternity Care services, whänau support services are available for
women in areas of high need up to six
weeks after the birth of a
baby.
- Care is
transferred to Wellchild/Tamariki Ora services at six weeks and is provided to
families with children up to five years of
age.
- Additional
services (including parent support and homevisiting) are provided to families
who are assessed to be at higher risk of
poor outcomes.
- Family Start
(see paragraphs 402404) provides intensive home visiting for families most in
need in 16 sites around the country. Parent
education and support is also
provided.
- Child,
Youth and Family fund at least 400 parenting programmes nationally.
Additionally, the voluntary sector provides a range of
support to parents
including La Leche League for advice on breast feeding issues. Breastfeeding
levels have been stable over the
last few years even with reduced hospital
stays.
- It
was suggested that parents need information so that they can work through issues
for older children such as youth alcohol use and
teenage sexuality. Information
on how to safely run a party for young people might help parents say
“yes” when their
son or daughter asks to have one.
- A
number of agencies provide information through television advertising and
pamphlets to assist parents to work through issues, including:
- The Alcohol
Advisory Council’s information on the effects of alcohol on young people,
how to plan parties, host’s responsibility
and how to talk to young people
about alcohol issues.
- The Ministry of
Youth Affairs’ resource for parents Alcohol, Drugs and Young People A
Guide for Parents, Caregivers and Whanau (Annex 39) provides tips about
where to get information on drug and alcohol issues and young people. It
provides general information
about some of the behaviours young people/rangatahi
display if they are using alcohol and drugs. It acknowledges that sometimes
different views can lead to conflict and it suggests ways to ensure
communication between the young person and parents is maintained.
It also
outlines who can help and where parents can find specialist services if they are
required.
- A number of
voluntary sector groups deliver drug education programmes. Some run parent
evenings to inform parents about the available
drugs, behaviours associated with
alcohol and drug use and what agencies are available to assist
them.
- The government
funds a number of programmes delivered by the voluntary sector including GAIN
New Zealand that helps families gain
new skills to improve family life. It
focuses on communication, decisionmaking, rules and consequences, cooperation,
alcohol and
drugs, anger management and health and wellbeing. GAIN has
developed GAIN Whakaruruhau for Maori families. It has received funding
from
the Ministry of Education and the Crime Prevention Unit to deliver GAIN Family
and GAIN Whakaruruhau to identified high risk
communities with poor social
outcomes. GAIN also delivers a national programme throughout New Zealand.
A new programme to address
alcohol and drug use amongst Pacific peoples is being
planned.
- The
voluntary sector plays an important role in providing a range of parenting
programmes and other social services to families in
need of support. Many
receive funding from government or are contracted to deliver certain services.
Programmes vary from community
to community.
Family Start
- Family
Start is a targeted family support service, purchased by the Ministries of
Health and Education and the Department of Child,
Youth and Family. The service
aims to:
- identify
highrisk families
- improve longterm
outcomes for children
- improve family
functioning and parenting practice (including cognitive
development)
- assist parents
to improve their family and personal circumstances.
- As
part of the Strengthening Families Strategy (see paragraphs 152153), in 1998 the
Family Start programme commenced with three sites.
Now operating in 16 sites
throughout New Zealand, the programme uses a screening process to identify
15 percent of the population
with newborn babies most at risk of having
poor social outcomes across health, education and welfare sectors. Family
Start:
- helps improve
life outcomes of children, young people and families through early assistance
and by helping children to enjoy a good
start in life
- ensures those
new parents most in need receive assistance in their own homes as early as
possible
- provides funding
so a person can work with a family for up to five years to help with parenting
and household management skills.
- The
programme is based on overseas and local programmes that were effective in
helping families with infants in areas where people
have a lower than average
socioeconomic status and where there is a high proportion of Maori.
(A Family Start pamphlet is attached as an Annex 40.)
Wraparound services
- In
1997 the Government funded a Youth at Risk of Offending Crime Prevention Budget
Package. One initiative was to develop a Wraparound
system of care that uses
individualised care plans and case managers who work with the young people and
their families to develop
and follow a clear case plan. It aims to deliver
integrated intersectoral, community based services to young people aged 14 to 18
years and their families who are assessed as being at risk of offending and who
have multiple needs.
- The
programme deals with young people’s strengths and needs across welfare,
health, education and justice issues. The young
person receives seven to 10
hours’ counselling a week backedup with an integrated 24hour crisis
support service and supervision
available to them and their family.
- Wraparound
services aim to decrease criminal activity, truancy and risktaking behaviour and
to increase education performance, health
outcomes and life skills. It
emphasises keeping young people in their community, rather than moving them to
residential homes.
The young person remains in their usual home environment and
specialists work with them to develop a therapeutic care plan tailored
to
address their individual needs, and build on their strengths at the same time.
- The
services are also culturally appropriate. Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust is an
urban Maori organisation from West Auckland which
delivers a Wraparound service.
The organisation is contracted to provide services for up to 100 young people
per year. From a sample
of young people, 76 percent identified themselves
as either wholly or partly New Zealand Maori, while 37 percent
identified with
at least one Pacific Island ethnic group.
- The
Wraparound programme was independently evaluated with a report completed
on 30 June 2000 (Annex 41). The service was not developed
with
specific reference to the Convention in mind, but has been audited for
consistency with the principles contained in it.
Programmes to increase parenting skills
- A
number of parenting programmes are offered in communities throughout
New Zealand, mostly run by the voluntary sector. Many programmes
are
supported with government funding and cover child development needs, health and
wellbeing. They teach parents how to interact
and play with their children,
while helping them understand the developmental needs of the child. They
provide ideas on how to discipline
children without smacking.
- Other
governmentfunded programmes that assist parents increase their parenting
knowledge include:
- Parents As First
Teachers (PAFT)
- Home Instruction
Programme for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY)
- individual/family
counselling by skilled workers
- holiday
programmes for up to 13 year olds
- provision of
family living skills in the home environment
- early childhood
education.
Parenting education in prison
- The
Department of Corrections has developed programmes to address parenting skills
in prison. Many inmates have been victims of family
violence in their formative
years and this significantly increases the likelihood of their violent
offending.
- Developing
parenting skills in this critical group creates opportunities to improve
outcomes for both the inmate (by reducing the
likelihood of family violence
offending) and their children (through reduced risk of abuse and lowering the
likelihood of entering
an offending cycle themselves).
- The
Department of Corrections evaluated three parenting programmes provided in
prisons as part of a crime prevention and family violence
prevention package.
It reported positively about the programmes and the implications are now being
considered as part of the Reintegrate
Services component of the
Department’s Integrated Offender Management Project.
- The
funds allocated for parenting programmes have been distributed to prisons that
are running a variety of parenting programmes via
a range of
providers.
B. Parental responsibilities (article 18)
- The
Guardianship Act 1968 provides that in custody and access proceedings,
regardless of the child’s age, there shall be no
presumption that placing
the child in the custody of a particular person because of their sex, will best
serve the welfare of the
child. It is up to the Court to decide which parent
should have custody based on the best interests of the child.
Review of the Guardianship Act 1968
- New Zealand’s
law relating to guardianship, custody and access is over 30 years old and
patterns of family life and values regarding
family relationships have changed
significantly since then. The review will address questions of the rights and
responsibilities
of parents and the care, welfare and development of their
children in situations where issues of guardianship, custody and access
arise.
A public discussion paper (Annex 42) was released to gather information and
encourage submissions for the review. The discussion
paper states that most of
the concerns about the current law fall into four categories:
- Modernising
language and key concepts: The Act uses terms that are outdated and invite a
combatant rather than a conciliatory approach to resolving custody and access
issues.
- Children and
young people’s rights: Should there be an even greater or a different
emphasis to ensure children and young people’s welfare is
paramount?
- Rights and
responsibilities of parents: Should there be a greater focus on the rights
and responsibilities of parents bringing up their children?
- Recognition of
the wider family/whanau and of cultural diversity.
- The
discussion paper encourages thinking about the changing structures of families
and the ongoing role of parents and wider family/whanau
in children’s
lives. In particular, there is ongoing interest in the role of noncustodial
parents in their children’s
lives. The review will examine how the
current law has worked in practice.
Assistance in childrearing
- Submissions
indicate that parental leave, flexible hours for taking care of sick children,
and costs for afterschool care are issues
for New Zealand. There were
calls for paid parental leave and the availability of longterm unpaid parental
leave. There was also
support within the workplace for parents to move from
fulltime to parttime work when a baby is born. One suggestion was that the
population as a whole should contribute to providing high quality childcare
centres as well as a period of paid parental leave.
National survey on early childhood education and
care
- New Zealand’s
first comprehensive national survey on early childhood education and care (ECE)
was conducted as a supplement
to the Household Labour Force Survey in 1998.
The purpose was to gather information from parents on ECE arrangements for
children
under 14 years and to examine the relationship between ECE
use and participation in the labour market. The survey did not seek to
measure
the impact of care arrangements on children, rather, it investigated the
relationship between childcare arrangements and
parental labour market
participation.
- However,
the survey did collect information about the types and hours of ECE and found
that some groups (particularly Maori and Pacific
children and those from low
income families) were less likely to participate in ECE. Issues of
participation in and access to ECE
arrangements will be the focus of work
programmes coordinated by the Ministries of Education and Social Policy. (See
paragraphs
725745 for more information about ECE services.)
- The
survey found that 60 percent of preschool children and 20 percent of
school aged children had ECE arrangements during the term
time, aside from being
cared for by a parent or parents living in the household, and from being at
school. The survey also found,
however, that access to childcare was a problem
for a proportion of families, particularly for single parents and families on
lower
incomes. Problems accessing ECE were a barrier to participation in
employment for 15 percent of parents, with mothers’ employment
(particularly single mothers) more likely to be affected. Cost of care was the
most common reason given by parents whose participation
in employment was
affected.
- For
20 percent of all children, parents wanted either more hours of ECE, hours
at a different time and /or different types of ECE.
While the total demand for
changes to arrangements was higher for preschool children (31 percent) than
for school aged children
(14 percent), the highest reported demand for a
single type of care was for before and after school care programmes (for
6 percent
of school aged children).
- The
survey also confirmed parents’ need for flexible work places. Parents
were asked about how their work was arranged and
the work arrangements they used
to manage their childcare responsibilities:
- 37 percent
of parents regularly worked in the evenings
- 35 percent
used flexible working hours
- 30 percent
did some work at home
- 23 percent
worked for at least three hours in the weekend.
- Mothers
were more likely than fathers to work flexible hours, work at home and work
mainly in the evenings. Fathers were more likely
to do some work in the
evenings and weekends. The most common arrangement used by parents specifically
to help them manage their
childcare responsibilities was to have their children
at work with them. About 11 percent of employed parents had their children
with them at some time while they were working. This was more likely for
mothers (16 percent) than for fathers (8 percent) and for
self
employed parents (29 percent) than for parents working for wages and
salaries (6 percent).
- The
Department of Labour is working with the survey results to investigate ways that
childcare provision interacts with parents’
labour market participation
and the material wellbeing of families. The Department is also contributing to
an interdepartmental
work programme which will look at ways that the supply and
affordability of childcare can be improved, particularly for low income
families
and for school aged children. (See the attached brochure outlining the key
survey findings (Annex 43).)
- The
Employment Relations Service of the Department of Labour monitors
collective bargaining outcomes. As at June 2000, the data covered
1,566
contracts covering 354,189 employees (which represents 20 percent of
the employed labour force). Regarding special leave and
more specific domestic
leave, 92 percent of collective contracts lodged with ERS
(1,444 contracts covering 316,026 employees) specify
some form of domestic
leave. Data is also collected on provision for parental leave specified in
collective contracts. Thirtyfour
percent of collective contracts (540
contracts covering 181,043 employees) lodged with ERS have entitlements equal to
or greater
than the statutory minimum requirements of the Parental Leave Act
1987 (12 months unpaid leave). While this data reflects market
provisions for
leave, it is does not reflect the number of employees who choose to use these
provisions.
- The
Employment Relations Service is also jointly responsible with the Ministry of
Women’s Affairs for administering the Equal
Employment Opportunities (EEO)
Contestable Fund. One area the Fund focuses on is promoting familyfriendly
policies such as paid
parental leave. Relevant projects funded
include:
- 1999/ 2000
Mercer Cullen Egan Dell (NZ) Ltd its project to produce a booklet on retention
strategies for employers in regard to parental
leave.
- 1994/1995
Metropolitan Lifecare Group Ltd/ Service Workers Union produced a booklet and
held seminars regarding the development
of family friendly policies at nine
workplaces.
- 1993/1994 Legal
Resources Trust produced a video promoting family friendly employment
practices.
- The
Department of Labour is responsible for administering the Parental Leave and
Employment Protection Act 1987 which is New Zealand’s
major piece of
legislation that helps employees to balance work and family commitments. A
Private Members Bill, requiring 14 weeks
paid parental leave was
introduced to Parliament in 1998, but was not proceeded with. The Government
has signalled that it is committed
to introducing paid parental leave but has
not yet decided on the exact nature of the entitlement to be
introduced.
C. Separation from parents (article 9)
Family violence
- The
Guardianship Act 1968 was amended in 1995 to create new rules for dealing
with custody and access applications where there are
allegations of
violence (see paragraphs 499506). Under the new provisions the key
principle is that if a person uses violence in
their family relationship, they
are not to have custody or unsupervised access to children until it can be shown
that the child will
be safe. The primary objectives of the provision are to
ensure the best interests of the child (including their right to be safe)
are
protected.
- Balancing
the safety of children against their right to have contact with both parents
continues to be an issue. Some guidance is
provided under the Guardianship Act
which states that in any proceedings relating to custody, access or
guardianship, the Court will
regard the wishes of the child (if the child is
able to express them) and, their age and maturity.
- Children
living in the home of a person who has been before the Court on charges of
domestic violence will have their custody and
access assessed through that Court
process. There is the option for Protection Orders to be made and for access to
the violent parent
to be supervised. The child may also attend a counselling
programme. The offender, if convicted, must attend an appropriate programme
to
address violent behaviour. (See paragraphs 499506.)
Children’s contact with parents who are in
prison
- The
following statistics provide a picture of the living arrangements for children
who have a parent in prison:
- for male
sentenced inmates, prior to entering prison 47 percent were living with at
least one child under 18 years old and 18 percent
were living with three or
more children
- for female
sentenced inmates, prior to entering prison 56 percent were living with at
least one child under 18 years old and 18 percent
were living with three or
more children
- of those that
said they were living with children prior to their imprisonment, 31 percent
of men and 75 percent of women indicated
that they were looking after at
least one child on their own
- for male
sentenced inmates who had dependent children prior to entering
prison, 84 percent of children were now being looked after
by the
inmates partner or expartner and another 13 percent were being looked after
by immediate family or whanau
- for female
sentenced inmates who had dependent children prior to entering
prison, 40 percent of the children were now being looked
after by the
inmate’s partner or expartner and another 54 percent were being
looked after by the immediate family or whanau.
One in 20 female inmates had at
least one child in care by foster parents or Child, Youth and
Family.
- During
the reporting period the Department of Corrections has developed and introduced
the “home detention scheme” as
an alternative form of incarceration
allowing offenders to serve their prison sentence in their own homes. New laws
for the home
detention scheme came into force on 1 October 1999 that expand the
options for using home detention as part of the criminal justice
system.
- Firstly,
offenders sentenced to up to two years’ imprisonment, if assessed as
suitable, can serve that sentence on home detention
rather than in a prison.
Secondly, inmates serving longer sentences (except those serving a term of life
imprisonment, preventive
detention, and those sentenced for serious violent
offences) can be released on home detention three months before they become
eligible
for parole. The programme allows:
- offenders to
continue meeting their family responsibilities
- parents can
continue to care for or financially support their children (unlike imprisoned
parents, who have to pass these responsibilities
and costs on to other family
members or to the State)
- home detainees
can attend programmes dealing with problems that contribute to offending, such
as lack of cognitive skills and substance
abuse issues.
- All
offenders serving home detention are subject to intensive supervision by
Probation Officers. Probation Officers work closely
with the detainee’s
family/whänau to assist them to work through any issues that may arise from
having a family member
on home detention. A training programme has been
developed for Probation Officers working with detainees and their
family/whänau.
The training includes sessions on problem solving,
techniques and understanding how to work with family/whänau
groups.
- A
twoyear pilot was conducted in Auckland from April 1995 as provided by the
Criminal justice Amendment Act 1993. The Ministry of
Justice also carried out
an evaluation of the pilot over an 18month period.
- There
were some negative aspects of the pilot including those associated with the
electronic monitoring system and the low levels
of participation in
rehabilitative programmes and employment. These have been addressed in the
expanded home detention initiative
and its new operating procedures. To date a
total of 390 offenders have served their sentences on home detention since the
scheme
came into force on 1 October 1999. Presently there are 149 offenders on
home detention.
- As
part of the Government’s Strengthening Families Strategy (see paragraphs
152153), the Department of Corrections has received
additional funding to
establish two pilot programmes to provide reintegrative services for offenders
and their families. The programmes
will provide intensive homebased family
support services to some inmates returning to the community with children under
the age of
12 years. The service is designed to support inmates and their
families both before and after release.
- While
the Department of Corrections and other agencies offer a range of other
programmes aimed at inmates and/or their families, none
of these programmes
comprehensively targets both the offender moving back into a family unit and the
family. This programme is designed
to bridge the gap between the two sets of
services and to address critical issues in reintegrating exinmates with their
families.
The results sought from the programme are:
- enhancing
opportunities for the inmates’ children
- parents more
able to parent their children well
- improving
personal, economic and family circumstances of the parents
- reducing risks
to children nurtured within the family unit
- preventing
future reoffending by the exinmate
- reducing risks
of future offending by other family members (particularly the
children).
- The
programme has the following core principles:
- The programme
covers both before and after release, particularly emphasising the period
immediately after release.
- The focus is on
reintegrating the offender into the family and on the family reintegrating a
returning family member.
- Intensive
support is available to families, gradually reducing as family functioning
increases. The support includes information
and emotional support and is
tailored to the family’s needs.
- The programme
offers a mix of practical support and building up skills, including parenting,
budgeting, problem solving and prosocial
skills.
- The
two pilot programmes are operating in Christchurch (as of January 2000) and
Auckland (as of May 2000) and will run until 30 June
2002. Both are contracted
to work with 60 families/inmates each. The programmes’ evaluation is
currently underway with a
final report due in September 2002. The evaluation
looks at both process and outcomes for inmates and their families in terms of
reducing reoffending and improved family functioning.
- The
Department of Corrections has an ongoing project for women offenders with
dependent children. The project aims to assist imprisoned
mothers to address
their parental responsibilities and to promote quality motherchild
relationships, where this in the best interests
of the child. To identify best
practice, the project examines current practice in New Zealand and overseas
approaches. Examples
being examined include:
- prisonbased
motherchild facilities
- childcentred
visiting schemes
- extended
motherchild visiting opportunities
- communitybased
residential schemes
- pre and
postrelease programmes to assist family reunification upon the mother’s
release from prison.
- The
focus on women reflects both national and international studies, which highlight
numerous difficulties in maintaining motherchild
relationships where a mother is
imprisoned. Many studies indicate this can impact on both the mother and the
child and their relationship.
This is a concern given that for many of these
children their mother was their sole caregiver prior to imprisonment. In most
instances,
children of imprisoned men remain with their mothers during the
period of imprisonment. It is also more likely that fathers will
be housed in
prisons closer to their children. Both national and overseas studies identify a
significant barrier to maintaining
the motherchild relationship is the
considerable distance often placed between imprisoned mothers and their
children.
D. Family reunification (article 10)
Children of parents who are in New Zealand
unlawfully
- There
are wider implications for children when they are born in New Zealand and
therefore have citizenship but their parents do not.
- Because
of their parent’s illegal status, some children may not be enrolled in
school as they do not have the documentation
to prove their citizenship. The
Ministry of Education is investigating administrative changes that could assist
the enrolment of
children who have citizenship rights, but whose parents are
illegally in New Zealand.
- There
are anecdotal reports of children of illegal immigrants missing out on health
services. Any person, regardless of their residency
status, can access general
practitioner services providing they can pay for those services (this may not be
known in the immigrant
community). However, some are gaining access to health
services and subsidies by using the identities of family members who are
here
lawfully. Hospitals are obliged to provide acute and emergency services to all
people irrespective of residency status a bill
for the service is presented to
the children’s parents or guardians whom the hospital identifies as being
not eligible. However,
hospitals describe difficulty in determining eligibility
and thus pursuing debt.
- If
children are born in New Zealand, they are eligible for publiclyfunded
health services, although their parents may not know this,
or they might have
difficulty proving this or be reluctant to test their child’s eligibility
if they are here unlawfully.
- Cabinet
has agreed to a transitional policy that will enable some wellsettled
overstayers, and their immediate family, to regularise
their immigration status.
This opportunity is available to people who arrived before 1 October 1999, who
are or who become unlawfully
in New Zealand prior to 1 April 2001.
Generally, an overstayer will be considered wellsettled if they were in
New Zealand on or
before 1 October 1999 and come within the following
categories:
- have been in
New Zealand for five years or more
- are a spouse or
partner of a New Zealand citizen or resident
- have a
New Zealandborn child.
- By
reducing the number of people who are living in New Zealand unlawfully,
many of the social problems that children of overstayers
face will be reduced.
For example, many overstayers have lived here for several years, some with
New Zealandborn children. However,
these people live in constant fear of
being located and removed. This causes immense stress and anxiety and leads to
other problems
such as families preventing their children from accessing
education.
- This
issue will be explored further as part of the review of New Zealand’s
reservation regarding children unlawfully in New
Zealand (see paragraph
24(i)). The Committee will be informed of developments when this report is
presented.
- The
rights of the child are taken into account when making immigration decisions.
Border management is a core function of the New
Zealand Immigration Service
and involves ensuring the only people entering New Zealand are those who
may lawfully do so, and
identifying and initiating removal actions against those who are unlawfully
in New Zealand. Prior to a removal order being exercised
against them,
individuals have full rights of appeal. Any appeal takes into account the
rights of the child.
- The
rights of the child to representation in removal proceedings have been enhanced.
The previous policy required children (under
17 years of age) to be represented
by a responsible adult. This has now been given statutory protection by the
Immigration Amendment
Act 1999 (Annex 44). Additionally, a provision has been
added that requires the views of the child to be considered in immigration
decisions that may affect them. These changes will be reflected in operational
policy and ensure the child’s circumstances
are considered in all
immigration decisions.
- A
new border and investigations operations manual is being prepared to better
facilitate border control measures. The new manual
is expected to ensure border
and investigations procedures comply with the Immigration Act 1987, policy
requirements, and the United
Nations instruments to which New Zealand
is a signatory (including the Convention). The manual has been rewritten to
clarify the
instructions and responsibilities of staff in relation to the
Convention when initiating proceedings involving children. It includes
a
section specifically for dealing with children under the age of 17 years who are
liable to be removed from New Zealand. The key
requirements regarding
interviewing and removing such children are:
- special care
must be taken to ensure the interview is conducted fairly, in a sensitive
manner, and in the presence of a nominated
responsible adult
- no removal order
can be served on a child who is under the age of 17 years and not married) and
who is not represented by a nominated
responsible adult
- an opportunity
must be given for the child to express their views on the matter, whether
personally or through a responsible adult
- due weight is to
be given to the child’s views having regard to the age and level of
maturity and understanding of the child.
- There
are new provisions being developed to allow mass arrivals to be detained in
premises other than prison pending determination
of any refugee status claims.
This enables the New Zealand Immigration Service to keep families together
where there are no security
or child protection issues.
- In
most cases where a person claims refugee status at the border, they are granted
a permit until their claim is determined. This
permit entitles them to claim a
benefit and be advised of housing options. Families, including children, are
almost never detained.
- There
are new provisions currently being worked on to allow spontaneous asylum seekers
to be housed at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement
Centre, in Auckland. This
would allow those who appear to have manifestly unfounded claims to reside there
until their claims are
determined. This would only involve families where their claim was obviously
manifestly unfounded (for example, if they had already
claimed refugee status in
a country such as France or Switzerland, lived there for a few years and then
decided to travel to New
Zealand and claim refugee status here).
- It
is planned that around 40 refugee status claimants could be housed at Mangere at
any one time, but it is not expected that there
will be anything like that
number. Anyone housed there would be free to come and go during the day and
would have free access to
move around the grounds.
- There
is an operational manual Illegal Migrants Mass Arrivals that clearly states
Child, Youth and Family would be involved in any
dealings with children and
young people, including interviewing. It would also be notified of any care and
protection issues that
may arise under section 14 of the Children, Young Persons
and Their Families Act 1989. In accordance with the principles of that
Act, any
child or young person would be retained with their family unless there was a
serious risk of harm.
E. Illicit transfer and nonreturn (article 11)
- New Zealand
acceded to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child
Abduction on 31 May 1991 and it entered into
force on 1 August 1991. The
Department for Courts’ Chief Executive acts as the Central Authority. The
Convention is intended
to ensure that issues relating to children’s
custody are dealt with in the children’s country of habitual residence.
To secure and protect children pending the outcome of the application the
Department for Courts ensures that all applications are
processed expeditiously,
appoints and funds senior counsel to represent the Central Authority, and
liaises with other agencies (Police,
including Interpol, and Child, Youth and
Family).
- New Zealand
also participated in the negotiations for a protocol supplementing the
United Nations Convention Against Transnational
Organised Crime regarding
the prevention, suppression and punishment of trafficking in persons, especially
women and children. This
protocol, which was concluded during October 2000 and
will be open for signature from December 2000, complements the Hague Convention
by providing additional protection to victims of trafficking and assisting in
their recovery from trauma. In particular, the protocol
requires all states to
take into account assisting the children’s special needs, including
appropriate housing, education and
care.
F. Recovery of maintenance for the child (article 27)
- Responsibility
for child support policy and legislation lies with the Inland Revenue Department
(see paragraph 140 in the Initial Report). Significant court decisions
in the area of child support will enhance the protection of children of samesex
families. For example,
in A v R (unreported, High Court Hamilton
Registry AP 93/96, Penlington and Hammond JJ, 10 February 1999) the Court
held that a samesex
partner was a “stepparent” for the purposes of
the Act. Of particular importance to the Court was the Act’s underlying
policy that children have a right to be maintained and that this policy would be
undermined if samesex couples were excluded from
liability.
- Agreement
has been reached with Australia to allow child support payments to be collected
from noncustodial parents that reside in
Australia.
G. Children deprived of their family environment (article
20)
Foster care
- Submissions
from a number of young people shared a common concern about providing greater
scrutiny of caregivers and foster homes
for children to ensure they are safe and
have a good standard.
- The
Government has attempted to improve outcomes for children and young people who
are referred to contracted foster care services
by Child, Youth and Family. In
most cases, neither the contract or funding arrangements with the contracted or
foster care services
specifically address issues of “permanency” for
children. Instead, the funding is based on payments for units of care
by
“bednights”. However, a new approach is being taken to develop a
contracting model to test whether outcomes for children
and young people in
foster care can be improved.
- To
illustrate, currently a carer will be funded to provide accommodation and care
for a child without necessarily recognising the
other aspects/quality of care.
For example school attendance and support, being able to join clubs, sports
teams, having appropriate
clothing. Because funding is based on the numbers of
children looked after, it is suspected that financial incentives encourage
poorer quality of care. The new initiative will place more emphasis on the
quality of care and will be evaluated over three years.
- Child,
Youth and Family has just completed a round of training for social workers on
permanency planning for children to ensure casework
focuses on the needs of
children for permanency. It also recognises the importance of kinship placement
as a goal for providing
quality service by including a performance measure in
its purchase agreement with Government that reflects increases or decreases
in
this area.
- A
qualitative research project has been completed by the Children’s Issues
Centre at the University of Otago into children’s
experience in foster and
kinship care. This work is available to help inform policy and practice in this
area.
- The
Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 legislative framework has
not changed.
- However,
section 9A of the Guardianship Act 1968 (see paragraph 153 of the Initial
Report) was repealed by the Guardianship Amendment Act 1998. The 1998
amendment gave the Family Court full concurrent wardship jurisdiction
with the
High Court which previously had only a limited form of wardship. The amendment
recognises the increased expertise of the
Family Court in wardship matters and
the more comfortable forum of the Family Court for parties to wardship
proceedings.
H. Adoption (article 21)
- The
Law Commission has reviewed the Adoption Act 1955 as per the Minister of
Justice’s terms of reference. The terms of reference
required the
Commission to review the legal framework for adoption in New Zealand as set
out in the Adoption Act 1955 and the Adult
Adoption Information Act 1985 and to
recommend whether and how the framework should be modified to better address
contemporary social
needs. Among other things, the Commission considered the
principles that should apply in relation to:
- who should be
permitted to adopt
- whether there
should be any restrictions on stepparent or interfamily
adoptions
- who should be
required to consent to an adoption
- whether an
adoption order may be cancelled by an adopted person
- whether special
recognition should be given to Maori customary adoptions or any other culturally
different adoption practices
- whether
provision should be made for future contact between natural parents and other
people, including grandparents, adoptive parents,
and the adopted
child
- whether the
scope of the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985 should be expanded to cover a
wider range of people
- at what stage
should an adopted child be entitled to information about their
identity
- whether the
current procedures under the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985 are still
appropriate.
- The
Law Commission’s report (Annex 45) to the Minister of Justice at the end
of September 2000 forms the primary focus for the
select committee review of
adoption. The select committee process will ensure that any recommendations for
change arising from the
Law Commission’s review will be fully examined
before the Government makes final policy decisions. It also allows the
community
to express a view on any proposals for future adoption laws through
oral and written submissions to the select committee.
- The
terms of reference for the review require the select committee to inquire into
New Zealand’s adoption laws and to consider
what changes should be
considered to better address contemporary social needs and improve the attitude
towards adoption, including:
- an increased
focus on children’s interests
- the unique
character of New Zealand society, including Maori and other cultural values
and needs
- whether any
other changes to the current law are desired in light of issues arising from
past adoption practices.
- The
select committee will also review some provisions of the Adoption (Intercountry)
Act 1997. The review’s results will be
provided when this report is
presented.
Intercountry Adoption
- Paragraphs
159 to 164 of the Initial Report set out the background to
New Zealand’s current law and practice on intercountry adoption.
While the priority is for children
to be cared for by their biological or
extended families, intercountry adoption may be considered as an alternative
once it has been
established that a satisfactory solution for the child cannot
be found within the child’s state of origin. New Zealand’s
aim
for intercountry adoption should be to provide stability, continuity and
permanency of relationships that promote the child’s
growth and
development.
- As
noted in paragraph 102 above, New Zealand acceded to the Hague Convention
on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect
of Intercountry Adoption
on 18 September 1998 and the Convention is contained as a
schedule to the Adoption (Intercountry) Act 1977.
Also effective from 1 January
1999 are the regulations which were passed in 1998 that set out the functions
that may be delegated
to New Zealand accredited nongovernmental
organisations. Accreditation gives organisations the authority to operate in
countries
outside New Zealand that have ratified or acceded to the Hague
Convention. The Act does not allow any profit to be made by accredited
nongovernment organisations from the delegated functions. Organisations may
charge or pay only reasonable costs and expenses and
must explicitly avoid the
financial exploitation of any party to an intercountry
adoption.
- The
new policies and legislation aim to ensure that intercountry adoptions are in
the best interest of the child and respect their
fundamental rights as
recognised in international law. The new system gives flexibility to
prospective adoptive parents through
a choice of services namely, either the
New Zealand Central Authority (the official government adoption agency) or
a nongovernmental
organisation. Under the Convention, each contracting state
designates a Central Authority to ensure duties imposed by the Convention
are
carried out. In New Zealand the legislation designates the Chief Executive
of the department responsible for the administration
of the Children, Young
Persons and Their Families Act 1989.
- The
Act specifies criteria and procedures for accrediting nongovernment,
nonprofitmaking bodies to which Convention functions may
be delegated. The
Chief Executive of Child, Youth and Family is responsible for monitoring the
nongovernment bodies to which it
has delegated functions.
- New Zealand
considers it essential that any adoption services have the highest possible
standard. Quality of services provided by
nongovernment organisations is
assured in several ways, including the accreditation system. The
New Zealand Central Authority is
required to:
- obtain medical,
Police and referee checks on all prospective adoptive parents
- give the final
and official approval of all prospective adoptive parents
- give the final
agreement to a specific adoption.
- It
is also responsible for placing a child following an adoption breakdown.
- In
May 1999 the New Zealand Standards for Accreditation for organisations to
undertake intercountry adoption services were produced
these embody the
principles of the Convention. Organisations that apply to undertake the
delegated functions must demonstrate that
they meet the criteria set out in
those standards which closely reflect the Adoption (Intercountry) Act 1997 and
the Hague Convention
on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of
Intercountry Adoption. At this stage no organisations have been accredited
and,
accordingly, no formal evaluation is planned.
- The
Hague Convention only applies to adoptions between contracting states. Overseas
adoptions from nonConvention countries are still
possible. Adoptions in
countries that are not party to the Convention are recognised under section 17
of the Adoption Act (see paragraph
159 of the Initial
Report).
- The
Adoption (Intercountry) Act amended the Citizenship Act so that a person adopted
overseas by a New Zealand citizen (by an adoption
order which is certified
by the competent authority of the contracting State) is deemed to be a child of
that citizen. The child
obtains New Zealand citizenship automatically by
descent.
- The
Adoption (Intercountry) Act created an exception to the prohibition under the
Adoption Act on payments for arranging adoptions.
The Act also increased the
monetary penalty for offences against the Adoption Act from $100 to $15,000.
Offences include giving
or receiving payment for adoptions outside the above
exception. The exception only relates to paying reasonable costs and expenses
to an accredited body in respect of exercising that body’s delegated
functions.
I. Periodic review of placement (article 25)
- All
care placements made by Child, Youth and Family are reviewed regularly.
Designated caregiver liaison officers carry out responsibilities
that relate to
the caregivers. Case
work staff carry out responsibilities that relate to the child or young
person. Courts also review orders for the custody and guardianship
of children
and young people (at least every six months for children under seven years of
age, annually from seven years of age).
Recent staff permanency training
focused on children and young people’s needs in care. Training is
provided to approved caregivers
before and during caregiving.
(See
paragraphs 190 to 193 of the Initial Report for processes to ensure
periodic reviews of placement.)
J. Abuse and neglect (article 19), including physical and
psychological
recovery and social reintegration (article 39)
- Paragraphs
169 to 186 of the Initial Report set out the general legal framework in
this area.
- The
Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 remains the governing piece
of legislation in the area of child abuse and
neglect. It provides
administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from
violence, abuse and neglect.
- Child
abuse is a concern for New Zealand. Submissions reflect the public’s
concern that New Zealand is still not doing well
in terms of preventing
child abuse. The James Whakaruru case (see paragraphs 515516) was cited as an
example that children are still
slipping through the cracks, despite
improvements in government agency cooperation. Suggestions for improvements
include:
- a better
resourced child protection agency with more well trained staff working in the
area
- better
communication between agencies
- improved
training for professionals to boost child abuse reporting.
Child Abuse Statistics
Year
|
Number of substantiated abuse findings
|
1996/97
|
7 981
|
1997/98
|
6 800
|
1998/99
|
6 858
|
1999/2000
|
6 807*
|
(* There will be an increase on this last figure as more assessments from
recent investigations are recorded.)
- Developments
in the area of child abuse and neglect during the reporting period
include:
- additional
funding for residential services and alternative care
- public awareness
and education campaigns that aim to raise awareness about child abuse to prevent
and stop it
- developing and
implementing risk estimation tools for social work practice
- particular focus
on improving professional services including registering social
workers.
Legal Safeguards
Corporal punishment
- Education
campaigns on alternatives to smacking have been developed. However, the legal
framework for corporal punishment has not
changed. (See paragraphs 187189 of
the Initial Report.)
- Section
59 of the Crimes Act 1961 does not sanction child abuse or protect a parent from
the consequences of using excessive force.
The legislation is clear in its
requirement that physical force may only be administered to a child where it is
done for the purpose
of correction and where the degree of force used is
“reasonable”.
- The
Court considers a number of factors to decide if the degree of force used by a
parent was reasonable, including:
- the age and
maturity of the child
- other
characteristics of the child, such as physique, sex and state of
health
- the type and
circumstances of punishment.
- The
section does not sanction uncontrolled punishment carried out in anger. Nor
does this section make it acceptable for a parent
to apply an unreasonable
degree of force in disciplining a child.
- The
Government is reviewing other countries steps to address this issue, including
the education campaigns that have preceded legislative
change (see paragraphs
7981).
- New Zealand
uses education as the primary means to encourage parents to find alternatives to
corporal punishment of children. In
September 1998, Child, Youth and Family
launched the “Alternatives to Smacking” campaign, the fourth stage
in the Breaking
the Cycle programme that commenced in 1995. The main objectives
are to raise awareness of the alternatives to smacking and encourage
parents and
caregivers to think about using them. This campaign focused on television as
the key medium, supported by posters, an
0800 freephone help line and pamphlet
distribution
(Annex 46).
- Results
show the campaign was successful in raising awareness of the alternatives to
smacking. It also found a positive attitudinal
shift and a significant
behavioural shift from precontemplation to contemplation of the alternatives to
smacking.
- A
submission stated that physical abuse of children will continue to happen
unreported in the community because hitting is seen as
“standard parental
discipline”. Other people thought that to do away with it will mean loss
of parental control. Opponents
of corporal punishment recognised that parents
do need to be “effectively” educated and supported if the law is
changed.
Reference was made to educational material on alternatives to corporal
punishment produced by EPOCH and the Peace Foundation.
Children Young Persons and Their Families Act
1989
- The
Department of Child, Youth and Family Services provides services under the
Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989
and has primary
responsibility for preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect (see
paragraph 160).
Domestic Violence Act 1995
- The
Domestic Violence Bill (noted in paragraph 172 of the Initial Report) was
passed in 1995 and established a new approach to dealing with domestic
violence. Of particular significance for children and
young people
are:
- Extending the
definition of “domestic violence” to include psychological and other
nonphysical forms of abuse. The definition
of psychological abuse includes
allowing a child to witness the abuse of a person with whom the child has a
domestic relationship
or putting the child at risk of witnessing the
abuse.
- When a
protection order is granted, it automatically covers children of the
applicant’s family who live with the applicant.
- Children may
apply, with the assistance of a third party, for a protection order against a
parent or another adult where they are
the victim of violence.
- An order can be
made against someone the victim continues to live with, but only with the
victim’s consent.
- There is a
presumption against a violent parent having custody and access
- Attendance at a
programme is mandatory for abusers.
- Programmes are
also available for children who have suffered or witnessed
abuse.
- Extension
to children is based in part on research showing that children suffer
psychological harm when they witness domestic violence
and that children are
also at risk of violence where a parent is being abused by their partner. From
July 1998 to June 1999 there
were a total of 7,058 applications for protection
orders under the Domestic Violence Act. These applications affected 10,708
children
(4,554 under five years old and 6,154 over five years old).
- At
the same time, the Guardianship Act 1955 was amended to create new procedures
for dealing with custody and access applications
where there are allegations of
violence. The Act inserted new sections 16A, 16B and 16C and the effects
are:
- When it is
alleged that a party to a custody or access proceedings has used violence
against the child, a child of the family, or
against the other party to the
proceedings, the Court shall determine whether the allegation is
proved.
- If the Court is
satisfied that a party has used violence against the child, a child of the
family, or the other party, the Court must
not make an order giving the violent
party custody of the child; or make any order allowing the violent party access
unless it is
supervised, unless the Court is satisfied that the child will be
safe.
- If the Court is
unable to determine whether the allegation of violence is proved, but is
satisfied that there is a real risk to the
safety of the child, the Court may
make any order under the Act to protect the safety of the
child.
- Supervised
access means face to face contact between a parent and child in a place approved
by the Court and in the immediate presence
of a person approved by the
Court.
- Any costs
incurred by any other person in facilitating supervised access must be paid by
the person exercising supervised access.
- These
amendments apply to physical or sexual abuse used against the child, a child of
the family, or against another party to the
proceedings. Violence is defined as
only physical or sexual abuse. However, judges may take into account
psychological abuse, threatening
behaviour, and violence against others as
conduct that is relevant to the welfare of the child. Evaluation of the
Guardianship Act
1955 amendments shows that the law changes have enhanced the
protection of children and young people.
- In
May 1999 the Ministry of Justice published a report on the results of
researching the Guardianship Act’s new provisions.
The report, The
Domestic Violence Legislation and Child Access in New Zealand (Annex
47) concluded that the provisions for access to children in domestic violence
legislation have led to a growing use of access
arrangements which are safer for
both children and custodial parents.
- However,
the research found that some children continue to be exposed to violence during
access. The research also suggested improvements
to enhance the protection of
children’s wellbeing, including:
- supervised
access services for Maori children
- access to
information for parents
- the quality of
professional services to parents
- access to
appropriate support services for Maori parents.
- Additional
improvements were suggested in relation to:
- the
Courts’ access to information about child safety
- the length of
time taken to finalise court cases
- guidance for
informal access supervisors
- safety outside
supervised access centres
- the funding of
supervised access services.
- The
Department for Courts and the Ministry of Justice are considering the
report’s implications. A wider interagency steering
group has been
established to consider issues with greater policy implications that arise from
both the Domestic Violence Act Process
Evaluation and the report into child
access under the domestic violence legislation.
Legal processes and complaints procedures
- In
addition to the general legislative framework, a number of administrative
initiatives have been undertaken to enhance legal services
to children and young
people:
- To improve
protection for child witnesses in the criminal courts, the Department for Courts
has developed protocols, including those
concerning prioritisation of
cases.
- In November
1998, the Chief Justice and Chief District Court Judge issued a Practice Note
requiring that the criminal courts identify
and prioritise cases involving child
complainants and child defendants.
- The Government
continues to strive to minimise the trauma of court proceedings for children
through closed circuit television for
children giving evidence and providing
facilities in courthouses to ensure child witnesses do not have contact with an
accused or
their supporters.
- In
the Family Courts, orders to secure the safety of children who require care and
protection are made under the Children, Young Persons’
and Their Families
Act 1989 (including restraining orders, guardianship, custody and support
orders). The children’s safety
is a paramount consideration in this
jurisdiction under the Guardianship Act 1968 and the Domestic Violence Act 1995.
Counsel for
the Child may be appointed to represent the child’s interests
or to assist the Court. Appointment of Counsel for the Child
is compulsory in
proceedings under the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act
1989.
- In
the Family Courts, new caseflow management practices have been developed and new
standards have been introduced to establish set
timeframes within which certain
steps must be taken. Monitoring these timeframes ensures that cases involving
children are proactively
managed and progressed.
- The
Youth Court (a specialist court) has jurisdiction over criminal offending by
young people aged 14 to 16 years. However, police
diversion or Family Group
Conferences deal with the majority of cases before they appear before the Court.
Where a young person is
involved in Youth Court proceedings and it becomes
evident that there are care and protection issues for that young person, the
Court
can refer the matter to Child, Youth and Family. The Youth Court case
will usually be set aside pending resolution of those matters
and the legal
counsel appointed by the Court (Youth Advocate) will monitor progress (see
paragraphs 863866).
- If
a child wants to complain about the way their case has been handled they can
contact the Office of the Commissioner for Children
(see paragraphs
136138).
Education and awareness raising
- Public
education and awareness of the issue of child abuse and neglect was a major
focus of policy in this area during the reporting
periods. Child, Youth and
Family devised and implemented the Breaking the Cycle campaign under section 7
of the Children, Young
Persons and Their Families Act. The campaign aims to
educate and promote awareness among New Zealanders about the
unacceptability
of child abuse and how to recognise, prevent and report it.
Raising awareness through community and professional education and providing
early assistance is designed to help reduce the prevalence of child abuse and
neglect and to enhance protective or preventive behaviours
in the community.
- The
campaign consists of a series of television, radio and print media
advertisements which highlight the issue of neglect and provide
an 0800
freephone number the public can use to get information, counselling or referral
services. The programme is evaluated on
an ongoing basis as part of a
continuing strategy to strive for improved awareness and a positive attitudinal
and behavioural change.
The campaign was developed without specific
consideration of the Convention, but is consistent with it.
- Child,
Youth and Family maintains its public and community education programmes. No
major new abuse prevention campaigns are planned
for the next year, but the
Breaking the Cycle campaign will continue with a stronger focus on community
education. Child, Youth
and Family is promoting New Zealand’s first
ever Children’s Day on 29 October 2000 with the theme “Celebrating
Our Children” and focussing on meeting children’s needs. A wide
range of government and nongovernment agencies is working
to support the public
relations campaign which is expected to become an annual event.
Monitoring
- The
Commissioner for Children has a key role in monitoring violence and abuse
against children (see paragraph 9 of the Initial Report).
In June 2000 the
Commissioner for Children published a report on the investigation into the death
of James Whakaruru (Annex 48).
James died on 4 April 1999 from one or more
physical assaults perpetrated by his mother’s partner who had been
convicted of
a previous assault on James in 1996. The Commissioner investigated
to examine how James came to die in spite of the many agencies
involved with him
and his family, and to consider what changes are needed.
- The
report’s recommendations to Government, Ministers and Chief Executives of
government and nongovernment agencies included
that the Minister of Social
Services and Employment establish an interagency taskforce to ensure that all
the recommendations from
the report are implemented. This Committee has been
established and it is anticipated that the inter agency cooperation and
communication
will enhance care and protection for children and young people.
Monitoring social services by both government and nongovernment
is expected to
be more stringent as the recommendations of the report included enhanced
compliance with the care and protection legislation,
and policies and protocols
within departments.
- Of
particular importance were the recommendations that the Department of Child,
Youth and Family comply with the legislative requirements
in respect of care and
protection notifications to the department. Once assessed, these notifications
may result in calling Family
Group Conferences. An important part of Family
Group Conferences is that the care and protection concerns about a child are
clearly
communicated to family members who, in turn, are involved in finding and
implementing solutions (see paragraphs 532533).
- The
New Zealand domestic violence legislation (see paragraphs 499506) is unique
and developments are closely monitored.
Social programmes and support for children
- Funding
children’s programmes through the Family Court under the Domestic Violence
Programmes (Regulations) 1996 is a positive
intervention to help children deal
with the effects of domestic violence. The programmes are based on best
practice education strategies
and have an assessment component that may also
identify abuse issues.
- All
programme providers are required to have child abuse reporting protocols in
place. The Department for Courts and the Ministry
of Justice have commissioned
an evaluation of the children’s programmes. The Department for Courts is
also involved in a reference
group for a joint interagency initiative regarding
child witnesses of domestic violence between Child, Youth and Family, the Police
and the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges
Inc.
- The
overall aims of the programmes are:
- to successfully
prevent and ameliorate any likely harm to children resulting from their
experience of family violence
- to provide a
range of therapeutic services to children to respond to individual
needs
- to deliver
services in a culturally appropriate way
- to involve
primary caregivers so there is transfer of the learning to the home
environment
- assist in
removing barriers to the child’s development resulting from family
violence.
- The
programmes were evaluated and most of the responses from parents and children
indicated that many of their needs were met during
the programme and that these
gains were sustained three months later. Although long term outcomes could not
be assessed, the parents
and children indicated that most key features of
successful programmes were present.
- Submissions
commented that children and young people who have been subjected to violence in
the home are not taking advantage of programmes
provided under the Domestic
Violence Act aimed at helping them recover.
- The
Principal Family Court Judge issued a Practice Note in May 1999 that established
a referral process from the Court to the supervised
access provider, where an
order for supervised access is made. There are 36 providers affiliated to the
New Zealand Association
of Children’s Supervised Access Providers
that the Court can make referrals to.
- The
passage of the Domestic Violence Act 1995 (see paragraph 499) has greatly
increased demand for services. The objective of the
Domestic Violence Act (and
therefore the Government’s overall objectives in providing services)
are:
- to increase
awareness of family violence
- to assist people
who have been affected by family violence
- to break the
cycle of family violence.
- The
Government has developed initiatives that are designed to meet its statutory
objectives, particularly in relation to children
and young people. For
example:
- Personal safety
training for girls this aims to equip girls aged approximately nine to 13
years with skills and strategies to deal
more effectively with their personal
safety. Training is provided nationwide.
- Maori family
violence prevention services aims to focus on changing Maori attitudes and
behaviours of Maori about the abusing women
and children in ways that mobilise
Maori communities and that are relevant to Maori families.
- Specialist
services for child victims and witnesses of family violence focuses on reducing
the intergenerational transmission of
family violence by providing assessment,
support, counselling and advocacy programmes for child victims and witnesses of
family violence.
- Additional
resources for victim services aims to augment existing programmes which aim to
break the cycle of family violence by providing
funding for nongovernmental
organisations to deliver additional services to meet increased demand from
victims of family violence.
- Extension of
family violence services in rural areas seeks to augment existing programmes
that aim to prevent family violence by
taking the services to the victims in
rural areas.
- Communitybased
sex offenders programmes designed to extend communitybased intervention
programmes for adult sex offenders to nonmandatory
referrals as well as Court
referrals.
- Violence in
Schools the Ministry of Education’s Violence Prevention Programme deals
with bullying and harassment in schools.
- All
these initiatives provide services in areas of need for children and families.
The initiatives provide a variety of innovative
responses and prevention
services to promote attitudinal and behavioural change in the area of family
violence prevention. Many
of the services are focused on areas of need which
were identified through research on social needs and relevant statistics, such
as:
- the National
Survey of Crime Victims 1996
- the
Women’s Safety Survey 1996
- information from
the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges
Inc.
- These
initiatives were not developed with the Convention in mind, but have since been
checked for consistency with the principles
contained in the Convention.
Evaluations are showing positive outcomes.
Identification, reporting and response
- As
noted above, the basic systems for reporting abuse are covered by the Children,
Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989.
- Interagency
protocols for reporting child abuse, developed and put in place in 1995, are
still operating. Protocols were agreed between
Child, Youth and Family and the
Ministries of Health and Education, and Police as well as with youth workers and
a wide range of
community providers.
- To
facilitate reporting abuse, the freephone 0508 FAMILY (0508 326 459) call centre
was established. By June 2001 the whole country
is expected to be connected to
the call centre to receive calls and notifications of child abuse to Child,
Youth and Family.
- The
investigation into the death of James Whakaruru (see paragraph 515) found that
poor interagency communication characterised the
professional work with James
and his family. Agencies worked without reference to each other and ended their
involvement assuming
that other parts of the system would protect James. Some
workers seemed unaware of the indicators of a child at risk or did not
appreciate the role they needed to play to ensure his safety and wellbeing. A
number of measures have been put in place as a result
of the Commissioner for
Children’s report and recommendations.
- An
action plan has been developed and an intersector monitoring group has been
established with the Chief Executive of Child, Youth
and Family as Convenor to
ensure progress is made. Key items include (but are not limited
to):
- Information
sharing between agencies for example, between Courts, Police, Child Youth and
Family and Corrections when a protection
order exists and a convicted abuser is
released to their family home on parole.
- Focus on the
development of local relationships between key agencies such as Child, Youth and
Family and GPs.
- Review current
reporting protocols for effectiveness and improve accordingly.
- Review the
interagency project between Police, Women’s Refuge and Child, Youth and
Family on effective intervention in situations
of family violence.
- Another
initiative to improve information sharing is the safety assessment form police
officers complete when attending family violence
callouts. The form provides a
basis for the Police to assess the safety of any child/young person present.
Several options are
available to the officer, ranging from:
- Child, Youth and
Family referral
- Safety
assessment forms will be evaluated during the year 2000.
- A
protocol between the New Zealand Association of Children’s Supervised
Access Services and the Department for Courts has been
developed. It deals with
how referrals are made from the Court, as well as arrangements for passing
information and reports between
the Court and the service provider. The aim of
the protocol is to ensure safety for children whose parents are subject to
supervised
access orders.
- In
June 2000 the joint protocol (recommended by the Commissioner for
Children’s report on the death of James Whakaruru) between
the Department
for Courts and Child, Youth and Family was signed. It results from joint agency
work to identify and resolve issues
relating to providing social work reports
ordered by the Court. It has been implemented across all sites with staff
training for
both agencies. Further training has taken place with the Family
Law Section of the Law Society in specific areas.
- The
protocol details the service requirements to ensure there is an effective and
efficient client protection network for vulnerable
and at risk children, young
people and families. The protocol specifies three tracks for referral by the
Family Court to Child,
Youth and Family. The fourth track details the
reciprocal arrangements for the lawful exchange of information between the two
departments
and between the Court and Child, Youth and Family.
Department of Child, Youth and Family Risk Estimation
System
- Child,
Youth and Family has developed a tool to assist those working with victims of
child abuse. The Risk Estimation System (RES)
is a risk assessment tool
designed to improve social work decisionmaking for children and young people who
have been abused and/or
neglected. The three elements of risk that the RES
assesses are:
- the child or
young person’s vulnerability
- the likelihood
that abuse and/or neglect will reoccur
- the probable
severity of a future incident of abuse or condition of neglect.
- RES
assesses the characteristics of the caregivers and the provision of care. This
is based on the belief that the caregiver is responsible
for a child’s
care and safety and that maltreatment is unacceptable no matter how difficult
the child’s behaviour or
the adult’s situation. Social workers
gather and analyse information on a scale of 22 items and make judgements around
the
three elements of risk.
- The
goal is for Child, Youth and Family to have a consistent and effective approach
to statutory child protection risk assessment
and management. The policy
requires that every child who is abused and/or neglected receive a RES
assessment. In July 1999 an independent
evaluation started on RES’ impact
on statutory child protection practice and client outcomes. One objective of
the evaluation
is to examine the cultural implementation of RES with regard to
whänau/hapü and iwi and Pacific families and communities.
The
evaluation will be completed by December 2000.
- All
care and protection staff have been trained in RES and for new staff there is
scheduled training via the Local Training and Development
Units. Expert user
group meetings are held quarterly.
- Last
year the national performance for RES assessments completed was 60 percent
with a number of sites over 90 percent. The target
for this year is
70 percent assessments completed. There is no plan to extend using RES to
other agencies as it is a tool for statutory
investigation has been
undertaken.
TransTasman care and protection proceedings
- New Zealand
has recently introduced measures to formalise the transfer of care and
protection orders and proceedings between the states
and territories of
Australia and New Zealand. The objectives are:
- to improve the
effectiveness of intercountry placements of New Zealand children and young
people who are the subject of care and protection
proceedings
- to facilitate
the ongoing care of such children and young people by ensuring placement options
are thoroughly investigated before
transfer.
- In
1999, legislation was introduced to amend the Children, Young Persons and Their
Families Act 1989 and put in place an agreed procedure
for the transferring
children and young people and establishing protocols for welfare agencies.
Child, Youth and Family are responsible
for implementing this amendment and the
agreed protocol. Staff guidelines contain reference to children’s rights.
The impact
of the policy proposals on children was considered during the policy
development phase.
Recovery and reintegration of child victims of
abuse
- A
number of submissions (including several from young people), asked for more
resources for rehabilitating children and young people
who have been subject to
abuse (including drug abuse etc.) to allow them to lead normal lives. There was
a call for easier access
to counselling for young people without having to go to
their parents for advice on who to contact.
- Responsibility
for the recovery of child victims of abuse crosses several sectors and agencies.
Within each sector there is ongoing
work. The government has invested funds
into services that meet the needs of child victims of abuse. For
example:
- Police, Child,
Youth and Family, and Women’s Refuge’s project for child victims of
family violence
- Child, Youth and
Family is proposing multiagency centres for child abuse victims
- the Ministry of
Justice is developing a child witness programme to provide child victims,
witnesses and their caregivers who are required
to come to Court, with
specialist support and assistance (to prevent secondary victimisation through
the court system)
- the Department
for Courts has undertaken initiatives to enhance representation of the views of
children in the court process (such
as the review of the role of Counsel for the
Child)
- the Domestic
Violence Act 1995 provides funding for approved programmes to protected people
and their children.
- Collaboration
between the sectors is needed to ensure the physical and psychological recovery
and social reintegration of child victims
of illtreatment and abuse. An example
is the development of a medium term strategy to address the severe mental health
and/or severe
behavioural difficulties of children and young people. Protocols
have been developed between sectors to ensure that appropriate
mechanisms are
established for consistent service delivery (Child, Youth and Family and ACC).
The interagency group established
to ensure the coordinated progress of
recommendations in the Commissioner for Children’s report on the death of
James Whakaruru
is another example.
- For
more information about the health, education and welfare services available to
child victims (see parts 6, 7 and 8 of this report).
PART 6: BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
Introduction
- Part
6 of the report covers services for children with a disability, health and
health services, social security, childcare services
and facilities, and
standard of living.
- Concerns
about increased income inequality in New Zealand and its impact on
children’s standard of living and enjoyment of their
rights are noted in
this part of the report.
A. Children with disabilities (article 23)
- Information
about discrimination against children with a disability is provided in
paragraphs 264269 of this report. This part of
the report covers the services
provided by health and disability support services. (For information about the
right to education
for children with a disability please see paragraphs 705719.)
- The
broad framework for meeting the needs of children with disabilities, including
those with mental disabilities has remained during
the reporting period (see
paragraphs 198208 of the Initial Report). Health and education agencies
in New Zealand are responsible for interfacing with each other to determine
and provide support
services. Which agency delivers a service often depends on
the child’s age. Recently developed services include new training
and
education programmes for caregivers.
- Submissions
said income testing for the disability allowance on parents of children with a
disability is causing hardship for middle
income families. Comments were also
made on the lack of support services in rural areas and generally uneven
standards of services.
- Submissions
also cited a lack of coordination between services, especially health and
education in children’s disability services.
An example included
discussions between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education about
which agency is responsible for
providing a special chair so a young girl can
sit comfortably for a full day’s schoolwork.
- A
New Zealand Disability Strategy (Annex 49) is being developed and a draft
is out for consultation (see paragraphs 585590). Further
information on this
strategy will be provided when this report is examined.
- In
May 1999 the Government also introduced a $200 subsidy (more in some
circumstances) towards providing vision examinations, lenses
and frames for
children under six years of age from low income families. Services to assist
the orientation and mobility of visually
impaired children have been introduced
and are administered by the Ministry of Health for children under five years and
by the Ministry
of Education for children over the age of
five years.
- The
health sector is responsible for providing a range of support services,
including respite care for families and personal assistance
for children, and
child development services. Access to support services is based on an
individual assessment of the needs of the
child or young person with a
disability as well as the needs of their family or whänau, and coordinating
services and planning.
There is also an interface between health services and
Child, Youth and Family in providing services for children with disabilities
who
are at risk. New protocols that address this interface have been
developed.
- A
strategy is being developed to improve intersectoral coordination and
collaboration in providing services for children with high
and complex needs.
The strategy initially focussed on children and young people with severe mental
health and/or behavioural problems,
but has been extended to cover all those
with high and complex needs, irrespective of diagnosis. The Ministries of
Health, Education,
and Social Policy and Child, Youth and Family are
involved.
- In
1998, services for children and young people with autism and support services
for their families were reviewed. The Autism Review
contained a range of
recommendations that will be implemented by relevant funders and providers over
time (Annex 50).
B. Health and health services (article 24)
- The
overall framework for providing health services was set out in the Initial
Report (paragraphs 215 to 223).
The Child Health Strategy
- In
July 1998 the Minister of Health launched the Government’s Child Health
Strategy (Annex 51). Submissions emphasised the need for programmes to be
carefully implemented, monitored and evaluated for their effectiveness.
For
example, there was support in principle for the Child Health Strategy, but the
message was that it must be effectively implemented.
- This
strategy was developed through extensive consultation with the child health
sector and the Child Health Advisory Committee.
It identifies four groups of
children (those aged under 14 years) who have the highest need for interventions
to improve health outcomes:
- tamariki Maori
(Maori children)
- children with
high health and disability support needs
- children from
families with multiple social and economic disadvantages.
- It
provides a set of standards to evaluate present activities and identify
potential change. The Health Funding Authority and the
child health sector are
responsible for implementing the Child Health Strategy.
- The
Strategy establishes six future directions to guide the development of health
services for children in New Zealand. One is improving
child health
evaluation and research to develop a health and disability support sector
committed to evidencebased clinical, management,
policy and planning
practice.
- It
also identifies the development of a Child Health Information Strategy (CHIS) as
critical to the success of the Child Health Strategy. $1.78 million was
allocated in the 2000/01 budget.
- New
child health contracts and programmes increasingly require an evaluation
component. Process and outcome evaluation is required
as part of the contract
between the Health Funding Authority and the health care service
provider.
- The
National Review of Paediatric Speciality Services was a joint project of the
Health Funding Authority and the Paediatric Society
of New Zealand. This
review is an integral part of the Child Health Strategy and aims
to improve services for children with high health and disability support
services needs. It was developed in close consultation
with a wide range of
child health care providers and practitioners and parents. The review has begun
implementation by establishing
a paediatric network, tumour panel, clinical
guidelines and review of speciality areas. The recommendations of this report
will
be implemented over the next 10 years.
- The
Convention is one of the core documents referred to in the Strategy and
underlies its intent and directions.
- The
health sector acknowledges that social and economic inequalities are powerful
determinants of the health status of individuals
and populations. Ranges of
diseases are often viewed as “diseases of poverty”, for example
rheumatic fever, tuberculosis
and meningitis. Poverty and overcrowding, limited
educational opportunities and multiple pressure on families all combine to make
it more difficult to control the spread of infection. Other poor health
outcomes are also associated with socioeconomic inequalities,
for example higher
childhood hospitalisation rates and poor nutrition status. There is increasing
concern within New Zealand about
the rates of these diseases amongst
children.
- The
health sector provides comprehensive health services for all people and works
intersectorally at all levels to try to reduce socioeconomic
inequalities and
their impact on health (for example Strengthening Families programmes see
paragraph 153).
- A
particular focus is to reduce the impact of inequalities on Maori and Pacific
peoples by developing Maori and Pacific Primary Health
Services. The Ministry
of Health will develop a framework that identifies other ways the health sector
can contribute to reducing
these inequalities. This is consistent with the
Closing the Gaps (see paragraphs 8688) framework that the Ministry of Health
will
develop over 2000/2001.
- The
Government has continued to change the way funding is set up to deliver health
services in New Zealand. In 1998, the four Regional
Health Authorities
(set up by the Health and Disability Services Act 1993 with responsibility for
purchasing health and disability support
services) became one authority, the Health Funding Authority. This was to
increase efficiency and consistency in purchasing health
services. The extent
of the services purchased for child health was not decreased in any way.
- The
Government is introducing a new framework and structure for delivering public
health care in New Zealand. The New Zealand Health
Strategy and the
New Zealand Disability Strategy will provide the framework for a
populationbased approach to improving New Zealanders’
health and
wellbeing. To deliver the targets set within those strategies, the sector is
being restructured. The Health Funding
Authority is to be absorbed into the
Ministry of Health and funding will be devolved to 21 District Health Boards
that are currently
being established.
- These
boards will be responsible for working within allocated resources to improve,
promote and protect the health of the population
within their districts, as well
as promote the independence of people with disabilities. This will require
District Health Boards
to consider all needs and services, including prevention,
early intervention, treatment and support services and how these services
can be
provided to best meet the needs of the population.
- In
1998 the Ministry of Health published Our Children’s Health: Key
findings on the health of New Zealand children. This report was used
to inform the Child Health Strategy. It brought together all available
statistics and research findings related
to child health and provided an
uptodate account of the state of child health in New Zealand. It covered
risk and protection factors
relating to each area and, where possible,
international comparisons (Annex 52).
- Submissions
showed concern for children with serious illnesses and the need for social
workers to link parents with financial assistance.
The Paediatric Society of
New Zealand is developing Standards for the Welfare of Children in Hospital
(Quality Standards DZ8140).
These are still being drafted but when finalised
will be widely distributed to health sector providers.
Data Collection
- In
addition to Our Children’s Health the New Zealand Health
Information Service (NZHIS) is committed to providing accurate statistics and
improving the ethnicity recording
for morbidity and mortality
statistics.
Infant and Child Mortality
- A
proposed Mortality Review process is being considered. It will primarily focus
on improving information on classes of death (including
child) to improve the
policy services’ quality and make environmental changes to reduce
mortality.
- Please
see the information provided about children’s right to life, survival and
development in paragraphs 278295.
- Submissions
stated that children needing palliative care who wish to remain in their own
home need support, including nursing help
and special equipment.
New Zealand is currently consulting on its draft Palliative Care Strategy
that endorses the availability
of support services to children to remain in
their home. Access to assistance ranging from full nursing help and equipment
currently
varies depending on geographic location, regional variation, and the
child’s condition or disease. For example support is
much more available
to those with cancer than those with a disabling condition.
- The
Health Funding Authority’s Travel and Accommodation Policy clearly
outlines funding and responsibilities for those who need
to travel outside their
communities for health treatments.
Free health care for children under six years
old
- In
early 1997 the Government increased the subsidy level to general practitioners
so all children under six years could receive free
health care and
prescriptions. This policy was aimed at overcoming cost barriers to young
children receiving health care. Evaluation
has shown an increase use of GP
services, especially by more needy groups. The Ministry of Health is aware that
a small number of
GPs continue to charge for some visits for children under six
years. This is not illegal, charging for visits is at the GP’s
discretion. The subsidy is sufficient for most consultations but not enough to
cover some “after hours” visits. The
question of ensuring
affordable access to care will be addressed in the Government’s
forthcoming primary health care strategy.
New Zealand Health and Disability
Strategies
- The
current strategic focus of the Ministry of Health is on the development of a
New Zealand Health Strategy and a New Zealand Disability
Strategy.
These strategies apply to all New Zealanders, including children and young
people. Wide consultation has recently been
undertaken on the New Zealand
Health Strategy discussion document. A final strategy is due by November
2000.
- The
draft strategy provides an overarching framework within which the
New Zealand health sector will operate. It gives a series of
fundamental
principles that will guide the sector and need to be reflected in any new
strategies. The underlying themes are:
- improving the
population’s health
- reducing health
inequalities
- It
also lists population health objectives and sector priorities that reflect
determinants of health as well as more “traditional”
health focused
objectives. Objectives particularly relevant to children and young people
are:
- to further
develop healthpromoting schools
- to ensure
adequate support for parents and young families
- to minimise harm
caused by alcohol, illicit and other drug use to both individuals and the
community
- to increase the
level of physical activity
- to improve
nutrition and reduce obesity
- to reduce the
incidence and impact of violence in interpersonal relationships, families,
schools and communities
- to ensure access
to appropriate child health care and immunisation services.
- The
draft strategy builds on the eight Maori health gain priority areas which
include asthma, smoking cessation, hearing, immunisation,
oral health and injury
prevention. The Maori Health Strategy (a component of the New Zealand
Health Strategy) will be developed
by the end of December 2000.
- The
draft strategy identifies priorities such as developing a Youth Health Strategy
that fits under the overall framework of the New
Zealand Health Strategy.
The current Child Health Strategy also fits under this overall strategy.
Policy work to develop a specific Youth Health Strategy will begin after the
New Zealand
Health Strategy is completed. Specific work will also be
undertaken for rangatahi/ Maori young people. In the meantime, the Health
Funding Authority is undertaking some preliminary work on youth health including
a stocktake of services purchased for young people
and a youth health status
review. The Youth Health Strategy will be coordinated with the Youth
Development Strategy Aotearoa (see
paragraphs 148149) and other closely
related strategies, such as the New Zealand Youth Suicide Prevention
Strategy/Kia Piki Te Ora o Te Taitamakiki (see paragraphs
287289).
- The
draft Disability Strategy is currently out for consultation.
Additional funds for child health
- In
1998 the Government provided additional services aimed at reaching children
identified in the Child Health Strategy as having the
highest health and
disability support services needs. These additional services include homebased
health services and schoolbased
health services. In submissions, a group of
young people from an NGO group felt that ongoing funding was a problem and that
good
programmes were falling over because of short term (one year) funding
and their success depended on longerterm financial support.
Appointment of a Chief Advisor, Child and Youth
Health
- In
1997 a Chief Advisor, Child and Youth Health, was appointed in the Ministry of
Health to oversee, coordinate, motivate and lead
in the area of child health. A
primary task is to lead the Child Health Strategy implementation.
Maori/Pacific health initiatives
- The
Government has a strong commitment to improving health and reducing health
disparities and it has an intersectoral work programme
to address these and
other disparities. The 2000 Budget specified funding for Maori health provider
development, Maori smoking cessation
programmes and Pacific health provider
development. There were substantial increases in some area, particularly mental
health services
and elective surgery that will benefit Maori and Pacific peoples
but most of the funding is for mainstream secondary services so
it is hard to
quantify the full impact for Maori and Pacific people.
- There
is an increasing emphasis on health services being provided by Maori and
Pacific providers. Some of these services are whanau/family
based, and
others, such as wellchild services, are child focused. Providers responding to
surveys carried out during the development
of the Child Health Strategy stressed
the importance of providing culturally effective health services that are
acceptable to the
populations they serve. Accompanying the development of
culturally effective services are government funded workforce development
initiatives.
- Many
Maori communities are also developing solutions to a range of health and welfare
issues. It should be noted that although diverse,
the solutions share a number
of key characteristics, they are:
- whanau/hapu/w/community
driven
- address
community priorities for services
- based on
kaupapa/tikanga Mäori.
Consent in child and youth health
- In
1999 the Ministry of Health published Consent in Child and Youth Health:
Information for Practitioners (Annex 32) which draws together a range of
legislation relevant to consent in child and youth health and gives advice about
best practice.
The aim of the document is to make information about consent
issues for children and young people in health care widely available
to child
and youth health practitioners of all disciplines.
- This
publication uses the Convention as a starting point for issues related to
consent of children and young persons to medical assistance.
Health Camps
- Legislation
to repeal the Children’s Health Camps Act 1972 (referred to in
paragraph 219 of the Initial Report) came into force on 1 April
2000. Repeal of the Act allows the Health Camps movement to incorporate as a
private charitable trust
and develop a more innovative range of services for
children and families within a more flexible governance and administrative
framework.
Child and youth mental health initiatives
- Submissions
expressed concern that access to mental health services for adolescents are not
adequate. The mental health of children
and young people has been major focus
of health planning and spending since the presentation of the Initial
Report in 1997. In 1998, the Ministry of Health’s New Futures: a
Strategic Framework for Specialist Mental Health Services for Children
and Young People in New Zealand (Annex 53) has provided guidance for
the developing specialist child and youth mental health services. At the end of
1998 the Mental
Health Commission’s Blueprint for Mental Health
Services in New Zealand: how things need to be (Annex 54) also
highlighted the needs of children and young people with severe mental health
problems and identified a range of age
related access targets to specialist
mental health services.
- Since
then, there has been major growth in specialist mental health services for
children and young people, and this growth will continue.
The Health Funding
Authority’s He Nuka mo nga Taitamariki: A national workplan for
child and youth mental health services (Annex 55) guides the new
District Health Boards on how to prioritise funding for the next three years to
move towards meeting the
Mental Health Commission’s blueprint benchmark
figures. It set priorities within the child and youth mental health sector
for
Maori tamariki, rangatahi and their whanau, Pacific children and families,
children and young people with severe problems and
high need, and children and
young people with drug and alcohol dependencies.
- Currently
there are specialist child and youth mental health services (CAMHS) available in
each of the 21 hospital and health service
areas. While each has a primary
site, many also have outreach services or satellites to improve access to more
rural areas. As
well as providing direct assessment and treatment services for
people with severe mental health problems, CAMHS provides consultation/liaison
services to primary providers and other sectors working with children and young
people with mild/moderate mental health problems.
- Guiding
practitioners on assessing and treating children and young people diagnosed as
having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) was one of the
recommendations of the Paediatric Speciality Services Review.
- The
Ministry of Health and the Health Funding Authority are developing Guidelines
for the Management of Children with ADHD to ensure
that children suspected of
having ADHD are given appropriate assessment and treatment.
National Drug and Alcohol Policy
- In
1998 the Ministry of Health’s National Drug and Alcohol Policy was
published as a five year plan to prevent and reduce substance
abuserelated harm.
The policy focuses on young people as one of the populations. A Ministerial
Advisory Committee has been established
to review progress on implementing this
policy. An interagency committee ensures that goals are consistent across
agencies (see
paragraphs 945967).
Reduction of “glue ear”
- Pacific
and Maori community ear health workers have been contracted to provide
tympanometry services to kura kaupapa (Maori language
total immersion schools),
bilingual units, kohanga reo (Maori language preschools) and pacific language
nests. They also work with
the mobile ear van and static outreach clinics in
high risk areas, as well as education sessions on ear health to families and
groups.
Children referred to their service have individual ear health
management plans developed. Eventually, the screening work will be
handed on to
vision hearing testers.
- Whakarongo
Mai courses run by the National Audiology Centre, are designed to support the
WellChild programme by training Maori providers
to learn to detect and refer
children who have middle ear disorder, for treatment. These programmes are
relatively new and are yet
to be evaluated, although existing mainstream
programmes have not been evaluated either.
- Almost
100 percent of five year olds are screened for hearing loss, and most of
those children who are detected with hearing loss
at this age are likely to
suffer from glue ear (persistent otitis media with effusion). The number of
children detected with hearing
loss has not declined significantly and is a
particular concern among Maori and Pacific children. Reducing glue ear depends
on health
promotion, primary prevention activities and ensuring that children
with upper respiratory tract infections have access to and obtain
appropriate
medical care. On a oneoff basis, child health funds were made available to
selected hospitals in 1998 to help clear
waiting lists for assessment and
surgery, including ear, nose and throat assessments and
treatment.
Strengthening Families Initiatives
- The
Ministry of Health is one of three agencies leading the Strengthening Families
initiative. Children included in the Family Start
intensive homebased
programmes will benefit from the support and information their families receive
to access routine and episodic
health care. Evaluating Family Start includes a
range of health related measurements
(see paragraphs 402404).
Family Service Centres
- In
1993, Family Service Centres (FSCs) were established to provide health,
education and welfare services to “at risk”
families with children
under six years. It aims to break cycles of
intergenerational disadvantage and improve the ability of families to be
selfreliant. FSCs were based on a “onestopshop”
model where
services are integrated, targeted and located within a community where the need
for services was high.
- FSCs
are operating in six locations, all operating early childhood education
services, HIPPY and family social services. Some sites
are colocated with
health care services or other services (eg, citizens advice
bureau).
- An
evaluation of FSCs was completed in 1997. However, methodological problems
meant the results were only indicative. Overall, the
results showed merit in
the “onestopshop” approach. The evaluation found that the model may
not be suitable for communities
with a high number of nontarget group families
and may need some modification for ruralbased communities.
Immunisation
- Data
on immunisation coverage continues to be incomplete, leading to uncertainty
about coverage rates. Data collected from various
sources indicates that
coverage rates have not reached the targets set in the 1995 National
Immunisation Strategy
(Immunisation 2000)(Annex 56).
- This
strategy comprises five elements:
- a simplified
immunisation schedule
- introducing the
immunisation certificate for primary schools and early childhood
centres
- standards for
immunisation providers
- local
immunisation coordination
- improved
immunisation surveillance.
- These
have all been implemented to date with the exception of comprehensive
immunisation surveillance. From June 2000 all claims
to Health Benefits Limited
for government reimbursements for immunisations have to be made electronically
using the child’s
National Health Index number. This should yield
accurate information including coverage levels and breakdown by
ethnicity.
- The
HFA is implementing systems to collect reliable coverage data, and primary care
contracts now require immunisers to have local
recall systems in place. Other
child health initiatives aimed at improving disadvantaged populations’
access to health care
will also have a positive impact on immunisation rates.
New Zealand has reset a target to attain 95 percent immunisation
coverage
by 2004.
- A
child health information strategy and a New Zealand health knowledge
strategy will eventually provide robust data regarding immunisation
that will be
useful to both policy makers with regard to monitoring coverage rates, and to
providers to allow for followup of children
who may not have received all their
immunisations.
Pre and postnatal health care for mothers
- In
1999, the National Health Committee (an independent advisory committee set up
under the Health and Disability Services Act 1993) reviewed maternity services
to provide an opportunity to improve the safety and quality of maternity care
for New Zealand women.
The review found high levels of satisfaction and no
evidence to recommend major changes. However, it did identify important areas
that need to be improved and the report contains a range of recommendations to
ensure quality services for all women and babies.
Health education, preventive health care and family
planning
- The
Ministry of Education has developed a new curriculum Health and Physical
Education in the New Zealand Curriculum (Annex 57). This is now the
core statement for the essential learning areas’ health and physical
wellbeing and will replace
the existing health, physical education and home
economics syllabuses. It sets a clear direction to guide schools as they plan
programmes
to address the critical health and physical education issues facing
children and young people in New Zealand.
- The
curriculum is underpinned by four concepts:
- the
socioecological perspective
- the importance
of attitudes and values that promote hauora.
- The
key areas of learning are:
- bodycare and
physical safety
- The
new curriculum will be mandatory from the beginning of 2001. Professional
development education for teachers is also being provided
on the new
curriculum.
Sexual and reproductive health
- The
Ministry of Health and the HFA have been directed to develop a more
comprehensive sexual and reproductive health strategy that
will
include:
- sexual and
reproductive health services as a public health service
- a comprehensive
free specialist sexual and reproductive health service close to the
community
- sexually
transmitted disease control to ensure that at risk groups have access to
effective education programmes
- disease control
of HIV/AIDS as a sexually transmitted disease
- an emphasis on
effective and available services for Mäori, Pacific peoples and young
people.
- The
HFA is completing a stocktake of existing services as the first step which
should be completed by the end of 2000. The Minister
of Health has agreed that
nurse prescribing will extend to sexual and reproductive health and work is
being done to progress this.
- Supplying
contraceptives and related advice is regulated by the Guardianship Act 1968.
Section 25(1) of the Guardianship Act 1968
provides that “the consent
of a child of or over the age of 16 years... to any medical, surgical, or
dental procedure to be
carried out on him for his benefit by a person
professionally qualified to carry it out, shall have the same effect as if he
were
of full age”. Accordingly a person between 16 and 19 years can give
valid consent to medical treatment, including contraceptive
treatment and
advice.
- The
position is different for children under 16 years. Section 25(3) of the
Guardianship Act provides that certain persons (usually
a parent or guardian)
can consent to medical treatment in respect of a child in cases where such a
consent is “necessary or
sufficient”. The provision does not,
however, prohibit persons under 16 from consenting in their own right. For
guidance
as to whether or not parental consent is “necessary or
sufficient” for persons under 16, one turns to the common law
rules.
- In
1977, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Contraception, Sterilisation and
Abortion took the cautious approach of assuming that
the common law would
require parental consent for medical treatment of children under 16 years.
However, the more generally held
view now is
that children under 16 years can consent to medical treatment, depending on
the circumstances. The leading case in this area is the
decision of the House
of Lords in Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority
[1985] UKHL 7; [1985] 3 All ER 402.
- The
Gillick case concerned the provision of contraceptive advice to girls under 16
years without first obtaining parental consent.
The decision of the House of
Lords canvassed broad principles about parental rights and the legal capacity of
minors before concluding
that the common law did not prohibit a girl from
consenting to contraceptive advice or treatment without her parents’
knowledge
or consent.
- With
respect to various forms of medical treatment, the effect of Gillick is that a
child’s consent can be sufficient if they
are mature enough to understand
fully what is proposed and decide whether to accept the treatment. The age of
the child and the
nature of the treatment are relevant factors in making this
assessment.
- While
the capacity of a person under 16 years to consent to medical procedures has not
subsequently been tested in the New Zealand
courts, commentators consider
that it is most likely that the law as stated in Gillick would apply in
New Zealand.
- In
relation to sexual and reproductive health, there has been a change in the way
data about sexually transmitted infections (STI)
is collected. Since 1997 the
Institute of Environmental Science and Research has collected data from STI
clinics, the Family Planning
Association, student health services and general
practitioners. Improved data collection should give more accurate
rates.
Sexuality education
- New Zealand
has a high rate of teenage pregnancy. In 1998 there were 1245 live births to
mothers less than 18 years, a rate of 9.5
per 100 females aged 1317 years,
compared to 11.8 per 1000 in 1995. In 1998 the fertility rate for
Maori females aged 1317 years
was 26.2 per 1000, more than
five times that of nonMaori (4.9 per 1000). There is a range of public views on
the merits of sex education.
For some people a change in the law to make sex
education compulsory would be an important step in bringing down
New Zealand’s
high rate of teenage pregnancies.
- Section
105D of the Education Act 1964 concerns only “sex education”
information conveyed in schools, and does not limit
children’s ability to
access information and support elsewhere (eg, from the Family Planning
Association or their doctor, or
outside of the classroom environment, such as a
school counsellor). (See paragraphs 324326.)
Smoking and tobacco consumption
- New Zealand
has experienced an increase in youth smoking that mirrors an international
trend. In 1999, 1415 percent of 14 and 15
year olds were daily smokers.
The multimedia public education campaign Why Start? ran from 1996 to 1999.
There has been increased
enforcement
of the ban on sales of cigarettes to minors, more smokefree sponsorship of
sporting and cultural events, and more smokefree school
programmes. In 1997,
the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act banned:
- sales of tobacco
to people under 18 years
- sales of
“kiddie packs” of 10 cigarettes
- sales of single
cigarettes.
- In
May 1998 and May 2000 the tax on tobacco products was increased. Other
initiatives include the HFA national Quit Smoking Line
and the Smokefree
Environments Regulations 1999 which require larger, stronger health
warnings to appear on tobacco packets from
early 2000.
Health Promoting Schools
- Comprehensive
health promotion activities in the schools have continued to be encouraged. The
Healthy Schools measures referred to
in the Initial Report (see
paragraph 236) are now known as Health Promoting Schools. An increasing
number of schools, supported by health agencies, are
using a Health Promoting
Schools approach when considering health issues.
- A
three year Health Promoting Schools pilot has recently been completed. It
involved health services working in the Northland and
Auckland region
intensively with two schools, less intensively with clusters of 20 schools, and
on a regional basis with 36 schools.
This was in addition to the usual
involvement of health services within schools.
- The
pilots have been evaluated throughout the three years and the final evaluation
report is nearly complete. A wide range of preliminary
recommendations has been
made which have formed the future direction for Health Promoting Schools. The
HFA has integrated the outcomes
of the evaluation into new contracts. These
include the intensive work on the pilot programmes, including:
- refocusing to
include a strong Maori and mental health focus
- health agencies
working less directly with schools and more support through professional
development and networking
- ensuring
sustainable programmes within schools
- expanding to
other schools
- increasing
training opportunities
- establishing
regional coordination throughout New Zealand
- establishing a
multisectoral working party to set up a New Zealand Health Promoting
Schools Association
- establishing a
strategic Maori advisor position.
- Schools
will be encouraged to address mental health issues through integrating a
mentally healthy schools approach, professional development
nationally for all
Health Promoting Schools providers, and then follow up support from the Mental
Health Foundation and others.
Youth health services
- There
are a number of health issues particularly important to young people. These
include sexual and reproductive health, mental
health and alcohol and drug
abuse. The importance of providing specialist health services for young people
has been recognised and
there are now several health services operating
specifically for young people throughout New Zealand. An increasing number
of specialist
youth mental health services have been
established.
- The
HFA has recently established several secondary schoolbased GP clinics. Many of
these clinics are in rural schools in low socioeconomic
areas with a high
proportion of Maori students. Other clinics are in schools in low socioeconomic
urban areas.
- Youth
onestopshops refers to a range of health, social, justice, and education
services for young people usually provided on one physical
site. The health
services are predominantly primary health care and some specialist outpatient
clinics. In some cases they have
peer counselling. The range and variety and
level of services vary from area to area and most are small given the population
that
they serve.
- The
concept of youth specific onestopshops has been accepted as a way to improve
young people’s access to health services.
A report published by the
Ministry of Youth Affairs Under One Roof: a review of onestopshop
health services for young people in New Zealand (1998) (Annex 58) found
that:
- the onestopshops
catered for young people between 10 and 25 years
- they are usually
established in areas where young people are known to congregate, making them
both visible and accessible
- young people are
actively involved in planning and implementing the services by working as peer
educators or being advisors to the
organisations that provide the
services.
- Most
onestopshops provide a range of services onsite that cater for young
people’s needs in the broadest sense. These include:
- clinical
services (nursing and general practice)
- specialist
services (sexual health, contraceptives, alcohol and drug, mental
health)
- counselling and
referral to external specialist services
- advisory and
information needs (covering health, education, justice, income
support).
- Some
onestopshops also provide recreation facilities including pool tables, art and
drama, as well as holiday programmes. In 1998
there were eight onestopshops
operating around New Zealand.
Road traffic injuries
- Road
traffic injuries remain a significant cause of mortality and morbidity among
young people. Submissions stated that instead of
putting all the money into
adultfocused road safety priorities, the best interests of the child need to be
applied in terms of improving
safety for pedestrians and
cyclists.
- Young
drivers are overrepresented in minor, serious and fatal crashes. Figures from
driver licence statistics and crash reports indicate
that 15 to 19 year old
drivers make up to 8 percent of the licensed population. Yet between 1997
and 1999 this group accounted for
14 percent of drivers involved in minor
and serious crashes, and 11 percent of those involved in fatal crashes.
Between 1995 and
2000, 581 children between 0 and 19 years died on the
roads.
Road Fatalities 19951999
|
1995
|
1996
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
014
|
51
|
46
|
45
|
46
|
29
|
1519
|
82
|
102
|
75
|
76
|
75
|
- A
number of public education campaigns have been run to raise awareness about the
use of carseats for children, safety belts and road
safety.
- Every
child under five years must be properly restrained by an approved child
restraint when travelling in cars and vans. Children
between the ages of five
and seven years must have an appropriate child restraint if one is available or
use an adult safety belt.
Older children must use a safety belt if available
and, if no restraint is available, they must travel in the rear seat. It is
the
driver’s responsibility to make sure all child passengers are correctly
restrained. In September/October 1999 a national
survey of child restraint use
in New Zealand showed overall use of child, infant and booster seats and
child harnesses by children
aged zero to 4 years was 75 percent,
approximately the same as the previous year (76 percent in 1998). Of
the 51 percent of children
restrained in child seats, 18 percent
were in booster seats and 6 percent were in infant seats. A further
11 percent were restrained
by safety belts. The remaining 14 percent
were not restrained, including 2 percent who were held on other
passengers’ knees.
C. Social security and child care services and facilities
(articles 26 and 18)
- There
have been some changes to the framework for delivering social security in
New Zealand (see paragraphs 244 to 260 of the Initial
Report).
- Submissions
pointed out that young people have to reach a higher threshold than adult
applicants to qualify for welfare benefits and
that criteria for benefits are
not “youth friendly”.
- Persons
under 16 years are not entitled to social security benefits. However, there is
limited eligibility for 16 to 17 year olds
in special circumstances. This
includes the independent youth benefit payable to 16 to 17 year olds who cannot
reasonably be expected
to live with their parents or be financially supported by
their parents. This may be payable to a 16 to 17 year old who is at secondary
school, is unemployed or incapacitated due to sickness, injury or disability.
Other benefits that may be available to this age group
include the invalids
benefit and the emergency benefit.
- The
rationale for the general rule that 16 to 17 year olds are not eligible for
social security benefits is that parents have an obligation
to financially
support their children until they reach 18 years. To support this, the
government provides assistance for low to
middle income families with dependent
children. A higher rate of family support is payable for 16 to 17 year old
dependent children.
From 1 January 1998 the age of eligibility for some
benefits was increased from 16 to 18 years. Part of the rationale for this
was
to remove financial incentives for young people to leave
school.
- A
child support assessment is required when a custodial parent applies for a
social security benefit paid at a single parent rate.
Failure to identify the
liable parent, without good reason, results in a reduced amount of benefit.
Therefore, a person under the
age of 16 years who is a liable
parent may be identified as having a child support liability.
A 16 to 17 year old who is granted
a benefit, and
who is a liable parent, will be required to make the minimum
$10 weekly child support contribution from their benefit.
Child Tax Credit
- The
Child Tax Credit (CTC) was introduced in July 1996 (and increased in July 1997)
primarily to assist low to middle income working
families. Part of the
rationale for restricting access to families who are not receiving a main form
of state financial support
was to improve financial incentives for some
beneficiaries to move into paid employment. For many families, the CTC widens
the gap
between the after tax income while receiving a benefit and the after tax
income from paid employment. Submissions criticised using
the Child Tax Credit
as a means of supplementing family income because it was difficult to administer
since it requires a family
to be independent of the state, which means
eligibility is constantly changing. It was also criticised for not meeting its
goals
of providing a work incentive
- Improving
the CTC administration and the other tax credits available to nonbeneficiary
families (family tax credit and parental tax
credit) are focused on increasing
awareness that this assistance is available. The Department of Work and Income
(DWI) is proactively
providing
beneficiaries with advice on assistance they may be able to receive if they
have left the benefit for paid employment. This includes
tax credits that may
be available and how to apply for them. It is anticipated that access to full
information may influence the
decision of some beneficiaries to leave the
benefit for paid employment.
Unsupported Child’s Benefit
- The
Unsupported Child’s Benefit (UCB) allows the principal caregiver of a
child to receive a benefit to care for the child where
there is no natural,
adoptive, or stepparent to do so. This benefit extends to all children and
young people. Equalising payments
to foster carers facilitates permanency
planning and provides an opportunity for children and young people in care to
form a secure
attachment to their foster family. Child, Youth and Family and
DWI have developed a protocol to ensure that when a child or young
person is
discharged from Child, Youth and Family’s care into the permanent care of
their foster parents, those parents are
assisted in their application for the
UCB.
- The
Convention was not explicitly referred to in the policy development, however,
the impact on children was assessed during the policy
development
phase.
Childcare services
- Submissions
showed concern that both parents are “nowadays” required to work to
support their family. Related to this
were calls for more flexibility from
employers to allow a parent time off to be with a sick child and affordable day
and after school
care.
- The
Government has considered the current framework of providing childcare services.
The Ministries of Social Policy and Education
have developed a project to review
the government’s role in childcare, including identifying gaps and
developing a work programme
to address those gaps. To date, the Convention has
not been used in the project development.
- A
proposed future work programme for childcare has been referred to the Social
Policy and Health Cabinet Committee for approval.
The plan focuses on how
providing childcare can support the Government’s employment goals, while
recognising that childcare
also contributes to education and welfare outcomes.
It considers the role of the government in providing childcare along with the
roles of local government, business, communities, whanau, hapu and
iwi.
- The
childcare work programme will consider the unique childcare needs of Maori and
Pacific people and the best way to address them
including the supply of both
early childhood and out of school care services that are delivered in a
culturally appropriate way.
Childcare survey
- Statistics
New Zealand conducted a survey of childcare (Annex 43) in 1998 for the
Department of Labour and the National Advisory Council
on the employment of
Women (see paragraphs 420429).
Domestic Purposes Benefit
- The
Government has a priority to improve the life outcomes of teen single parents on
the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) and therefore
their children. A project on
teen single parents has been developed which focuses on increasing their chances
of sustainable employment
through a range of assistance measures, including
education and training. The DPB and the Widows Benefit are currently under
review.
- A
project plan that considers the wide social and environmental issues faced by
teen single parents is currently being developed by
the Health, Education and
Social Policy Senior Officials Group.
D. Standard of living (article 27)
- Information
about the economic circumstances of children is contained in other parts of this
report (in particular, see paragraphs
196216, 10641073).
- New Zealand
remains a developed country with a high standard of living. Paragraphs 266
to 272 of the Initial Report set out the legislative framework for
securing the standard of living for children and young people in
New Zealand.
- However,
there is evidence that income inequality rose in the 1980s and 1990s (as noted
at paragraph 206), and as wages and salaries
are the most important source of
income for households with children, there are concerns about the standard of
living for some children
in New Zealand.
- The
growth in inequality has slowed in the reporting period. Paid work continues to
be the most important source of regular income
for most parents. Changes in the
economic climate have influenced parents’ participation in the labour
force and the financial
situation experienced by many families with children.
Particularly, parents not living with a partner often face financial hardship
and there continues to be an increasing proportion of children with parents in
this situation.
- Statistics
New Zealand has identified clear relationships between family income and
other social, demographic and economic characteristics
of children. Income
characteristics are examined by a number of family characteristics such as the
number of parents a child lives
with, the age group of the child, ethnic group,
tenure of the family home and the extent to which children in families share
their
dwelling with others. A comparison of family incomes is contained in
New Zealand Now: Children (Annex 17).
- More
detailed information on the economic circumstances of children is contained in
New Zealand Now: Children. The census data in this publication
shows that the structure and lifestyle of New Zealand families has changed
substantially over
recent decades. Today’s families are smaller and many
parents are older when their first child is born. However, Mäori
women
still continue to have children at a younger age than nonMäori.
Additionally, more children are now living with just
one parent. Changes like
these can have major implications for parent’s participation in paid
work.
- Children
living with one parent are much more likely to be in lowincome families than
those living with two parents. A total of 55.6
percent of children in
oneparent families were in the lowest family income quintile in 1996. Younger
children and those of Mäori
and Pacific ethnicity were also more likely to
be in lowincome families. (Quintiles are calculated by ranking the family
incomes
of all children from the lowest to highest and dividing the ranked
income into five equal sized groups.)
- Submissions
commented about how the economic changes have affected families and children and
in particular, the importance of housing
and employment in the quality of
children’s lives. For example some concerns include:
- changes in state
house rentals to market rates had a major affect on children in low income
families (this policy has now been reversed)
- high rents,
water and electricity costs cut into the food budget, resulting in nutritional
deficiencies that research shows affects
children and
adolescents
- the increasing
trend towards fees for schools and early childcare, as well as fees for sports
mean that some children are missing
out.
- The
Government recognises that an appropriate balance between participation in paid
work and parenting must be maintained. For parents
receiving benefits, the
following criteria and concessions are applied:
- since February
1999 a part time work test has been extended to recipients of the DPB, widows
benefit and spouses of beneficiaries
who have a youngest child aged six
to 13 years. A full time work test applies once the youngest child
reaches the age of 14 years
- the work test
does not apply until the youngest child reaches school age
- the full time
work test does not apply until the youngest child reaches an age where it is
generally regarded that they require less
intensive supervision
- the Social
Security Act 1964 provides that a work tested beneficiary accept any offer of
suitable employment. In determining suitability,
child care responsibilities
and family circumstances are considered
- a DPB or widows
beneficiary, or spouse of a beneficiary who would be subject to the work test,
may apply for an exemption on the following
grounds:
− they are the principal caregiver of a child with special needs (includes
a child with a medical condition, physical or intellectual
disability or
behavioural difficulty)
− they are actively involved in home schooling a dependent child who has
been granted an exemption from enrolment in school.
- the Social
Security Act 1964 provides that a work tested beneficiary with at least one
dependent child has a good reason for not participating
in an employmentrelated
activity if the activity involves participation during hours which it would be
unreasonable to expect any
dependent child of that person to be without
supervision.
- As
noted in paragraphs 196216, the Government is monitoring the impact of the
economic reforms on children through a number of different
projects:
- the Treasury has
worked on low income families
- the National
Health Committee has compiled information on the determinants of health
attributable to the economic reforms
- the Ministry of
Social Policy is looking at a household living standards scale as part of a
living standards research programme.
- Further
information will be provided to the Committee when this report is
presented.
PART 7: EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
Introduction
- Part
7 reports on education, including vocational training and guidance and the aims
of education. It also covers leisure, recreation
and cultural activities.
Measures to help all children enjoy their education rights are described,
including literacy initiatives,
strategies for Mäori and Pacific children,
and services for students with disabilities.
A. Education, including vocational training
and guidance
(article 28)
- The
basic structure of New Zealand’s education system has not changed
(see paragraphs 273 to 276 of the Initial Report).
Costs to families of education
- State
schools are not permitted to charge fees. In subjects with a practical
component such as clothing and workshop technology,
a board may charge for
materials where the end product belongs to the student, and it may, if paid for,
be taken home. Reasonable
travel costs for field trips may also attract a fee.
Schools may invite donations but these are entirely voluntary.
- Each
early childhood education service decides the level of fees that they charge.
For feecharging centres, a fees subsidy is available
to eligible low income
families from DWL.
Measures to ensure children are taught in local, indigenous
or minority language
- There
are a variety of measures to ensure children are taught in local, indigenous or
minority language. There are a number of Maori
language schools and a number of
initiatives are being implemented to improve Maori language and teaching (see
paragraph 691). There
are also a number of initiatives for Pacific children
(See paragraph 703).
Measures to ensure access for all children
- The
Education Act 1989 provides that every New Zealand citizen between the ages
of five and 19 has a right to free education. There
are a variety of measures
to give effect to this right detailed in this part of the
report.
Literacy
- In
1999 the Government set a goal that “By 2005, every child turning nine
will be able to read, write, and do maths for success”.
Literacy and
numeracy taskforces were established to develop strategies for achieving this
goal. The new Government has advanced
from this goal, instead looking at
tangible changes that can be made to literacy and numeracy
levels.
- As
recommended by the taskforces, work is being done to develop literacy/numeracy
materials. Funding has been allocated to:
- make teachers
aware of the materials and ensure their effective use
- support teachers
with highquality teaching and learning materials
- provide
additional materials to guide teachers on how to implement the full range of
strategies associated with literacy instruction
in classrooms.
- These
extra materials will help raise student’s literacy achievement as well as
close the gap between the highest and lowest
achievers. One hundred and twenty
one positions for Resource Teachers: Literacy are being established to provide
itinerant specialised
literacy teaching for children in Years 1 to 8 who are
most at risk of failing to learn to read and write for success.
- Some
positions will be designated Resource Teachers: Literacy (Maori) to work
predominantly in Maori medium education (including kura
kaupapa Maori). This
responds to the Literacy Taskforce’s recommendation to establish a
nationally coordinated system of literacy
interventions targeted at those most
in need, building on existing interventions including the Resource Teachers of
Reading. The
existing 68 Resource Teachers of Reading positions will be
reassigned within the 121 total Resource Teachers: Literacy
positions.
Maori students
- Submissions
raised issues about access for young Maori to a school system that works for
them. Comments included that research is
showing up a “major systems
failure for Maori in New Zealand schools”. This was not just a case
of certain schools not
delivering, but of bigger policy issues.
“Potential is being snuffed out within the school system from very early
ages.”
There needs to be research focusing on system failures rather than
the failures of individuals. “We need to ask how the system
is not
working rather than why individuals are not working in the
system.”
- Retaining
children and young people in schools has remained a focus, particularly for
Maori. Historically, Maori have been overrepresented
among early school
leavers. Between 1984 and 1995, the proportion of Maori who were 16 years
old and still in secondary school improved
substantially from 48.8 percent
to 72.4 percent. Since then there has been a downward trend in Maori
retention whilst nonMaori retention
has increased steadily. As a result, the
disparity is now comparable to that in the mid 1980s. Retaining students,
especially Maori
students, is something that must be tackled by schools,
students, the Government and whanau. Everyone involved must work in partnership
and no one group is likely to improve retention on its own.
- The
downward trend in the proportion of Maori students leaving school with no
qualifications has stalled. While the proportion of
Maori leaving school with a
sixth or seventh form (Year 11 or 12) qualification has almost trebled since
1977, comparable improvements
for nonMaori mean that the disparity between the
two groups is largely unchanged. In 1999, an estimated 69 percent of 16
year old
Maori students (6,500), 43 percent of 17 year old
Maori students (4,000) and 11 percent of 18 year old Maori students
(1,100) remained
at school. The percentages of Maori students remaining at
school are considerably lower than nonMaori (88 percent of 16 year
olds,
68 percent of 17 year olds and 17 percent
of 18 year olds).
- In
addition, Maori students who remain in school to senior levels are less likely
than nonMaori to sit national examinations and,
when they do, are less likely to
achieve high grades. In 1997, 20.9 percent of all Maori that left school
in 1996 went directly
into formal tertiary education, compared to
42.7 percent of nonMaori. This overall disparity has remained the
same.
- However,
Maori are almost five times more likely than nonMaori to enrol as trainees in
Training Opportunities Programmes (TOPs) which
are predominantly shortterm core
competency training courses. In 1999, 40.2 percent of Maori students
attended a polytechnic, whereas,
nonMaori were more likely to be enrolled at a
university.
- A
Maori education strategy is being developed which aims to lift achievement and
reduce disparity (amongst other things). It has
been developed to support a
focus on providing high quality education to enable Maori students to achieve
their full potential.
As part of the approach, a professional development
programme for school staff is being developed to help them implement good
practice
in teaching Maori students. The Maori Language Education Plan is part
of the strategy and focuses on increasing opportunities to
learn Maori,
improving language proficiency, and fostering positive attitudes toward the
Maori language. The ultimate aim is to
meet the demand for Maori education in
the early childhood and school sectors.
- Some
Maori aged 16 to 18 chose to study at tertiary institutions instead of school.
In 1999, around threequarters of Maori aged 16
were in school or tertiary
education. Similarly, just over half of all 17 year old Maori and just over a
third of 18 year old Mäori
were also in school or tertiary
education.
- There
are four broad strategies to make education work for young
Maori:
- Providing
programmes to retain young Maori in school. For example,
Budget 2000 includes commitments to establish study support centres
and mentoring programmes. The study support centres (see paragraph 796) will
encourage primaryaged students at risk of underachievement
to develop good study
habits. The centres will provide afterschool educational support in high needs
schools. The objective is
to establish between 130 and 260 centres by
July 2001, with an additional 40 to 80 centres the following year.
The mentoring programme
will be underway in the near future.
- Supporting
innovations and trialing new initiatives. The innovations pool (see paragraphs
801803), for example, is aimed specifically
at trialing innovative programmes
for atrisk students and disseminating the experience to other schools.
A commitment was made in
Budget 2000 to increase this funding
pool.
- Developing
policies and providing programmes that bring young Maori back into learning,
including alternative pathways to learn and
secondchance learning opportunities.
For example, in 1999, 73 percent of students in the Alternative Education
Programme were Maori.
Budget 2000 created an additional 620 places from term
three and 200 more from term one in 2001, taking the total places to
1,820.
- Developing iwi
education projects that explore more inclusive ways to support Maori students,
particularly through closer links with
whanau.
- Barriers
to success for Maori students include:
- a lack of
suitable counselling, academic support, and an understanding about future
pathways to academic success and employment
- for many
students, low family income prevents families accessing culturally supportive
schools with a record of success for Maori.
- Under
a Maori Participation Initiative announced in Budget 2000, a total
of $11.228 million over four years has been allocated to
support Maori
students through:
- mentoring
support to atrisk Maori secondary school students in ways that encourage their
success at school and transition to further
tertiary study
- financial
assistance for Maori students to attend state schools that will enhance their
participation and success.
- There
is also a wide range of commitments to ensure the quality of school improves
that relate to principal leadership, teacher capability
and board of trustee
capability. Priorities are:
- lifting the
expectations and capabilities of teachers of Maori students
- getting the most
effective teachers in front of the Maori students who need them
most
- lifting
professional leadership
- getting schools
focused on literacy and numeracy
- increasing the
numbers of Maori teachers
- ensuring that
schools are capable of providing strong early learning foundations for young
Maori children who do not have these skills.
- There
are also initiatives being undertaken to support the growth and strengthen the
quality of Maori language education. A total
of $19.969 million has been
allocated over the 2000 to 2004 period.
- This
initiative includes:
- additional Maori
language teaching and learning materials in the seven essential learning areas
(for primary and secondary levels)
as well as for early
childhood
- additional
community based initiatives to support Maori language education using existing
iwi education project structures to pilot
local development of Maori language
teaching and learning materials reflecting local dialects; and steps to boost
parents’
language skills so they can support children’s learning of
Maori and in Maori
- assistance for
schools in developing policy, materials and curriculum documents to support
learning in the classroom.
- Initiatives
to Improve the Quality and Responsiveness of Education for Maori were also
announced in the 2000/01 budget (total of $10.4
million over four years). This
initiative includes:
- expanding the
number of iwi education schooling improvement projects formal partnerships now
exist with Tuhoe, Ngati Porou and Te
Reo o te Tai Tokerau and Tuwharetoa. These
projects see Ministers, the Ministry of Education and iwi working to raise
achievement
for children in each rohe (area). They bring Maori into the process
of Government to influence the quality of policy. They enable
Maori to more
successfully engage and influence the provision of education in ways that much
better meet their aspirations and needs.
- Piloting new
approaches to professional development for teachers working with Maori in the
mainstream over 80 percent of Maori school
aged students are in the
mainstream of education (ie, are taught in English). The ability of principals
and teachers to meet the
needs and aspirations of Maori in education is critical
to closing the gap in education disparities between Maori and
nonMaori.
- Establishing a
Reference Group on Maori Education to inform Ministers and policy
development.
- A
Maori Tertiary Education Strategy, to be implemented over the 20002002 period,
will develop coordinated approaches to raise participation
and achievement of
Maori in tertiary education. Specialist resources are needed to complement core
tertiary policy staff to develop
the package and undertake consultation. This
strategy will contribute to empowering Maori communities to build their own
capability
in providing tertiary education, and increasing support for those who
have left school without basic skills, especially literacy.
Pacific students
- The
Ko e Ako a’ e Kakai Pasifika (Annex 59) plan, which covers the
period January 1997 to October 1998, contains policy initiatives
across all sectors of education
and aims to provide a cohesive and
coordinated approach to increasing the participation and achievement levels of
Pacific students.
The plan is currently under review.
- As
part of the strategy, the Samoan language curriculum (Ta’iala mo le
Gagana Samoa i Niu Sila) is now available as a School Certificate subject.
The Pacific Teacher Supply Strategy aims to increase the number and
proportion of Pacific teachers. Having more teachers as role models, with
culturally appropriate
teaching styles, will contribute towards improving
Pacific student achievement and the fit between schools and Pacific
peoples.
- Improving
the teaching of Pacific languages is an important part of the Government’s
aim to improve the educational achievement
of Pacific students. To increase the
number and proportion of Pacific teachers a total of $3.584 million over four
years has been
allocated in Budget 2000. Increasing the number of Pacific
teachers will help ensure schools are responsive to Pacific students.
Also,
materials for teachers are being developed to support teaching Pacific languages
(Samoan and Cook Islands Maori).
- Participation
by Pacific peoples in tertiary education is lower than the general population.
There is a strong need for the Government
to identify barriers more rigorously
to address them and help close the participation gap. Research on education
patterns and removal
of barriers for Pacific peoples is planned for the 20002002
period. This research will provide a rich source of data to inform future
policy making in this area.
Students with disabilities
- Submissions
expressed concern that special education services are not reaching all the
children who need it because special education
units were disestablished. At
the moment only those most at risk are receiving assistance.
- Some
submissions raised access issues for children with a disability. In some cases
they are being denied enrolment, or if they are
allowed into schools they are
being denied full participation. Lack of support is cited by schools as the
reason, but people who
work in the field believe it is really a lack of
commitment to a policy of no discrimination against those with a
disability.
Special Education 2000
- Special
Education 2000 (Annex 60) is a policy that aims to more effectively help
children with special needs realise their educational
potential. Its goals
are:
- to improve the
educational opportunities and outcomes for children with special education needs
in the early childhood and school
sectors
- to ensure there
is a clear, consistent and predictable researching framework for special
education
- to provide
equitable researching for those with similar needs irrespective of school
setting or geographical location.
- The
Government intends to improve the allocation of special education grants.
- The
implementation of Special Education 2000 is being evaluated primarily through a
three year research project conducted by Massey
University. The methodology
includes questionnaires, face to face interviews, parent forums and meetings.
Teacher fieldworkers
cover 16 strands of the policy including researching
the impact of implementation on Mäori and on parents and schools. The
second phase of the research is due shortly.
- The
Education Review Office has also focussed on implementing Special
Education 2000 over the last three years. It reports most schools
are
managing their special education resourcing appropriately.
- Specialist
Education Services (SES) is contracted by the Government through a Document of
Accountability to provide specialist services
and support to students with high
and very high needs. This includes one percent of the school population
with high behaviour needs
and about 3,000 students in the Ongoing Resourcing
Scheme. SES also provides services to students with moderate physical needs and
moderate hearing needs. The agency has major responsibility for providing early
intervention services.
The Wylie report
- In
2000, Ministers of Education commissioned an analysis of the Special
Education 2000 policy to make recommendations for any changes
that
would improve the provision of education for children with special needs. The
review terms of reference focused on four key
aspects that were not working as
well as planned, including:
- the boundary
line between moderate and high needs
- staffing and
funding for units
- the allocation
of the Special Education Grant
- the
effectiveness of special education transport.
- There
was strong interest in the review which received more than 1,000 submissions
within the two months’ consultation from
a wide crosssection of
New Zealand society. The review also included sitevisits to schools around
the country, public meetings,
meetings with relevant organisations and interest
groups, and draws on all available research, official papers, guidelines and
statistical
data, and relevant international overviews of providing special
education.
- The
review found:
- Special
Education 2000 policy has expanded the number of students receiving some special
needs support to around 5.5 percent of the
school
population.
- It has improved
opportunities for some students with special needs, but not
all.
- The division of
the policy into a number of separate initiatives and funding pools has made it
hard to offer students, parents, and
schools, the seamless, integrated service
that works best for students with special needs.
- Contestability
between the fundholders working with students with ongoing high and very high
needs has created fragmentation, gaps
in accountability, and inequalities of
resourcing and opportunity for students with special needs.
- Funding is less
predictable, and has led to the casualisation of employment for many teachers,
teacheraides and therapists. This
leads to the loss of expertise, which is hard
to replace.
- Professional
development has been patchy, focusing on the policy itself and the new support
service of Resource Teachers of Learning
and Behaviour, but with little
available for specialist teachers and teacheraides.
- There is too
much reinvention of the wheel required in individual schools, for people already
working at full stretch.
- A
wide range of recommendations were made by the review (the Wylie report) to
support schools and families providing assistance to
teachers working with
students with special education needs. Some of the recommendations are to be
implemented for the beginning
of next year (Annex 61).
- A
further significant recommendation also came out of the review. The report
recommends that a national system of district support
and resource centres is
developed under the aegis of the Ministry of Education and that the SES is
disestablished. Public submissions
were called for and the Minister is expected
to make a decision in principle by the end of February 2001.
- A
total of $48 million over four years was allocated in the 2000/01 budget for
possible policy changes arising from the review. In
implementing the first set
of recommendations from the Wylie Review, $30.2 million has been allocated to
implement the first phase
of recommendations from the beginning of the 2001
school year. The full year effect of the $48 million allocation is a
5 percent
increase on the current Special Education baseline
of $290 million per year.
- In
the 2000/01 budget a total of $4.288 million over four years has been allocated
to fund high special needs children in the early
childhood sector. The
current baseline for high/moderate needs early childhood education is $27.886
million per year. There will
be an increase of 350 children in the
early childhood sector who are eligible for high special needs funding, taking
the total from
2,240 to 2,590 from 1 January 2001. More funding is allocated
for children with the highest special needs. In 1999/2000, up to
350 children
with similar needs to those who qualified to receive high needs funding, could
not be selected because the cap had been
reached.
Education for sight and hearing impaired
children
- There
has not been a national overview, policy or direction in providing education to
children and school students who are blind and
visually impaired, deaf and
hearing impaired. Parents, teachers, principals and specialists support the
Vision Education Agency
and the proposed Deaf Education Agency so people at the
“grass roots” can provide coordinated advice on policy and strategy
regarding the provision of education for their students. Resources have been
allocated to support these agencies until the end of
June 2001. Secretariat
costs and database development are also being funded.
Teenage parents
- Submissions
raised access issues for teenage parents. The Government has provided
additional funding in some cases to ensure that
the social needs of teenage
parents are met (such as childcare needs) through special classes for teenage
parents set up within schools,
or special access to Correspondence School
lessons.
- There
are a variety of programmes that support teen parents throughout the country,
particularly in areas of at risk families. These
programmes provide health,
welfare and educational support to parents, including teen mothers. Teen
parents have access to Correspondence
School tuition so they can continue
learning while learning to care and support their own children. Young parents
can return to
school, or some other learning environment, following the birth of
their baby. A number of schools (exact number unknown) have creche
facilities
oncampus that teen parents can use to care for their babies. There are three
schools that have custom built programmes
to cater particularly for teen mothers
with purpose built childcare facilities and additional learning programmes that
address the
particular needs of teenage mothers.
- Budget
2000 provided for teen support groups (groups that provide support to parents
and gradually get the teen parents back into
school). These funds will support
students who left school around the time they became pregnant possibly because
they were disillusioned
with school. The purpose is to reestablish an interest
in education.
- Some
support groups that work with teen parents need continuing financial assistance.
This funding typically allows the extra staff
to be employed to help teen
parents:
- access welfare
entitlements
- stay involved
with education (to some extent)
- obtain other
required support such as access to childcare.
- Parent
support and development programmes, and the availability of Correspondence
School lessons, are widespread. Schools that provide
programmes specifically
for teen parents are not widespread because of the lack of numbers to make it
viable. The overwhelming majority
of teenage parents have left school before
becoming pregnant.
Early Childhood Education
- Since
1990 the number of early childhood education services has increased
by 1,258 centres and 53,793 more children.
- Early
childhood education providers aim to promote children’s learning and
development from birth to school entry age. The
governmentsubsidised providers,
recognised by the Secretary of Education, include:
- Kindergartens
which generally operate sessional early childhood education for children between
the ages of three and school age.
- Playcentres
which are collectively supervised and managed by parents for children aged
between birth and school age.
- Education and
Care services provide either sessional, all day or flexible hour programmes for
children from birth to school age.
They may be privately owned, nonprofit, or
operate as an adjunct to the main purpose of a business or
organisation.
- Homebased
services comprise networks of homes under the supervision of a coordinator who
places children with caregivers in approved
homes for an agreed number of hours
per week.
- The
Correspondence School a distance education service, mainly used by children
between three and five years who are unable to attend
or have limited access to
an early childhood service because of isolation, illness or itinerancy.
Programmes are also available
for children with special needs.
- Te Kohanga Reo
a movement as part of whänau development provides programmes based on the
total immersion of children from birth
to school age in Maori language, culture
and values.
- Pacific Islands
Education and Care Centres provide programmes based on the values and languages
of Pacific cultures.
- The
government also subsidises licenceexempt early childhood education groups
through Early Childhood Development (ECD) which delivers
funding and support.
The Kohanga Reo National Trust delivers funding and support to licenceexempt
Kohanga Reo. Licenceexempt groups
are required to meet a different set of
criteria from licensed and chartered services. They are able to meet up to five
times a
week for not more than three hours per day. Also, at least
50 percent of the parents of the children attending must be
present.
- Licenceexempt
groups include:
- Pacific Islands
Early Childhood Groups main purpose is to provide programmes based on the
values and languages of Pacific cultures.
- Playgroups
communitybased groups of parents and children who meet for one to three sessions
per week.
- Licenceexempt
Playcentres where parents manage and provide collective supervision for
children.
- Licenceexempt
Kohanga Reo.
- The
Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998 govern the requirements of
these services. The Education Review Office visits
services on a three to five
year cycle and reports are sent to its local management centres to follow up any
compliance issues.
- As
at February 2000, the Ministry of Education had a total of 3,425 licensed early
childhood services:
Childcare 1,503
Homebased networks 182
Kindergartens 602
Playcentres 529
Te Kohanga Reo 609
- Of
the 1,447 education and care services operating as at 1 July 1999 over
half (53 percent) were community based and controlled by
an
incorporated society or charitable trust. The remainder (about
10 percent) were operated by businesses or institutions and include
shopping mall creches, university creches and exercise gym
creches.
Enrolment and participation rates in early childhood
education
- Enrolments
in ECE have increased between 1990 and 1999 by just over 45 percent, in
line with the growth in the number of centres.
The largest contributors by far
have been education and care services and homebased networks that contributed
82 percent of this
growth. Participation levels among some communities are
still a matter of concern. Amongst four year olds 100 percent of Pakeha
children are participating in ECE. However, 32 percent of Maori four
year olds and 20 percent of Pacific four year olds are not
participating in
any ECE.
- At
1 July 1999 there were 172,160 children enrolled in ECE services
representing almost 59 percent of all children in
New Zealand
under the age of five.
At 1 July 1999 almost 38 percent of Maori children
enrolled in ECE attended Kohanga Reo. Maori children
contributed to
15 percent of enrolments in kindergartens, 12 percent of enrolments in
education and care centres and almost 12 percent
of enrolments in
homebased services. Maori accounted for almost 19 percent of all
early childhood education enrolments which is
slightly lower than
the 22 percent of Maori participating in the school sector age
five.
- Pacific
Islands Early Childhood Groups (funded and supported through Early Childhood
Development) were the single largest provider
of ECE services to Pacific
children although more than half of all Pacific children attending ECE services
were either enrolled
at education and care centres (33 percent) or at
kindergarten (31 percent). Overall, the number of Pacific children
enrolled in
ECE has increased by almost 1 percent between 1998 to 1999.
Pacific children accounted for 6.1 percent of all early childhood education
enrolments compared with 8.5 percent representation at age five in
schools.
- Just
over 83 percent of Asian children enrolled in ECE attended either education
and care centres (44 percent) or kindergartens (39
percent).
Asian children accounted for (4.5 percent) of all ECE enrolments
compared with 5 percent representation at age five in
schools. The overall
increase in the number of Asians enrolled in early childhood education between
1998 to 1999 was 268 children
(3.5 percent).
- Relatively
low Maori and Pacific ECE participation rates are related in part to the supply
of quality providers that can match their
needs and preferences. For example,
the supply of qualified ECE educators who are also fluent in te reo Maori and
Pacific languages
is limited, and some providers need assistance to develop
themselves and meet licensing standards. The Ministry of Education is
developing programmes to recruit more Maori and Pacific ECE teachers and to
support the development of ECE providers in Maori and
Pacific
communities.
Measures to increase participation in early childhood
education
- There
are a number of other initiatives that are currently being undertaken by the
Ministry of Education to improve participation
in ECE. These include assistance
to allow people responsible in services to upgrade their qualifications to the
Diploma of Teaching
Early Childhood Education and develop criteria for equity
funding which takes into account factors such as low income, rural and
isolated
communities; immersion services; and English speakers of other languages (ESOL).
- The
2000/01 budget increased funding with $2.2 million over four years
(17 percent increase on baseline of $3.135 million per year)
for the
Discretionary Grants Scheme. This scheme provides capital assistance to
communitybased, nonprofit early childhood services
and targets areas with high
Mäori/Pacific populations, low socioeconomic areas, rural areas and centres
that meet the needs
of working parents. This will help to meet the demand for
more ECE in the targeted areas.
- An
additional $7.25 million over four years is allocated to the Pacific pool of the
Discretionary Grants Scheme which provides capital
assistance to communitybased,
notfor profit early childhood services. This will increase the number of places
available in Pacific
early childhood centres where there is considerable demand
for the resources available in the Pacific pool.
- Increased
participation in early childhood services (including participation by Maori and
Pacific families) requires more trained
teachers. A new initiative to encourage
more Maori and Pacific peoples into both general teacher training and training
for Maori
and Pacific immersion
early childhood services has been established. The campaigns will include
iwi and community radio advertising, facetoface recruitment
and information
packs. This involves a total of $1.0 million over two years (2000/01
and 2001/02).
- Resources
have also been allocated to extend pre and postlicensing support and
administrative upskilling for Pacific early childhood
education services (a
total of $0.340 million over four years, an 88 percent increase on the
baseline $0.096 million per year).
Providing pre and postlicensing support to
more Pacific early childhood services and a providing a programme to enhance the
administrative
capability of Pacific services aims to increase the number of
licensed and chartered Pacific early childhood services. The introduction
of
the administrative component will strengthen the organisational viability of
these services.
- The
Government has established:
- a sectorbased
equity funding working group to examine options for improving equity funding
based on rural, low SES, special education,
immersion and ESOL
factors
- a sectorbased
Early Childhood Education Strategic Plan Working Group to enable the sector to
plan and suggest policy directions for
the next 1020 years.
- The
government is also running a programme in Auckland to improve ECE participation.
It is also working on developing Pacific early
childhood education
qualifications and increasing Maori and Pacific teacher supply.
- A
total of $480,000 over four years has been allocated to establish a
full time 0800 freephone Help Desk as a preventative and crisis
intervention to offer support to at risk communitybased early childhood services
and strengthen the current network of ECE services.
- Equity
funding is being considered to compensate for the extra costs ECE services
incur:
- serving low
income, rural or isolated communities
- offering
immersion programmes
- supporting
children where English is their second language.
Measures to make education available to all
- The
overall legal framework for education has not changed (see paragraphs 273 to
276 of the Initial Report).
- Schooling
is compulsory for children between the age of six and 16 years. Every person
between the age of five and 19 who is not
a foreign student is entitled to free
enrolment and education at a state school (see paragraph 277 of the Initial
Report).
- State
schools are not permitted to charge fees (see paragraph 679). Sometimes there
may be costs associated with materials or travel.
School Support Project
- The
Schools Support Project was established in response to the increasing number of
occasions in which government (represented by
the Ministry of Education) had to
intervene to solve school management problems. It aimed to:
- improve student
achievement, particularly where there are disparities
- improve school
performance, including improved capability of boards of
trustees
- strengthen
school and community relationships.
- A
range of strategies may be implemented as part of this project for issues such
as student safety, the quality of education, and
the governance by school
management.
- Over
$23 million annually (including property) is currently available through this
project to implement a range of strategies. In
1993/94 the Government asked the
Ministry of Education to establish a range of safety net strategies
that:
- would enable
earlier intervention in an at risk situation
- provide support
to local communities to improve/resolve difficulties before they began to place
student achievement at risk
- support an
improvement in community capability to selfmanage as opposed to dependence on
central government for support
- provide for
longterm sustained change and continued improvement.
- Experience
shows that up to 10 percent of state and integrated schools are likely to
require assistance through one or more aspects
of the Schools Support safety net
policy in any one year. As part of their selfmanagement responsibilities,
school boards of trustees
are encouraged to signal difficulties to the Schools
Support project team. However, despite publications and pamphlet dissemination,
it is usually sources other than a board of trustees or a school community that
signal a need for School Support intervention.
- At
30 June 2000, the Schools Support Project team was working directly
with 130 schools and was facilitating 17 schooling improvement
initiatives involving approximately 300 schools.
- The
Ministry of Education is concerned that nearly 60 percent of the schools
participating in Schools Support Project safety net initiatives
are schools
sited in low socioeconomic communities. The emphasis in schooling improvement
initiatives is to cluster schools in lower
socioeconomic communities. This is
also one of the Ministry’s key strategies to address educational
achievement.
- The
Ministry of Education is keen to establish joint ownership and management of
schooling improvement initiatives. This will help
to ensure that the Ministry
approach to schooling improvement in different communities is appropriate and
that they enhance the community’s
awareness of needs and its capacity to
respond.
- Different
models for managing schooling improvement initiatives are already emerging, for
example, AIMHI (Achievement In Multicultural
High Schools Initiative).
Communities and schools established an AIMHI Forum and the Ministry of Education
has a form of purchase
agreement with the Forum to implement the project. In
another initiative the Ministry negotiated and signed a Memorandum of
Understanding
in respect of the management of the initiatives with Te Runanga o
Ngati Porou. A Tuhoe Education Authority has been established
to represent
the 15 schools and their communities in schooling improvement negotiations
with the Ministry.
- Timing
is the final issue implementing initiatives has taken longer than originally
planned. Thus, succession planning and bedding
in change management processes
are currently being considered.
Different forms of secondary education
- Over
the last decade New Zealand has seen an increasing diversity of schools
offering a wider variety to students and parents. As
at 1 July 1999,
there were 109 private and 319 integrated schools. While a large
majority of these are affiliated with the Roman
Catholic Church, in 1998 there
were 192 schools who were not (up from 130 schools in 1988).
- Further
diversity of schooling is provided in certain areas by 59 kura kaupapa Maori
schools. Several initiatives have been developed
as part of the Maori Education
Strategy, which relate to kura kaupapa Maori. Additionally in July 2000,
amendments were made to
the Education Act to provide for more flexible
governance arrangements in schools. Work is also being undertaken to ensure
that
current and new policies are designed and implemented to support the
delivery of high quality education in kura kaupapa Maori.
- In
the schools sector, key issues are not in accessing education but in continuing
to improve quality, participation and achievement
for Maori and Pacific people.
The Ministry of Education’s work in this area covers a wide range of
activities, including:
- supporting the
development of Maorimedium education (both in mainstream schools and in kura
kaupapa Maori)
- supporting
programmes to improve teachers’ effectiveness and school quality
(including schooling improvement projects)
- providing
curriculum materials (including Maori and Pacific language
materials)
- providing
programmes to improve schools’ responsiveness to Maori and Pacific
students.
- Ongoing
work aims to improve the quality and coverage of alternative education
programmes and other support for students who are alienated
from mainstream
schooling, and to provide alternative pathways into further education and
training.
- The
current baseline funding for alternative education is $11.42 million per year.
In Budget 2000 an additional $34.82 million over
four years was allocated to
expand the current alternative education programme from 1,000 places to 1,820
places by 1 January 2001.
This expansion will meet the needs of more students
between the ages of 13 and 15 alienated from (ie, no longer enrolled in) the
mainstream school system.
- Seven
residential special schools provide teaching and residential care for children
with sensory disabilities and for children with
severe learning, behavioural
and/or emotional needs.
Gifted children
- Submissions
raised the subject of gifted children. If children are recognised as gifted
they receive help, but often teachers are
too busy to recognise
them.
- Responsibility
to meet the needs of gifted students lies with individual schools. National
Administration Guidelines require all
schools to identify students with special
needs, and to implement teaching and learning strategies to address them. This
requirement
incorporates the needs of the gifted and talented as much as those
of the learning disabled.
- The
Ministry of Education’s guidelines Gifted and Talented Students:
Meeting their Needs in New Zealand Schools (Annex 62), assists schools
to develop policies and programmes for gifted students. The Ministry supported
this publication with
a nationwide professional development programme, and a
gifted education community section is currently being developed on the education
website, Te Kete Ipurangi. This is intended to support teachers of the gifted
and talented, where they can find useful case studies
and research articles,
share ideas with other teachers, and have their questions
answered.
- Acceleration
is less common in New Zealand than overseas, although some secondary
schools do accelerate students to sit external exams
a year early in some
subjects, and individual instances of grade skipping may also take place,
usually at the primary level. Some
schools also release students to attend
tuition outside the school.
Correspondence School
- The
Correspondence School provides primary and secondary education for students
unable to attend a regular school. This includes
an early childhood service for
parents unable to access conventional services for medical or location reasons.
It also helps schools
offer a full
curriculum by way of dual enrolments (ie, students enrolled in a local school
can also enrol with the Correspondence School for subjects
that their local
school cannot offer). Ninetyfive percent of all secondary schools use this
service. Similarly this works where
a local school cannot provide appropriate
specialist programming or adapt curriculum for students with special
needs.
Tracking children in the education system
- With
the legislation change at the end of 1998, principals are now required to
forward an enrolment record for that student to their
next school. The
legislation empowered the Secretary for Education to establish rules (that are
equivalent to regulations) to make
this process work. The rules also require
that each school, when they enrol a student, request the student’s
enrolment record.
If a student under 16 years “disappears” from a
school, and the principal cannot locate them within a reasonably short
period,
the rules require the principal to advise the Ministry of Education for referral
to the NonEnrolment Truancy Service (NETS).
NETS aims to track the child and
return them to an appropriate educational setting. Principals were advised of
this process in
Ministry Circular 1999/03, “Rules for Student Enrolment
Records” (Annex 63).
- Of
the 4,092 cases referred to NETS in 1999, 328 referrals were closed as
“not found”. The Ministry of Education and
NETS have developed a
wide range of methods for tracing children and young people referred, including
obtaining information from
relatives, neighbours, employers, schools, and the
government and other agencies. “Not found” cases are all referred
to the Immigration Service in case the family has gone overseas. Efforts have
been made to do better at finding these referrals
via the Police and Child Youth
and Family. It has been found that this is best done at the local
level.
- Some
people believe that a national student database would help reduce the number of
children “not found”. The Ministry
is currently considering this,
however, even then it would be unlikely that all referrals would be found. For
example, some families
clearly do not wish to be foundsometimes because of abuse
within the family, or they are abandoning some debt.
Accessible higher education
- The
tertiary education sector covers a wide range of learning environments and
systems, including public and private tertiary providers,
industry training, and
adult basic education. It caters to a large and growing proportion of the
population every year. Students
receive state funding in the form of grants,
scholarships, loans, allowances and other forms of income support to help meet
course
and living costs.
- Student
allowances were introduced in their current form in 1989. Allowances are
available to New Zealand students aged 18 and over,
who are studying in
recognised tertiary courses and to some senior secondary school students. Some
16 and 17 year olds may also
qualify if they are living in independent
circumstances, are legally married or have children to support. Since 1992,
allowances
for single students without dependants, who are under the age of 25,
have been subject to a means test on their parents’ income
to target the
allowances to improve the position of students from lowincome
families.
- In
1992 the Government set up a Student Loan Scheme which allows New Zealand
students to borrow money for course fees and courserelated
costs, and full time
students to also borrow to cover living costs. Borrowers do not have to pay
back any money until their income
reaches a certain level. The scheme also
provides interest writeoffs to full time students and lowincome earners to
ensure that
their debt does not grow in real terms.
In 1999, 115,000 students (around 50 percent of all
students) took a loan. The average
amount borrowed was around $5,000 per
year.
- There
have been large increases in participation amongst young people (18 to 24 years
olds) with 28.9 percent participating in tertiary
education in 1999
compared to 20.5 percent in 1990. Both New Zealand’s
actual participation and the growth in participation
is high compared to other
OECD countries. These increases in participation have also been seen in those
groups with traditionally
lower participation rates such as those of Maori or
Pacific ethnicity.
- Student
tuition fees have increased. These are subsidised by the government for
tertiary study. The tertiary institutions receive
the funds directly from
government on behalf of students and are paid on a per student total enrolment
basis.
- There
has been a downward trend in the average per student subsidy received by
institutions. This means that students have had to
contribute more to the cost
of tuition and the fees they pay have increased. The total expenditure on
tuition subsidies has, however,
continued to rise as the Government of the time
chose to fund increased participation at the expense of the level of support for
individual students. The new Government’s policy is to stabilise fees and
as a preliminary measure it has provided additional
funding for the 2001
academic year to those tertiary education providers who agree to hold fees at
2000 levels.
- Participation
rates among Maori and Pacific peoples in tertiary education remain lower than
those of the general population. However,
some Iwi Authorities provide
additional benefits, such as scholarships, to assist Maori to participate in
tertiary education, and
Maori students sometimes qualify for special entry
criteria to tertiary institutions.
- Maori
are more likely to enrol in certificate or diploma level courses than degree or
postgraduate programmes. Of all Maori tertiary
students in 1999,
65 percent were enrolled in diploma or certificate programmes and
35 percent were enrolled in degree or postgraduate
programmes. This
compares to 44 percent of nonMaori in certificate and diplomas
and 56 percent of nonMaori in degree or postgraduate
courses.
- Over
the last five years within tertiary education there has been an increase in
the percentage of Maori students enrolling in degree
or postgraduate level
programmes, from 41 percent in 1995 to 47 percent in
1999.
- Maori
graduation statistics are similar to their enrolment patterns. Over the last
five years within tertiary education there has
been an increase in the level of
Maori graduates. In 1994, 24 percent of all Maori graduates completed
a degree or postgraduate
level. By 1998 this had increased to 31 percent.
This increase has been faster than that of nonMaori.
- In
tertiary education, there has been a significant increase in the range and
variety of educational options and pathways available
to Maori and Pacific
peoples in recent years. Many private training establishments have emerged as
important providers for Maori
and Pacific peoples. The Government is also
implementing policy initiatives to help increase the responsiveness of public
tertiary
institutions to Maori and Pacific students.
Educational and vocational information and
guidance
- The
primary government agency responsible for developing New Zealand’s
skilled workforce potential is Skill New Zealand Pukenga,
Aotearoa (Skill
New Zealand). Skill New Zealand specialises in purchasing education
and training services, and in training pathways
that focus on individuals’
learning needs. Its focus is on the transition from education and training to
work, and on increasing
access to training in the workplace. Two programmes for
skill development are Modern Apprenticeships and Industry Training. Modern
Apprenticeships, a new workbased education initiative for young people, combines
the best aspects of traditional apprenticeships
with additional features
designed to assist more young people to access employment based training towards
national qualifications.
Industry training has been developed by industry to
give the workforce the skills and knowledge that will give New Zealand
industry
a competitive edge.
- Career
Services Rapuara is a Crown entity that was established in 1990 to help the
Government achieve its education, training and
employment goals. It does this
by providing information, advice and guidance services to help people make
informed career choices.
Career Services Rapuara has also developed a
worldleading internetbased career information system, KiwiCareers. Officially
launched
in July 1998, KiwiCareers provides internet access to comprehensive
career information for a wide range of groups.
- Too
many students leave school without entering work or further training, or enter
low skilled jobs with few opportunities to develop
making these individuals
vulnerable through their working lives. More focus on the school to work
transition may improve the options
and outcomes for schoolleavers. A programme
called Gateway has been established for a twoyear evaluation (2000/01 to
2002/03).
It aims to improve the school to work transition by supporting
workbased education and training for senior school students.
- Post
School Pathways Strategy, Including Adult and Community Education and Adult
Literacy is a priority area where policy has been
haphazard. Funding outside
Training Opportunities Programmes and Youth Training has been inadequate for
many years. Significant
investment is required to increase the scope of the
sector and to address low levels of participation and achievement by Maori and
Pacific peoples in postschool education, and low levels of literacy and
numeracy. In Budget 2000, $8.0 million was allocated over
four years to develop
an integrated policy and funding approach to postschool pathways into tertiary
education. New initiatives
in adult literacy and numeracy programmes, and
community and adult education, will raise Maori and Pacific peoples uptake of
the
full range of tertiary education options.
- Funding
for new initiatives to improve access and achievement in tertiary education for
underrepresented groups was also announced
in Budget 2000. Initiatives may
include bridging programmes into tertiary education, scholarship programmes,
mentoring programmes
and research. This will enable Maori, Pacific peoples, and
other underrepresented groups to overcome barriers to tertiary education
participation and achievement.
Measures to encourage regular attendance at school and the
reduction of dropout rates
- In
1998, the Wellington Community Law Centre established a Parent’s Legal
Information Line for School Issues (PLINFO) for information
about the legal
rights of parents and children within the school system. The service found that
although there are many schools
throughout New Zealand which handle
complaints in a competent, caring and sympathetic way, a number of cases
illustrate how badly
things can go wrong for children and parents. Schools do
not always provide a caring, supportive environment for children and parents
are
often reluctant to question schools too closely because they fear that their
children may be disadvantaged further.
- PLINFO
found that New Zealand children do not have equal access to educational
opportunities at all levels of the school system.
A number of children are
being excluded from all, or part of the curriculum for reasons including special
needs, school “fees”
and course costs, suspensions, exclusions and
expulsions.
Enrolment schemes
- Enrolment
schemes are used to restrict student enrolments when a school is likely to
become overcrowded. Enrolment scheme legislation
was changed in 1998 to reflect
three principles:
- a school can
only exclude the number of students that enable it to avoid
overcrowding
- it is desirable
for students to be able to attend a reasonably convenient
school
- an enrolment
scheme should allow the Secretary of Education to make reasonable use of the
existing network of schools.
- In
2000, enrolment scheme legislation was strengthened again, so that from 2001 a
child has a right to attend their neighbourhood
school. There are 287 schools
with enrolment schemes, of which 55 are secondary schools. There are 145
enrolment schemes in Auckland.
- The
legislation requires schools at risk of overcrowding to draw up a geographic
zone. All students living in that geographic zone
have the right to attend the
school. Outofzone students are chosen by ballot. Students who have or have had
siblings attending
the school have priority for the remaining places, followed
by children of staff at the school and then other outofzone applicants.
Exceptions to these enrolment provisions are made for children attending special
programmes at a school, such as a special education
or Maori immersion
unit.
Truancy
- The
atrisk students policy aims to improve the opportunities to achieve and the
results for students with poor educational outcomes.
In terms of school
attendance, the District Truancy Services provide support for every school to
reduce and prevent truancy. The
Ministry of Education also funds NETS (see
paragraphs 769771).
- Based
on referrals in NETS first year in 1997, 65 percent of cases were completed
by the end of six weeks. For 1998, this improved
to 77 percent completed
within six weeks, and for 1999, the rate was up to 84 percent. The
faster operation has resulted from a
greater awareness of NETS in schools and
the wider community, and NETS increased operational capacity with more funding
in 1998.
- The
impression of slower work raised in submissions may reflect that the nature of
cases referred to NETS has become more complex.
However, the NETS Education
Advisers are handling this partly through cooperative work with the Ministry of
Education in appropriate
cases.
Study support centres
- Study
support centres are being established to provide tuition and supervised study
for upper primary school students at risk of under
achievement. A total $7.5
million has been allocated over the 20002004 period. Study support centres will
assist to:
- improve
students’ basic study skills the “building blocks” for
learning and their attitude to school
- reduce the
impact of poverty on educational achievement
- engage parents
in the education of their children
Alternative education
- In
response to situations where either young people are unwilling to attend regular
school, or schools are unwilling to enrol them
in a mainstream setting,
alternative education (AE) funding is made available to schools through
contracts for a given number of
student places. Generally the schools work with
community partners to provide the AE programmes.
- The
AE system was set up so schools can work individually or in a consortium of
several schools with one or more community partners
some consortia have four or
five partners. Some of the funding is also made available to NETS to set up
placements for individual
students with various providers. Schools can also use
some of their AE resourcing to purchase individual placements for
students.
- Currently,
the Ministry of Education has contracts involving 310 schools, 54 of which are
individual schools, the rest in consortia.
Each contract has at least one
partner, most have two or more. NETS made over 50 individual placements last
year and will make
substantially more this year. Hence, there are well in
excess of 200 community partners involved in providing or supporting AE
programmes
one way or another.
- In
1999, 833 students received support through the AE programmes as they were then.
Of these, 73 percent were Maori and 8 percent
were Pacific young
people. The Ministry’s priority was to establish AE programmes in places
with high Maori populations.
As the policy is extended nationwide between now
and the end of the first term 2001, the Ministry estimates that the AE student
population
will settle at about 50 percent Maori, 20 percent Pacific
and 30 percent Pakeha and other ethnic groups.
Innovations pool
- The
Innovations Pool provides resources for proposals that aim to meet the
educational needs of schoolage students who are at risk
of poor educational
achievement. Many organisations and individuals are keen to work with schools
and their students on this area.
- All
programmes run by the Innovations Pool are being evaluated. Successful
programmes will be trialed in a wider variety of schools.
Students are not
actually referred to other programmes programmes are developed with the school
and provider who contract with
the Ministry.
- The
Innovations Pool had two funding rounds 1998/1999 and 1999/2000. Schools have
submitted proposals for programmes that are then
forwarded to a selection panel.
Successful applicants enter into a contract with the Ministry. Budget 2000
doubled the Innovations
Pool to provide support to three specific community
based provider programmes in schools. A main focus for the Innovations Pool
for
2000/2001 is to trial successful programmes (such as Kiwi Can and Cool Schools)
in a wider range of schools. This will provide
a better transfer of innovations
for meeting the needs of at risk students, from concept and evaluation through
to adoption in mainstream
school settings.
Social workers in schools
- In
1998, a “social workers in schools” pilot project, administered by
Child, Youth and Family, was established. The project
focuses on early
intervention emphasising partnerships between schools and social workers.
Initially there were 12 positions now
there are 67.
- The
pilot aimed to establish whether children in primary schools could be better
assisted by social welfare agencies. The purpose
was to:
- improve the life
outcomes of children, young people and their families through “early
help” by providing preventive/early
intervention
programmes
- enhance the
education, welfare and health outcomes for children from at risk families by
providing schoolbased social services that
promote the wellbeing of at risk
children
- address
behavioural and relationship difficulties that place children at risk and which
create barriers to learning
- assist families
to meet their care and support responsibilities
- improve
accessibility to, and delivery of, early intervention services for children and
families at risk
- reduce the
number of children and families requiring Child, Youth and Family statutory
intervention.
- The
project evaluation will assist in future policy and practice to assess the
impact of a shift in focus and resources from crisis
services to a more
preventative and early interventionbased approach. The induction training for
social workers is intended to include
training on the Convention by the Office
of the Commissioner for Children.
School discipline
- Using
corporal punishment in schools and early childhood centres remains prohibited.
However, the Education Act does allow for shortterm
suspension or standdowns and
expulsion from schools under certain conditions. The number of suspensions and
expulsions has increased
for both Maori and nonMaori during the reporting
period. However, Maori are overrepresented in the number of suspensions and
expulsions.
In 1997 Maori represented 19.8 percent of all primary and
secondary school students, but accounted for 41.7 percent of all students
who were suspended or expelled.
- Changes
to suspensions rules (Annex 33) now enable the Secretary for Education to make
rules that regulate the practices and procedures
to be followed by boards of
trustees, principals, parents and students when a proposed standdown (suspension
for one period or more
not exceeding five days in any one term), suspension,
exclusion or expulsion is to be considered or decided upon. The rules have
clarified the rights of students in relation to:
- speaking at
their suspension meeting
- guidance and
counselling
- an appropriate
educational programme while suspended.
- They
also clarified the principal’s obligation to attempt to place an excluded
student in another school.
- At
least 48 hours before the board meeting, the student and the parent must be
given:
- the procedures
for meetings deciding on suspensions
- the
principal’s report to the board on suspension
- any other
material about the suspension to be presented at the meeting
- the options
available to the board and possible outcomes of the suspension
- the information
on suspensions provided by the Ministry of Education for
parents.
- These
rules are applied and practised in all suspension cases.
- The
Ministry of Education has released a report on school standdowns, suspensions,
exclusions and expulsions. The report, What’s Happening?, details
the effects of the new procedures for managing serious student misbehaviour for
the period 12 July 1999 to 16 July 2000
(Annex 64). The report
contains data for four school terms the final two terms of 1999, and the
first two terms of 2000.
- The
report shows that 13,272 students were stood down from school and just under
5,000 were suspended. The number of suspended students
is less than
1 percent of the student population. The vast majority of suspended
students (82 percent) returned to schooling after
their suspension, and for
most students it is a onceonly experience.
- The
report’s key findings are:
- The most common
reasons for standdowns were continual disobedience (3,874 cases), physical
assault on students (3,669 cases), and
verbal assault on staff (2,508
cases).
- The most common
reasons for suspension were drugrelated incidents (1,506 cases), continual
disobedience (1,091 cases), physical assault
on students (767 cases), verbal
assault on staff (305 cases), and theft (290 cases).
- Maori students
are overrepresented in standdowns and suspensions.
- Male students
are overrepresented in standdowns and suspensions.
- Standdown and
suspension rates vary across regions.
- The
rule changes, especially the new standdown option, have improved the management
of student behaviour, and the new reporting system
gives a better reflection of
what has been happening in schools. The Ministry of Education will work with
schools to address key
issues raised in the report.
Violence at school
- The
National Education Guidelines (Annex 65) require schools to provide a safe
physical and emotional environment for students. Submissions by young people
cited
problems with bullying in schools. All schools should at least have an
anti bullying policy and take active steps to address problems
through their
pastoral care programmes.
- The
Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum (Annex
57) includes Body Care, Physical Safety and Mental Health. Many schools have
developed their own nonviolence policies and
deal proactively with bullying when
it arises. Many schools have also developed positive student support programmes
of their own.
- The
Education Review Office and the Ministry of Education help to guide boards of
trustees in areas of concern. All schools should
have complaint procedures that
deal with bullying/discrimination.
- Occasionally
a school may seek help from the Police or local community group or parent
organisation. The Ministry of Education partly
subsidises programmes run by SES
called Eliminating Violence in up to 40 schools per year. Eliminating Violence
is a systemsbased
action research programme that aims to empower schools to
reduce the incidence of violence within school settings and school communities.
Through participating in the programme, young people gain an understanding of
violence and how to manage their anger. Additionally,
teachers develop insight
into the impact of their own behaviour, and parents and schools gain skills in
working in partnership to
reduce violence.
- The
Health Promoting Schools (see paragraphs 635638) approach, promoted and
supported by health agencies, also encourages schools
to take a comprehensive
approach in dealing with issues such as bullying and mental health. Schools are
encouraged to develop appropriate
policies, provide a supportive school
environment, involve the school community, teach about selfesteem, mental health
and preventing
violence, and involve and work with appropriate agencies.
International cooperation
- Asia
2000 was founded in 1994 as a nonprofit, apolitical organisation dedicated to
building bridges of understanding between New Zealand
and Asia. One of its
activities is to support education projects that foster AsiaNew Zealand
relations, including:
- promoting the
study of Asia in schools
- supporting
conferences and workshops related to Asian studies and
languages
- funding
educational exchanges and scholarships.
B. Aims of education (article 29)
- In
the selfmanaging environment, schools are responsible for providing education
according to the National Administration Guidelines (contained in Annex
65). For health education, this requires they consult with parents and
caregivers to ensure that the programmes
implemented meet their student’s
needs.
- The
Ministry of Education provides:
- the framework
for teaching health education outlined in Health and Physical Education in
the New Zealand Curriculum
- funding to
provide professional development to support teachers with implementation of the
curriculum
- specific
guidelines for principals and boards of trustees for implementing drug education
and sexuality education
- a series of
resources to assist teachers to plan and implement programmes
- a database of
resources on Te Kete Ipurangi website.
- The
Ministry of Education follows a policy that is neither to directly endorse nor
criticise materials, but to encourage schools to
make careful and wellinformed
decisions about what materials to select for their students.
- Recent
curriculum developments in both health and social studies will enable schools to
foster education aims that are consistent
with the Convention.
- The
new Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum is a
framework that provides young people with opportunities to develop the
resilience that is required for successful lives both
now and in their futures.
Schools are being encouraged to implement comprehensive health education
programmes rather than completely
separate modules based on high profile aspects
such as drug and sexuality education.
- Currently
some schools do not provide sufficient time on the timetable for preventative
education for all students and spend considerable
time on intervention
strategies. However, now the curricula for all seven learning areas have been
completed, many schools will
be reviewing the allocation of
time.
- Implementing
the curriculum will provide opportunities for students to develop life skills in
a range of contexts. Four key areas
of learning in the curriculum; mental
health, sexuality education, food and nutrition and body care and physical
safety provide the
contexts for health education. Aspects of wellbeing, while
being based in one key area of learning, have logical links to
others.
Mental health
- Positive
mental health is a prerequisite if students are to reach their highest academic,
physical and social potential. Learning
in this key area provides the
opportunities needed to:
- develop
knowledge, understanding and skills to strengthen personal identity and self
worth
- examine issues
such as discrimination and stereotyping
- manage
themselves and others during stressful times.
Sexuality education
- Sexuality
education is a part of the health education curriculum. The Education Act 1964
requires that approximately every two years,
principals consult with the school
community about the health education curriculum. After consultation, the
principal presents a
written report to the board of trustees that outlines the
proposed programme. The board then directs which components of sexuality
education will be included in the curriculum. The Act also allows parents to
withdraw their children from sexuality education classes.
As a result, some
young people may be missing important elements of sexuality education such as
safe sex and contraception. (See
paragraphs 324326.)
- This
is the only area of the curriculum where law requires consultation, and where
the principal does not have the final say over
what is taught. No parental
consent is required if a young person chooses to access the same information
from other sources such
as the Family Planning Association or their local
GP.
- Teachers
are required to incorporate sexuality education into units of learning at both
primary and secondary schools. Sexuality Education: A Guide for Principals
and Boards of Trustees (Annex 66) provides suggestions for the outcomes that
are appropriate for each learning level. This publication also provides ideas
to assist schools with the consultation process that can allay concerns
regarding implementing this and other aspects of health education.
Home schooling
- Home
schooling is available to parents who want to educate their children at home,
provided that they maintain a standard of education
equivalent to that of a
registered school. Parents need to obtain approval from the Ministry of
Education to home school their children
during the years of compulsory schooling
(6 to 16 years) and are given an annual grant to help with the cost of learning
materials.
- At
1 July 1999 there were 5,452 home schoolers recorded on the Ministry of
Education’s database, which represents less than
1 percent of total
school enrolments. These students belonged to 3,110 families. The number of
home schoolers in New Zealand has
nearly doubled in the period 1993 to 1999
from a total 2,738 students in 1993 to 5,452 in 1999. In July 1999, 1,704
(31 percent)
of home schoolers reported their ethnicity 84 percent
identified as European/Pakeha while 11 percent identified as Maori.
The percentage
of Maori, Asian and Pacific students being home schooled was
low compared to the number of school students.
Education Review Office
- The
Education Review Office is an independent audit and review agency established
in 1989 to investigate and report on education in
New Zealand schools.
(See paragraph 276 of the Initial Report.)
C. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities (article
31)
- The
government has continued to support initiatives designed to encourage children
to express themselves in leisure, recreation and
cultural activities.
Wellstructured out of school care programmes are one way to ensure children and
young people have access to
a wide range of such activities.
- Submissions
raised issues about economic considerations and access to facilities. There
were also some general comments about commercialisation
of leisure time
activities, finding a balance between work and play, and leisure time choices of
some children and young people.
- The
government continues to provide assistance through the Out of School Care and
Recreation (OSCAR) subsidy. The OSCAR subsidy is
paid directly to the
parent/caregiver who is responsible for paying the full amount of the fee to the
OSCAR service. The previous
existing childcare subsidy, which was available for
children aged zero to five years, was paid directly by DWI to the childcare
service.
(See Annex 67 for information about OSCAR).
- Several
local councils have achieved excellent work to encourage and enable children to
take part in town planning processes. Christchurch
City Council is a leading
example with its Children’s Policy which states its commitment “to
promoting the healthy, happy
development of children to their full potential,
both as children now and for the future wellbeing of our community”. It
employs
a Children’s Advocate to help implement the Children’s
Policy.
PART 8: SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES
Introduction
- Part
8 reports on special protection measures including:
- assistance for
refugee children
- children in
armed conflicts
- children
involved in the juvenile justice system
- exploitation,
abuse and neglect, including recovery and reintegration
- children
belonging to minority or indigenous groups.
A. Children in situations of emergency (articles 22, 38 and
39)
Refugee children (article 22)
- New Zealand
continued to admit refugee children under the Refugee Quota Programme or asylum
procedures set out in paragraphs 330336
of the Initial Report. However,
there have been some changes to the administration of refugee settlement. The
New Settler Coordinators, which were based
at colleges of education, have been
replaced by five Refugee Education Coordinators based in the Ministry of
Education offices around
New Zealand. This service assists refugees,
including children, to gain access to ongoing education in the community. It
recognises
that schoolage refugees have particular educational and settlement
issues that need to be addressed before they can begin to settle
into the
New Zealand education system.
- A
new English as a second language refugee initiative provides English language
support for each student for up to five years. Over
1,200 students are
estimated to have high English language needs in schools and a further 250 with
significant needs.
- Since
the decision in 1995 to remove the family reunion category from the
Refugee Quota Programme, a family reunion subcategory has
now been
established in the 2000/01 refugee quota. This will help meet the demand
for family reunification for refugees and to help
make the refugee resettlement
process less traumatic and difficult. There are 300 places reserved
for family reunion cases.
- An
Interdepartmental Committee on Refugee Settlement has been established to
provide a forum for government agencies to coordinate
refugee policies and
service delivery. It comprises officials from the Department of Labour
(including the New Zealand Immigration
Service, Labour Market Policy Group
and the Community Employment Group), the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and
Trade, Health, Education,
the Department of Internal Affairs (including the
Office of Ethnic Affairs), the Ministry of Social Policy, the Treasury,
Department
of Work and Income, Skill New Zealand, Housing New Zealand,
Child Youth and Family, the Health Funding Agency, and the Department
of Prime
Minister and Cabinet.
- Since
a 1995 review, the quota was reduced from 800 to 750 people to allow the
New Zealand government to make full payment for refugees’
travel to
New Zealand.
- In
1999 significant changes were made to the procedures and terms of reference for
determining refugee status claimants (including
children). These procedures
were placed in a statutory regime in the Immigration Amendment Act 1999, which
came into force on 1
October 1999. The full text of the
United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was included
as a schedule to the
Act. New Zealand has adopted the definition of
refugee provided in article one of that Convention.
- The
process for determining refugee status will continue to be a twotier system made
up of:
- the Refugee
Status Branch (a branch within the New Zealand Immigration
Service)
- the independent
Refugee Status Appeals Authority which determines appeals.
- The
law changes provide a speedier and more streamlined removal process for those
whose claims to refugee status are not upheld.
Additionally, new provisions are
currently being worked on to allow mass arrivals to be detained in premises
other than prison pending
their refugee status claim determination (see
paragraphs 455457).
- Asylum
seekers and people who have refugee status under the 1951 Convention on the
Status of Refugees (including children) are entitled
to receive the same level
of publiclyfunded social welfare, health care and education as quota refugees
and other people lawfully
in New Zealand. The government has funded
programmes for organisations working with refugees and communitybased
orientation programmes
for families of refugees. However, the government does
not consider it practical to provide asylum seekers with the same sixweek
induction programme that quota refugees go through immediately on arrival in
New Zealand (see paragraphs 9293).
- In
terms of help given to refugees, there are new budget initiatives for
organisations working with refugees and communitybased orientation
programmes
for families and refugees:
- $180,000 has
been allocated to a pilot discretionary fund to provide financial assistance to
community groups working largely or exclusively
with refugees and people in
refugeelike situations
- $127,000 has
also been allocated to a communitybased orientation programme pilot for family
members of refugees to assist them to
settle more quickly.
- Child,
Youth and Family provides funding to nongovernment agencies for services to
refugees and migrants. Most of this funding is
to provide advice, information
and advocacy services and in 1998/99 the total funding was $517,435.
Additionally, these services
received a total of $149,687 for other services to
refugees and migrants, including parenting skills
programmes. A small amount of funding is also provided for emergency housing
for applicant refugees. Services funded for families
on a generic basis also
include refugees and migrants. They also receive Child, Youth and Family care
and protection and youth justice
services as required.
- The
services provided by the Labour Inspectorate address the employment rights of
refugees/asylum seekers by ensuring all employees
are covered by the minimum
conditions specified in legislation. The Labour Inspectorate works closely with
the Immigration Service
to address compliance issues relating to these groups.
For example, as a result of the publicity surrounding an investigation into
a
sweatshop, 61 allegations involving a total of 250 foreign national workers have
been brought to the Inspectorate’s attention.
The majority of these
claims are currently under investigation.
- The
Interdepartmental Committee on Refugee Resettlement (chaired by the
New Zealand Immigration Service) is currently working to identify
gaps in
services and new strategies for refugee resettlement. The needs of refugee
children will be taken into account as part of
this work.
- Submissions
raised concern about the level of assistance refugees in general receive, and
that children who are refugees get even
less help than adults. As noted in
paragraphs 9293, the government is monitoring progress in addressing the
Committee’s concerns
through refugee resettlement work and updated
information will be provided when this report is presented.
2. Children in armed conflicts (article 38), including
physical and
psychological recovery and social reintegration (article
39)
- New Zealand
welcomed the adoption by consensus of an Optional Protocol to the Convention on
the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.
While the compromise text was
not ideal from the point of view of any State, it represents significant
progress in the standards
for protecting children.
- New Zealand
signed the optional protocol and intends to ratify once constitutional processes
are complete.
- All
recruitment to the New Zealand Defence Force is voluntary. Individuals
cannot be recruited into the armed forces in New Zealand
until they have
reached a minimum age of 17 years. The Defence Act currently
prohibits personnel under 18 years for the army and
airforce and under 16 years
and six months for navy from being liable for active service outside
New Zealand. However, the Chief
of New Zealand Defence Force has
directed that the age for active service overseas be raised to 18 across the
three services.
- New Zealand
is committed to working with the international community to stamp out the use of
children as soldiers and considers that
to eradicate the use of children as
soldiers, international standard setting needs to be matched by practical
action. New Zealand
welcomed the Canadianhosted Winnipeg Conference on War
Affected Children, held in September 2000.
New Zealand was represented at the Winnipeg meeting and put our full
support behind the Winnipeg “Agenda for War Affected Children”.
New Zealand also made additional pledges that it would:
- work towards
ratification of the child soldiers Optional Protocol
- support broad
ratification of the International Criminal Court statute
- remain willing
to consider further support for child soldierrelated project proposals under the
New Zealand Official Development Assistance
Programme
- continue our
firm commitment to training all members of New Zealand’s Armed Forces
in an advanced programme of law of armed
conflict, and providing refresher
training before forces are deployed to peacekeeping operations overseas. The
law of armed conflict
training includes training on respect for human rights and
the special protections appropriate to (amongst others)
children.
- The
New Zealand Official Development Assistance programme provided support for
the AsiaPacific Conference on the Use of Children as
Soldiers (Kathmandu, 1518
May 2000) by providing $20,000 from the Good Governance Programme for NGO
delegates from the Philippines,
Indonesia and Thailand to
attend.
B. Children involved with the system of administration
of juvenile justice (articles 40 and 37)
- The
Youth Justice system continues to be governed by the Children, Young Persons and
Their Families Act (see paragraphs 340 to 351
of the Initial Report).
There has been ongoing interagency work to improve youth justice interventions
during the reporting period.
1. The Administration of Juvenile Justice (article 40)
The rights of children alleged to have, or recognised as
having, committed an offence
- Submissions
emphasised those young people who offend should qualify for legal aid, even if
imprisonment is unlikely. As noted in
the Initial Report, the
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act applies to children just as it does to
adults. In relation to children who are alleged to have,
or are recognised as
having, committed an offence, all the rights affirmed by and set out in
sections 21 to 27 of the Act relating
to search, arrest and detention,
apply. In November 1998 a Judicial Practice Note was issued requiring the
District and High Courts
to prioritise cases of sexual offences involving child
complainants or child defendants. The Practice Note defines children as under
17 years, so it includes children and young persons under the Children, Young
Persons and Their Families Act 1989.
- Eligibility
for criminal or civil legal aid is not explicitly limited by the
applicant’s age. However, if the person is under
16 years, an application
for civil legal aid must be made on that person’s behalf by a person of
full age and capacity (section
64 Legal Services Act 1990). Civil legal aid in
the Youth Court is limited to proceedings commenced through application under
Part
VII of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 (which
relates to children and young persons in care of persons or
bodies), or in
respect of any review of any determination of, or any order made in, a Youth
Court in any such proceedings.
- The
majority of cases involving under 17 year olds (including serious cases) are
heard and resolved in the Youth Court where young
people are automatically
represented by courtappointed Youth Advocates (counsel with particular skills in
Youth Court work). Where
extremely serious charges are laid and it seems likely
that the case will escalate through the system, court staff will endeavour
to
ensure that there is consistent representation. Criminal legal aid is not
required for proceedings in the Youth Court. It may
be granted to a person of
any age in the general courts. There are only a very small number of cases with
child defendants in the
District or High Court.
- The
Ministry of Justice is undertaking a general review of the eligibility criteria
for legal aid in late 2000 that may include examining
the eligibility of young
people.
- Submissions
raised some concern that youth advocates are not turning up at Family Group
Conferences, affecting the young person’s
level of representation. Also,
young people are having difficulties getting hold of their lawyers (especially
when they are in an
institution) and that is undermining their representation.
If a Youth Advocate does not turn up for a Family Group Conference the
coordinator will assess action to be taken in consultation with the young person
after reasonable efforts to locate the advocate
have failed. The Family Group
Conference may or may not proceed on a case by case assessment.
- Telephone
access to Youth Advocates would be provided whenever needed. A young person is
able to ring their Youth Advocate from any
residence. Under special
circumstances Youth Advocates may be flown to the residence. In normal
circumstances, the young person
will arrive at court in plenty of time for a
prearranged meeting with their Youth Advocate.
Police complaints by children and young people
- Submissions
indicate that young people are reporting bad experiences with Police, including
beatings and have difficulty getting redress
for assaults. A child or young
person’s complaint is dealt with in the same manner as a complaint from an
adult. Statistics
on formal complaints are not available in age categories (or
any other categories).
- Police
are considering a number of options for listening to children and young
people’s concerns and opinions about policing.
Police recognise that
children and young people can make a valuable contribution by identifying places
and behaviours that concern
them.
Fingerprinting children and young people
- Police
have prepared, in consultation with other agencies, guidelines for
fingerprinting children and young people. Fingerprinting
young people who are
arrested is lawful. A blanket policy of arrest to obtain fingerprints is not
lawful. Taking voluntary fingerprints
from children
and young people who, along with a parent or caregiver give their informed
consent, can act as a deterrent as well as provide the
opportunity for early
intervention to stop children and young people becoming entrenched in offending.
There must be no suggestion
of coercion or any other inducement to encourage
voluntary fingerprints to be given (see paragraph 270).
Relevant provisions of the Children, Young Persons and Their
Families Act 1989
- A
review of the young offender provisions in the Children, Young Persons and Their
Families Act in 1998/1999 found that generally
the legislative framework was
good but there were some issues identified about how the Act was being
implemented. Work is continuing
on the effectiveness of some orders under the
legislation and if necessary, legislation will be considered when that work is
complete.
Measures for dealing with children without resorting to
judicial proceedings
- A
general overview of the two situations where children and young people come into
contact with the court system and the measures
for dealing with children without
resorting to judicial proceedings is provided in paragraphs 352 358 of the
Initial Report.
Child Offenders Manual
- Children
aged 10 to 14 who offend are regarded as child offenders and are dealt with
under the care and protection provisions of the
Children, Young Persons and
their Families Act (unless they are charged with a very serious offence, please
see paragraph 3943).
Further information about these processes is provided in
paragraphs 352357 of the Initial Report.
- During
the reporting period the Department for Courts and the judiciary developed a
Manual for Child Offenders A practical guide to successful intervention with
child offenders (Annex 68). The manual’s key purpose is to set out
the processes for responding effectively to offending by children in this
age
group, including addressing causes of offending behaviour to prevent repeat
offending. This manual clarifies the respective
roles of the Police, Child,
Youth and Family and the Courts in these processes and is designed to secure
positive outcomes for child
offenders.
Measuring outcomes
- There
are two major pieces of current research, which will measure outcomes for young
offenders.
- Records
and interviews will be used to identify factors associated with successful
outcomes in the youth justice system, including
achieving the goals of the
Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989, to reduce reoffending,
reintegrate offenders and
respond to victims. Both Police Youth Aid
diversionary practices and Family Group Conferences will be studied. A final
report is
expected in 2002.
- These
research and evaluation projects will enable positive outcomes for young people
to be measured. Outcomes will be documented
as part of the young person’s
case record.
Youth Services Strategy
- Child,
Youth and Family has set a long term strategic outcome to reduce serious and
persistent reoffending and improve rehabilitation
outcomes for highrisk youth,
through a Youth Services Strategy (YSS). The client group for the YSS includes
children and young people
with conduct disorder, sex offenders and other
offenders. The three central components of the YSS are to:
- develop tools
for risk estimation, needs assessment and outcomes measurement
- extend services
for highrisk youth, including specialist group homes and training for specialist
caregivers
- develop and
deliver structured day programmes and specialist rehabilitation programmes
targeted to highrisk youth.
- Developing
risk estimation tools will form part of a structured decisionmaking system to be
introduced across the youth services sector.
This will help ensure children and
young people receive the social services they need and are maintained, as much
as possible, in
their home communities. Particular areas of attention will be
to improve access to drug and alcohol assessments and to mental health
assessments.
- Child,
Youth and Family’s YSS provides youth justice and care and protection
services to the more serious young offenders.
The strategy includes assessment
and case management planning, onetoone caregivers, specialised family homes and
individualised packages
of rehabilitation services. It is targeted at 12 to 16
year olds who are at risk of poor life outcomes, including reoffending.
An
evaluation of the strategy, including information about recidivism and YSS
impact on children will be completed in 2002.
Review of resourcing
- Justice
Sector Chief Executives commissioned a review of the youth justice
system’s resourcing. In 1999, the Ministry of Justice’s
report
mapped the current financial resources allocated to deliver youth justice
services across the government sector. The report
included:
- an estimation of
expenditure by each agency in different areas
- an indication of
the unit costs based on the number of young people involved at different stages
of the youth justice system
- the cumulative
costs of exiting at different stages of the process.
- In
the justice sector, budget allocations include general measures available to all
New Zealanders who access legal services and the
courts, and specific
measures designed to enhance the best interests of the child,
including:
- Counsel for the
Child fees and expenses
- Family Court
specialist report writers
- Youth Advocate
fees and expenses
- Youth Court
specialist report writers
- Children’s
programmes (both general programmes and Mäori programmes under the Domestic
Violence Act 1995).
- These
specific items are judicially ordered costs, and as such are funded as Crown
Costs, separate to the departmental operating budget.
Crime Prevention Package
- In
1997 the Government provided funding for a comprehensive crime prevention
package of programmes targeted at youth at risk of offending.
It focused on
preventing young people from entering a criminal offending lifestyle and from
entering or reentering the criminal
justice system. Some of the children and
young people on the programmes had already committed criminal offences, while
others may
have been referred to the programme as a result of behaviour such as
truancy.
- Fourteen
Police Youth at Risk of Offending programmes were developed, based on a model
that involves identifying and targeting children
and families in need, with a
particular emphasis on recidivist offenders or those who are at risk of becoming
offenders. The general
approach involves a coordinated effort across three
broad areas: the family, school and the community. Some programmes have also
adopted a mentoring approach where adult volunteers are matched with at risk
youth with the intention of becoming an appropriate
role model for that child.
- A
comprehensive evaluation process was designed at the initiation of the
programmes to monitor the establishment and development of
the programmes and to
assess their effectiveness in meeting the set objectives. The evaluation
consists of three stages: formative,
process and outcome evaluation. Evaluation
results indicate a significant drop in offending for the children and young
people on
the Youth at Risk project.
- As
a reflection of Police’s support to the government’s focus on
children and young people, high priority and additional
funding were given
specifically to Youth at Risk of Offending and Youth Aid in the 2000
budget.
- Every
police officer is undertaking qualitypolicing training that includes an emphasis
on improving their relationships with young
people. This includes skills for
being less confrontational when dealing with the public.
- The
Wraparound Service in South Auckland provides tailored individualised services
and support for young people at risk (and their
family/whänau) through case
management (see paragraphs 405409).
- A
Contestable Fund for Maori Community Initiatives allowed six projects to be
established to work with young people identified as
at risk of offending. Led
by a community project worker, the programmes are tailored to suit a particular
community and to engage
young people in a range of activities. The programmes
provide coordinated support to the young person and their family. The
Contestable
Fund was established to enable Maori communitybased groups to
develop their own proposals for programmes to address youth at risk
in their own
communities, in their own way. An evaluation component was included to produce
evidence for future use to assess whether
Maori designed and delivered
programmes are the best to meet Maori needs.
- The
Department of Corrections worked with DWI in selected communities to target
young people involved with correction services to
provide more individualised
employment advice and planning to improve training and employment outcomes
following their release from
prison.
- The
Ministry of Youth Affairs developed a prerelease prison programme based on the
successful Conservation Corps programme that it
currently runs. Twelve
programmes at three prison sites worked with 97 offenders during 1998 to 2000.
The programme is for offenders
between 17 to 25 years of age. The programmes
are contracted out to local sponsor organisations and run outside the prison,
and
participants nearing the end of their sentence are released from prison each
day to participate in a 12week programme that includes
a balance of work
projects, education and challenging recreation. A prison officer is attached to
each programme, primarily in a
security role. Evaluation of the programmes is
complete and preliminary findings suggest the programmes are valuable for
participants.
Further analysis of the evaluation is required to determine
whether the programme is viable in the long term.
2. Children deprived of their liberty, including any form of
detention, imprisonment or placement in custodial
settings (article
37(b)(d))
Availability of a variety of alternatives to institutional
care
- There
have been significant policy developments and service delivery improvements to
improve compliance with the Convention. Child,
Youth and Family developed a
Residential Services Strategy for young people placed in residential care. This
policy specifically
supports the principles of the Children, Young Persons and
Their Families Act 1989.
Residential Services Strategy
- The
fiveyear, nationwide Residential Services Strategy revised the previous
residential care model. The strategy is designed to provide
purposebuilt
residential facilities, which incorporate support programmes for children and
young people in need of care and protection
(or subject to supervision with
residence order from the Youth Court) and for placements outside the normal home
environment. The
strategy has four components:
- separate
“youth justice” and “care and protection” facilities at
distinct sites
- youth justice
residences in “nonresidential” zones
- provision of a
range of specialised programmes, particularly for young people who sexually
abuse others and young people with a conduct
disorder
- a range of
management styles for residences.
- The
strategy focuses on purposeful educational and recreational activities.
Individual care plans are formulated which focus on the
young person’s
particular needs. The plan is formulated with social workers and the young
person, and is based on directions
from the Family Group Conference.
- The
new facilities provide improved security which reduces staff time spent
supervising young people’s security and gives them
more time to be
available to work with young people to implement their individual care
plan.
- The
Convention was not expressly referred to in the development of this new
strategy. However, there was a specific focus on the
Children, Young Persons
and Their Families Act and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of
Juveniles Deprived of Their Liberty,
both of which closely reflect the articles
and principles of the Convention.
- Grievance
panels are in place for residences for young people to make personal complaints
or seek reviews of their care. (Annex 69.
See the grievance panel guidelines
appended to this report.) Submissions suggest that the grievance panels seem to
be tougher about
upholding complaints and that figures were needed on this.
However, it was also suggested that the panels have a very slow turnover
of
complaints three months for a minor matter is said to be common.
- Joint
investigation protocols have been developed to help manage complaints involving
the actions of staff so that they are completed
as soon as possible. Complaints
against members of staff also involve a management investigation and take longer
because of the
human resources processes involved. Also the Commissioner for
Children is available to hear complaints and concerns from young people
in
residences.
- Submissions
also raised an issue about introducing a no smoking rule in residences and the
need for support for stopping smoking for
the young people affected.
Individuals with serious addiction issues are entitled to specialist/medical
advice on managing withdrawal,
provided through the health system. However,
within residences “no smoking” is enforced and nicotine patches (and
so
on) are not offered because of the cost and potential for
abuse.
- See
also paragraphs 464470 and 485 of this report for information on foster care and
paragraphs 877879 for information about the Youth
Services
Strategy.
Youth justice facilities
- The
Children, Young Persons and Their Families (Residential Care) Regulations 1996
govern the administration and management of youth
justice facilities. The
government intends to put the key principles of these regulations into
legislation and to strengthen regard
to children’s rights (see paragraphs
380385).
- Child,
Youth and Family is also developing a set of practice standards for juvenile
custodial facilities, with reference to those
developed in Australia in 1998.
The standards will aim to ensure high quality custodial care is provided in the
best interests of
the young person and their family. An emphasis on
children’s rights is to be assured by reference to the Children, Young
Persons
and Their Families Act, to the relevant articles in the Convention (in
particular those relating to juvenile justice), and to the
United Nations
Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Their Liberty.
- Training
for practitioners also includes components on the principles of the Children,
Young Persons and Their Families Act, which
uphold the rights of children and
young people and the promotion of their welfare.
- A
concern (also raised in submissions) is that a lack of residential care places
means young people are still being held in police
cells and on remand for three
to six months at Mt Eden Prison, Auckland because there is nowhere else for
them to go. The residential
advisor in Child, Youth and Family receives a daily
report from each residence about all known instances where a young person is
kept in police custody. All cases are actively managed to ensure that an
alternative placement is identified wherever possible.
This advisor regularly
reports to the Principal Youth Court Judge and a working party has been set up
to manage long remands in
an effort to free up residential
beds.
- The
Long Remand Working Party monitors the use of police cells for young people,
and by addressing any practice issues, aims to decrease
use. This work led
to the development of the Residential Services Strategy (see paragraphs 893900),
which has generated greater
availability of beds in appropriate facilities for
young people. Police cell usage is also monitored at the local level by a
senior
social worker and Police, and by courts who determine remand
periods.
Review of young people in prisons
- The
interim results of a prison inmate census conducted by the Department of
Corrections in 1999, revealed:
- 9 percent
of all male sentenced inmates are under 20 years
- 15 percent
of all female sentenced inmates are under 20 years
- for inmates
under 20 years, 11 percent are Maori and Pacific Island peoples approaching
almost double the representation for Europeans
(6 percent)
- in total, over
half the inmates were first imprisoned as teenagers. Sixtyfive percent of
male sentenced inmates received their first
custodial sentence before they
turned 20 years. Fortysix percent of female inmates received their
custodial sentence before they
were 20 years.
- The
policy of agemixing in prisons has been reviewed during the reporting period and
the Government has agreed that in future, vulnerable
male prison inmates under
the age of 20 years will be separated from their more aggressive peers
and from adult inmates. New prison
facilities for male youths are being
established in several regions throughout New Zealand. Currently there are
two specialist youth
units operating at the Hawkes Bay and Waikeria Prisons.
Building programmes are continuing and the Department of Corrections plans
to
increase the number of beds in specialist youth units to a total of 142 by March
2001.
- Inmates
under 14 years sentenced to imprisonment will be transferred to a Child, Youth
and Family residence. Those under 17 years
who are assessed as being
particularly vulnerable and who may benefit from the programmes available
through the Child, Youth and
Family residence will also be transferred. All
other male inmates under 17 years will be contained in specialist youth units.
Those
17 to 19 year old males assessed as vulnerable will also be assigned to a
youth unit.
- The
youth units will be purpose built to meet the needs of young inmates. They will
include tailored recreational facilities, rooms
for education and counselling,
rehabilitative programmes and vocational training. Including families and
developing an environment
and programmes to address the specific needs of young
Mäori inmates and their families were identified as particularly important
to the successful rehabilitation of these young offenders.
- All
female inmates aged between 14 and 19 years will be managed in existing
women’s prisons, or in some cases Child, Youth and
Family residences.
This is because, as part of the review noted above, the Department of
Corrections identified that most overseas
jurisdictions either allow or actively
support the agemixing of female offenders. Additionally, the low number of
young women in
prison means that even if it were desirable, it would not be
feasible to establish more than one youth unit for the vulnerable amongst
this
group, estimated to be no more than 12 at any one time. This would lead to
locating many young female inmates further away
from their families and children
than at present.
- For
these reasons further work and research is currently being undertaken to
determine whether changes are needed in managing female
inmates under 20 years
to ensure their needs are adequately met and that there are no implications for
compliance with the Human
Rights Act 1993. In the meantime, female youth,
like males, will be provided with activities, schooling and programmes to
address
the causes of their offending.
- There
are issues raised by the developments relating to the reservation on age mixing
in prisons. In particular, the new youth units
will take time to be established
and the issue remains of managing young inmates in the interim. A positive
outcome is that the
new policy provides opportunities to closely scrutinise and
evaluate outcomes for young offenders.
- The
Residential Services Strategy and Youth Services Strategy both aim to provide
more appropriate facilities for children and young
people under 18 years. The
Youth Services Strategy particularly, with the development of specialist family
homes, is geared to support
better alternatives to prison for young
women.
3. The sentencing of juveniles, including the prohibition of
capital punishment and life imprisonment (article 37 (a))
- In
1998/99 a review of youth court jurisdiction and sentencing looked at the
effectiveness of existing sentencing options for young
people who offend this
work continues.
- In
1999/2000 the Ministry of Youth Affairs conducted a literature review of the
research into “what works” in responding
to young offenders. Two
publications resulted from the review, Tough is Not Enough Getting Smart
about Youth Crime (Annex 70) and Rapua Te Huarahi Tika Searching for
Solutions (Annex 71). The review found:
- there is hope
offending by young people can be reduced
- the worst cases
need the most attention
- effective
interventions with young people address the known causes of
offending
- target multiple
causes of offending using multiple techniques
- effective
interventions teach new skills in active ways
- good outcomes
need good people
- effective
interventions touch the four corners of a young person’s life family,
school/work, peer group and neighbourhood
- good processing
seems to make good outcomes more likely
- residential
interventions have to work harder to succeed
- This
information will be used by government agencies to help improve the
effectiveness of responses to young people who offend.
4. Physical and psychological recovery and social
reintegration
of the child (article 39)
- As
noted above, Child, Youth and Family’s Youth Services Strategy sets some
long term strategic outcomes to reduce serious and
persistent reoffending and
improve rehabilitation outcomes for high risk youth (see paragraphs
877879).
C. Children in situations of exploitation, abuse and neglect
including physical
and psychological recovery and social reintegration
(articles 3236)
1. Economic exploitation of children, including child labour
(article 32)
Information about children who work
- Submissions
raised several concerns about young people and work. It was felt that if the
protections in the law were actually going
to be effective, young people needed
to know more about their rights in employment. There also needs to be better
enforcement of
those rights.
- Concerns
were raised about the hours some young people, still at school, work and there
was a call for a decent minimum wage so that
they do not have to work such long
hours. In some cases children’s contribution may be vital to the economic
wellbeing of the
family. Poverty alleviation was seen as one way to improve
this situation. Several respondents said the problem was the amount
of time
worked, rather than the type of job, or at what age children worked. There were
those, however, who felt New Zealand should
have a minimum age for
admission to the workforce to prevent exploitation of children (who are not
covered by the minimum wage) as
well as other safeguards to prevent their
exploitation.
- There
does not appear to be any reliable sources of data on employment rates for
children under 15 years in New Zealand. Statistics
New Zealand does
not collect data on the employment of children under 15 years. However, in
1999, a New Zealand Council of Trade
Unions’ survey found that of 659
school students aged 12 to 19,507 (76.3 percent) had at least one job in
term time or school
holidays. This included students who had worked for very
short periods.
- Work
is planned to gather more information on employment issues for people
under 16 years. As part of a review of the minimum wage
officials are
looking into:
- options for
improving information on young people’s participation in the labour market
and the interface with participation
in education and training
- options for
improving information on the working patterns of individuals under the age of 16
with a view to undertaking further work
to protect individuals under the age of
16 in the labour market.
- Currently
the Employment Relations Service (ERS) of the Department of Labour collects
general statistics, relating to collective bargaining
including specified
minimum youth wages (92 percent of contracts lodged with ERS have specified
youth rates). This data, however,
does not relate to the specified areas of the
under 16 years age group. ERS also collects data regarding infringements of
youth
minimum wages. ERS is unable to collate specific data on collective
bargaining and youth as the specific details such as gender,
ethnicity or age of
employees are not detailed on the collective agreements forwarded to
ERS.
New Zealand’s reservation on child
labour
- New Zealand
has a reservation in relation to article 32 of the Convention (see
paragraphs 2324). The government has considered that
the rights of the
child provided for in article 32(1) were adequately protected under existing
New Zealand law and therefore reserves
the right not to enact or take
additional measures such as those listed in article 32(2).
- However,
New Zealand has continued to seek ways to enhance the working conditions of
young people. The minimum wage for youth (1619
years) was raised to $4.55 from
March 2000. This rise maintains the current level of relativity between
the youth minimum wage and
the adult minimum wage (60 percent), as the
adult minimum wage rose to $7.55. There is no current minimum wage rate for
people aged
below 16. A review of the youth minimum wage is currently being
undertaken.
Employment Relations Act 2000
- The
Employment Contracts Act 1991 ensured all employees’ access to the
Employment Tribunal and Employment Court, including young
people. Proceedings
could be taken in either the Tribunal or the Court to enforce an employment
contract. The Employment Court
also has power to alter or set aside any
contract that contains harsh or oppressive conditions or that was obtained in a
harsh and
oppressive manner.
- The
Employment Relations Act 2000 was enacted on 19 August 2000 and repealed the
Employment Contracts Act. The Employment Relations
Act (due to come into force
on 1 October 2000) addresses the rights of young people within broader
policies designed to provide satisfactory
employment outcomes. The Act is based
on the principle of good faith to encourage fair dealing, mutual trust and
confidence. It
promotes collective bargaining and the collective organisation
of employees in unions, while recognising the importance of freedom
of
association. It also promotes mediation as the primary problem solving
mechanism.
Information for children and young people
- In
light of the recent enactment of the Employment Relations Act 2000, the
Employment Relations Service is reevaluating how information
on employment
legislation is provided and monitored. This includes delivering information to
groups including young people, Maori,
Pacific peoples, refugees and migrant
workers. This information strategy will also look at enhancing monitoring of
employment outcomes
and experiences for groups such as young people. It will
also look at increasing proactive delivery of information to groups such
as
young people, Maori and Pacific peoples. This delivery will have a twopronged
focus on both effectively producing information
and delivering this information
in forms that best address particular issues for target groups such as youth
employment rights.
The initiatives will also identify aspects of the Employment
Relations Act 2000 that impact on young people and include these within
the
ongoing monitoring strategy.
- As
young people traditionally form a smaller proportion of participants in the
labour market, it is difficult to gauge young people’s
awareness of
statutory rights and disputes resolution and grievance machinery. The
reevaluation of the Employment Relations Service’s
information strategy is
designed to ensure views of particular groups such as young people, Maori and
Pacific peoples are recognised.
The data collated by client satisfaction
surveys and from the survey of employment disputes and grievances provides ERS
with information
over whether services, including information provision, need to
be targeted more specifically at groups within the labour
market.
- The
new Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum (Annex 72),
provides a number of opportunities to introduce information on young
peoples’ rights in employment. It aims to
enable students to develop
knowledge and understandings about human society as they study:
- people’s
organisation in groups and the rights, roles, and responsibilities of people as
they interact within groups (social
organisation)
- the contribution
of culture and heritage to identity and the nature and consequences of cultural
interaction (culture and heritage)
- people’s
interaction with places and the environment and the ways in which people
represent and interpret place and environment
(place and
environment)
- relationships
between people and events, through time, and interpretations of these
relationships (time, continuity and change)
- people’s
allocation and management of resources and people’s participation in
economic activities (resources and economic
activities).
- Interestingly
the social organisation strand of the curriculum provides the best opportunities
to introduce information about rights
and employment. The two best are
Years 34, Level 2, how participation within groups involves both
responsibilities and rights and Years 78, Level 4, how and why
people exercise their rights and meet their responsibilities. The resources
and economic activities strand, Years 910, Level 5, the changing nature of
work and the consequences of this for individuals and for society, also
provides an opportunity to introduce that information.
Health and Safety in Employment
- The
Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (HSE Act) continues to require
employers to ensure the safety of employees in the workplace
(see paragraphs
372373 of the Initial Report).
- New Zealand’s
annual accident claim statistics include a list of accidents for which claims
have been made for children under
15 years that were working at the time of the
accident. For the period 1 July 1997 until 30 June 1998, of the 34,721 total
claims
for workers of all ages received by the Accident Compensation
Corporation. Fifteen were accidents reported for children under 15
years, the
majority of which were to persons apparently engaged in the delivery of
newspapers or goods. The youngest person reported
was 12 years
old.
- The
Initial Report stated that regulations were being drafted to reintroduce
and extend provisions relating to minimum ages for certain types of work
and
working conditions. Previous provisions had gone into abeyance when the HSE Act
came into effect on 1 April 1993. The Health
and Safety in Employment
Regulations actually came into effect on 2 October 1995, after the Initial
Report was written, but before it was submitted. The aim of the new
regulations is to ensure that young people do not work in dangerous
places or do
dangerous work, and are not otherwise present in places where dangerous work
takes place. The regulations therefore
prohibit:
- employment of
persons under 15 years of age in manufacturing, forestry, construction, or in
any other area where the work taking place
is likely to harm their health and
safety
- the presence of
people under 15 years of age in any area in a place of work where manufacturing
work, forestry work, construction
work, or other work which is likely to harm
their health and safety is taking place, unless they are under the direct
supervision
of an adult
- persons under 15
years of age being employed to work with machinery or to drive or ride on any
heavy vehicle, including tractors and
implements being towed by
vehicles
- persons under 15
years of age being required to lift any weight or perform any other task likely
to injure their health
- employment of
persons under 16 years of age between the hours of 10.00pm
and 6.00am.
- The
new regulations covering bullet points one, three, four and five above only
apply to employees. They do not apply to any young
people who may be engaged to
do work on contract. However, the regulation covering bullet point two applies
to all young people,
whether they are working in or simply visiting a
workplace.
- There
are approximately 280 staff in the Department of Labour’s Occupational
Safety and Health Service, including 130 health
and safety inspectors. There is
currently 30 staff in the Employment Relations Service’s Labour
Inspectorate. There are no
compliance programmes or practices specific to the
regulations, but the health and safety inspectors look for compliance with the
regulations as part of their regular law enforcement role when visiting places
of work. Implementation of the regulations has not
required any specific
training in the rights of the child.
- Any
person who breaches the Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995 by
taking an action, or failing to take an action (knowing
it is reasonably likely
to cause serious harm), is liable to imprisonment for a term of no more than one
year, or a fine of not more
than $100,000, or both. Any other breach of
the Act will result in liability to a fine of up to $50,000, where it
causes any person
serious harm, and $25,000 in any other case.
- The
Occupational Safety and Health Service has consulted with a number of government
agencies and Industry Training Organisations
to identify:
- accident and
injury statistics for young workers internationally and initiatives by overseas
occupational health and safety jurisdictions
to address any
issues
- accident and
injury statistics for young workers in New Zealand
- what training
and information is currently available to young and new workers
- what strategies
are most appropriate to inform young and new workers about health and safety in
the workplace and of their rights
and responsibilities under the HSE
Act
- what further
work is required to highlight risk factors for youth and identify what
government can do to reduce the risk of occupational
injury and disease to young
people.
- A
report to the Government on the results of this preliminary research is due
shortly.
- The
Occupational Safety and Health Services’ website for youth was launched in
October 1998. It includes basic occupational
safety and health information
aimed at young people including their rights and responsibilities under the HSE
Act and also what to
do if they get hurt at work. The website has proved to be
popular with over 40,000 visitors to the site in the first month following
its
launch and just under 950,000 visitors between April 99 and April 2000. A
student’s guide to the HSE Act, which is aimed
at students working
parttime or who are beginning to think about their career, is also available on
website.
Employment Relations Service (ERS)
- The
ERS addresses youth participation in the workforce with a broader objective to
ensure the promotion, facilitation and enforcement
of the statutory rights and
obligations of employers and employees, which underpin the industrial relations
policy framework. A
continuing priority in regard to youth employment is the
continued effective operation of the dispute resolution and grievance machinery.
- ERS
has monitored the operation of specific legislation such as the Employment
Contracts Act 1991, which has provided data on the
employment experiences of
young people. A survey on employer and employee experiences of disputes and
grievances is being completed.
This data will consider age and ethnicity
variables. The Labour Inspectorate is responsible for enforcing laws that
relate to entitlements
for youth employees, including annual leave, sick
leave, public holidays and minimum pay. The Inspectorate runs a free
information service Employment Relations InfoLine, which includes
both a
freephone service and website which provides confidential information on
employment relations issues, including those pertinent
to young people.
- The
Labour Inspectorate monitors responses to its services through a client
satisfaction survey, which is sent out to all clients.
This survey collects
data from young people, however, specific data is not analysed on the under
16 years age group separately.
Of the 1,725 applications made to the
Labour Inspectorate in 1999, 80 employees aged under 20 years made
applications, 53 of these
were made by New Zealand European, 14 by
New Zealanders and seven by Maori.
- These
results are due to the low proportional use of the Labour Inspectorate services
by young people, influenced by the lack of awareness
among young people in
regard to their rights and how breaches can be addressed. The information
strategy (see paragraph 927) will
address this issue.
Ratification of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of
Child Labour
- The
Government intends to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour before
the end of the year
2000, subject to the completion of domestic constitutional processes.
Drug abuse (article 33)
- New Zealand
continues to focus on early intervention and prevention programmes in relation
to drug abuse. An InterAgency Committee
on Drugs (IACD) was established to
promote strategies under the following approaches:
- Supply
Control: limiting the availability of drugs through regulation and law
enforcement. For example Police investigation and prosecution of
drug offences,
intercepting import and export of illicit drugs at our borders by
Customs.
- Demand
Reduction: reducing peoples’ desire to use drugs through education and
primary prevention. For example drug education development programmes
to assist
schools to purchase drug education consistent with effective health promotion
programmes and linking schools, families
and communities. Developing safety
guidelines for dancepartygoers.
- Problem
Limitation: reducing the negative consequences of drug abuse through
treatment or social programmes. For example, needle syringe exchange
programmes,
methadone maintenance, prison drug treatment units.
- The
IACD’s work is based on a harm minimisation approach, focusing on reducing
the health, social and economic harms from drug
use.
- The
IACD secretariat based in the Ministry of Health, coordinates work by a wide
range of law enforcement and social policy government
agencies. Each agency
works in its own area of responsibility. Examples of initiatives the Ministry of
Health is involved in that
are likely to impact on children and youth
include:
- supporting (with
the Alcohol Advisory Council and other IACD agencies) the establishment of a
youth health promotion website which
contains drug and alcohol information (see
below)
- amendments to
the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, to allow more rapid control (scheduling) of newly
emerging and existing dangerous drugs
- amendments to
the Smokefree Environments Act 1990 to strengthen controls on smoking in
schools, workplaces and hospitality venues
- monitoring
outcomes to the change in the minimum drinking age under the Sale of Liquor Act
1989
- collaborating
with the Health Funding Authority on developing its workplan for specialist
mental health services (including alcohol
and drug services for children and
young people)
- advising the
Government during the proposed review of the legal status of cannabis (once the
review commences).
- Submissions
from young people called for measures to encourage a healthier attitude to
alcohol. They also wanted drug education that
was nonjudgmental and takes a
harmreduction rather than abstention approach. In 1999, the IACD initiated the
development of a website
as one way to meet the requirements of the National
Drug Policy (Annex 73), which states that “personal decision making and
other life skills need to be developed and fostered, so that young people feel
able to make health decisions about drug use”.
The Alcohol Advisory
Council set up an interim steering group of Health, Alcohol Advisory Council,
Youth Affairs and Education (funding
partners), and an advisory group. The
funding partners from their 1999/2000 budgets provided an initial $58,000 which
is being used
to set up a pilot site. The project is also strongly supported by
the InterAgency Committee on Youth Suicide Prevention. Information
and advice
have been sought from Reachout, a similar youth website in Australia set up as
part of a youth suicide intervention strategy,
focusing on suicide
prevention.
- It
is envisaged that the website will cover sexual, mental and physical health
needs, as a onestopshop to support youth. The advisory
group, made up of
organisations actively working in the youth health field has met and formed the
objectives and mission statement
for the site which are to:
- enhance the
health and wellbeing of young Maori, Pacific, European and other
New Zealanders aged 15 to 18 years by increasing their
access to resources,
and helping them help themselves to make healthy choices
- set up and
sustain an innovative website, developed with the active participation of young
people, which is fun, builds communities
both online and offline, which reflects
the needs of all young New Zealanders
- establish a
website that works in terms of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, and
cooperates with other web initiatives and
youthrelated government and
nongovernment strategies and activities.
- Work
with a youth advisory/working group and web designers has been completed and the
pilot is up and running. The site will be located
at www.urge.org.nz.
Community programmes
- A
variety of drug education programmes are delivered by NGOs to young people
through schools and in the community. Some programme
providers contract with
the Ministry of Education to deliver programmes to communities that have been
identified at high risk of
poor social outcomes. Programmes should meet the
national standards of the Ministry of Education curriculum framework for
schools.
- The
key area of learning in the curriculum requires that students be provided with
the opportunities to develop the knowledge, understandings
and skills to make
informed healthenhancing decisions in relation to drug use and misuse. It is to
become mandatory in 2001.
Drug education
- In
accordance with the harm minimisation framework of the National Drug Policy, a
number of government agencies have developed nonjudgmental
drug education
materials for young people. For example, in 1999 the Ministry of Health
produced guidelines on organising dance parties,
which outlined a series of
measures to mitigate environmental hazards at these events. A complementary
health promotion resource
provided information about alcohol and other
drugrelated harm.
- In
relation to school drug education, new guidelines for principals and boards of
trustees (Annex 74) were developed by the Ministry
of Education in 1999, which
encourage schools to support curriculumbased programmes that take an explicit
harm minimisation approach.
Such programmes typically aim to minimise drug
related harm by enhancing students’ abilities to identify and deal with
highrisk
drinking and/or drugtaking situations that they are likely to
encounter.
- GAIN
Family/Whakaruruhau provides young people and their parents with an opportunity
to improve their knowledge and skills as a family
on a fiveweek programme (see
paragraph 400).
- The
Police have been particularly active in developing and promoting education
programmes specifically aimed at children and young
people. The Police Youth
Education Service (YES) has operated for 10 years. This service aims to provide
better protection for
children and young persons, to prevent them from becoming
perpetrators or victims of road crashes, crime and antisocial behaviour.
- YES
is a national strategy designed to meet the national standards of the Ministry
of Education’s curriculum framework for schools.
It involves children,
young people, and the significant adults with whom they interact, in acquiring
knowledge and developing an
understanding of the law’s role and
enforcement in society. Young people are encouraged to make choices and
decisions about
safe behaviour that reflect their understanding of the
law’s role and its application in society and demonstrating by action
and
participation that they are able to act safely, help others act safely and take
a responsible role in society.
- YES
teaching programmes are organised around four strategic themes:
- Crime prevention
and social responsibility (for example, stealing, vandalism, keeping law and
order, search and rescue, and the role
of the Police).
- Drug abuse
resistance education (for example, DARE to Make a Choice/Tena Kowhiria, DARE to
Drive to Survive, DARE to Make Change,
DARE to Support Your
Kids).
- School road
safety education (for example, Road Safe series, school patrols, bus wardens,
cycle helmets, DARE to Drive to Survive).
(See paragraphs 281283
and 645648.)
- Violence
prevention (for example, Keeping Ourselves Safe (sexual abuse prevention), Kia
Kaha (bullying kit), and Safely Home).
- YES
programmes have been rigorously evaluated over the last decade. The results
have been consistently positive and there is a substantial
degree of
international interest in the New Zealand programmes. Police and education
officers are informed about the Convention,
although the Convention is not
directly referred to in any of the programmes.
- The
Ministry of Education distributed a three year Drug Education Development
Programme (DEDP) funding which concluded on 30 June
2000. A selection panel
considered the proposals for further drug education funding of $950,000. These
were required to reflect
the approaches advocated in Health and Physical
Education in the New Zealand Curriculum (Annex 57) and Drug
Education: A Guide for Principals and Boards of Trustees (Annex
74).
- Any
new funding that becomes available is likely to be sought by:
- providers who
previously received funding from the DEDP
- those whose
proposals were unsuccessful in the recent round for which $950,000 was
available
- providers who
previously accessed funds through the pool administered by the Lotteries Grants
Board which is now no longer disbursing
funding for drug education
initiatives
- groups who
develop new initiatives.
- Funding
for drug education is also available from other sources such as the Alcohol
Advisory Council or from corporate sponsorship
and trusts.
- Many
schools have welcomed the distribution of the resource Drug Education: A
Guide for Principals and Boards of Trustees. Most have recognised that the
harm minimisation approach is realistic for young people in New Zealand
society although there has
been strong opposition from some who believe that the
harm minimisation approach is not appropriate in relation to the use of
cannabis.
The guidelines provide assistance in how to manage drugrelated issues
in schools.
- Services
for alcohol and drug treatment are funded through the Health Funding
Authority.
Tobacco products
- A
Smokefree Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill is being considered
to amend the Smokefree Environments Act 1990 to:
- extend the ban
on smoking in workplaces to include all workplaces where two or more people work
in a common airspace (not just some
office areas as at present)
- ban smoking in
educational institutions 24 hours a day, seven days a week (except tertiary
institutions)
- ban the display
of tobacco products at any checkout or other pointofsale
- allow a judge,
on sentencing a person for repeat offences within a two year period of selling a
tobacco product to a person under
the age of 18 years, discretion to issue an
order prohibiting that person from selling tobacco products or imposing
conditions or
restrictions on such sales.
- The
national freephone Quitline is available to young people. The Quitline offers
support and advice to smokers wishing to quit.
In addition, the Health Funding
Authority provides funding for schoolbased education concerning tobacco use. A
resource Break Free has recently been developed to help teens quit
smoking. The resource, published by the Quit Group and the Health Funding
Authority,
includes discussion on how to quit, what it feels like to quit,
dealing with friends and family who smoke, and what to do if you
slip up.
Break Free encourages young people to call the Quitline for support and
further information. There have been few studies done around the effectiveness
of nicotine replacement therapy in people under 18 years.
- Data
is collected on the prevalence of smoking for those aged 15 and above. This
data can be broken down on the basis of age, gender
and ethnicity, with varying
levels of reliability depending on the specificity of data required. The
Ministry of Health releases
annual Tobacco Fact Sheets.
3. Sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (article 34)
- Submissions
identified that there are small pockets of child prostitution in parts of
New Zealand. The area of underage prostitution
is coming increasingly into
focus. Child, Youth and Family are involved in cases when they come to light
and are currently working
on the best available ways to deal with them. Key
issues include substance abuse, accommodation issues and training/education, as
well as histories of abuse. In order to clear the way for ratification
of ILO Convention 182 (see paragraph 944), the Government
is moving to
amend the Crimes Act 1961 to criminalise the use by a client of a prostitute
under the age of 18.
- Police
and Child, Youth and Family will develop implementation approaches to the new
legislation.
- The
extent of the commercial sexual exploitation of children is unknown in
New Zealand, however, the general approach is to address
this type of abuse
in the same way as other forms of child abuse. While there are no specific
regulations or policies on commercial
sexual exploitation of children, Child,
Youth and Family, the Police and other law enforcement agencies are required to
take legal
responsibility for the care and protection and the offending
behaviour of children and young people.
- Child,
Youth and Family’s work with other agencies has resulted in a number of
coordinated service initiatives to improve outcomes
for at risk families,
children and young people. This includes, the Interagency Protocols for
Child Abuse Management (see paragraph 530), and sexual abuse team
protocols with the Police. The incidence of commercial sexual exploitation of
children
in New Zealand does not feature as a large category in Child,
Youth and Family’s abuse cases. However, it seems to be a growing
problem
as a consequence of the growth of the sex industry in large centres, and greater
opportunities for distribution of pornography
arising from new technology.
World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children:
Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action
- In
1996 New Zealand adopted the Agenda for Action at the 1996 World Congress
against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
As part of this
agreement New Zealand undertook to develop a Plan of Action identifying
areas of law and policy that may be strengthened
to comply with the
Agenda.
- The
Ministry of Justice is leading the preparation of New Zealand’s Plan
of Action. A report, outlining current policy and
practices in New Zealand
relating to commercial sexual exploitation of children has been prepared. This
report is being used to
inform discussions with agencies about where
New Zealand should focus its attention.
- New Zealand
also worked with other AsiaPacific States to assist development of their own
capacity to address the problem of sexual
exploitation of children. For
example, the government organised a visit by Thai officials in 1997 to study our
child evidence laws
and procedures.
- In
the year 2000, the Government is likely to introduce legislation that will make
existing sexual offences in the Crimes Act 1961
(involving people under the age
of 16 years) gender neutral.
Risk Estimation System
- As
mentioned in paragraphs 539543 of this report, a Risk Estimation System (RES)
has been developed. An independent evaluation of
the impact of RES on statutory
child protection practice and client outcomes commenced in July 1999. One
objective of the evaluation
is to examine the cultural implementation of RES
with regard to whänau, hapü and iwi and Pacific families and
communities.
The evaluation will be completed by December
2000.
4. Sale, trafficking and abduction (article 35)
- There
have not been any convictions under legislation allowing New Zealanders to
be tried for sexual abuse of a child in another country
despite the law being
passed in 1995.
- New Zealand
signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Sale on Children, Child
Prostitution and Child Pornography at the
Millennium Summit and is working
towards ratification. New Zealand also welcomes the conclusion of
negotiations on the trafficking
protocol to the Transnational Organised Crime
Convention.
5. Other forms of exploitation (article 36)
- Submissions
raised an issue of exploitation of children in the media with the example of a
young boy who had a DNA test to confirm
who his birth father was, and the
results being delivered live on television. There was a big outcry about this
in the media and
the show was later axed. Also, interviewing children after a
tragedy was seen as exploitation, and it was suggested that the publicity
surrounding a young boy’s removal from conventional cancer treatment
should also be seen as exploitation. There is a move
towards setting guidelines
to protect children’s rights and freedoms as a result of complaints to the
Broadcasting Standards
Authority.
- Child,
Youth and Family is advising the Broadcasting Standards Authority on redrafting
the Broadcasting Code of Practice for freetoair
television, especially in
relation to subclauses on the protection of children. This has arisen from the
Department’s issues
with the Authority on the exploitation of children for
news items. Child, Youth and Family, with others, continue to monitor and
raise
issues with appropriate authorities when the vulnerability of children is
exploited in the media.
- An
Internet Safety Kit has been developed for use in schools, but other submissions
felt more material is needed to educate children
and parents about computers and
keeping safe on the internet.
- An
Internet Safety Group comprises representatives from Child, Youth and Family,
Police, Department of Internal Affairs, Auckland
Rape Crisis, the Internet
Company of New Zealand, the Peace Foundation, Department for Courts, SAFE
Network (who provide programmes
for sexual abusers), ECPAT and a number of
Auckland schools. This group worked together to develop a resource pack for the
year
2000 on “Internet Safety.” The pack is designed for parents,
teachers and children to act safely and be aware of potential
abuse situations.
Children, Youth and Family as well as the Ministry of Education have sponsored
the resource pack.
D. Children belonging to a minority or an indigenous group
(article 30)
- Information
on Maori and Pacific children is presented throughout this
report.
Treaty of Waitangi
- As
noted in the introduction to this report, the Government acknowledges the Treaty
of Waitangi as being fundamental to its relationship
with Maori
communities.
- Since
the change of Government in November 1999, key goals have been set to guide
public sector policy and performance. These goals
are intended to provide a
clear frame of reference to the public sector so that they understand and
advance the Government’s
overall direction. These goals include
strengthening national identity and upholding the principles of the Treaty of
Waitangi.
- The
previous Government used Strategic Result Areas (SRAs) to set strategic
priorities for the public sector. SRA 8 related to the
Treaty of Waitangi, and
required government agencies to make significant progress towards negotiating
and implementing fair and affordable
settlements to wellfounded grievances
arising under the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Reducing inequalities
- Improving
opportunities and reducing inequality has been signalled as a key priority for
the Government.
- Background
information on the status of Maori may be found in the Core Document and in
New Zealand’s periodic reports on the
implementation of other major
human rights instruments, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Racial Discrimination.
- The
Government has continued to commit resources to the promotion of a bicultural
approach in the work of its agencies.
- In
1998, Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Maori Development presented an Initial
Report to the Minister of Maori Affairs, Progress Towards Closing Social
and Economic Gaps Between Maori and NonMaori. This report notes a large
number of areas where there are disparities, including between Maori and
nonMaori children and young
people, some of which have been canvassed in this
report. In 2000 an updated report was presented to the Minister of Maori
Affairs
(see Annex 6).
- The
priority areas are health, education, employment and housing. Other areas
include sport and recreation, and benefit payments.
Whanau, hapu and iwi will
have more opportunity to control their own development and achieve their own
objectives and solutions.
Capacity building programmes will provide an
opportunity for communities to identify their capabilities, their resources and
opportunities
and to develop strategies to achieve their goals.
- A
number of potential initiatives are before Government, which are intended to
improve the employment status of job seekers. This
in turn will reduce poverty
levels. The key focus will be on responding to issues on a regional basis,
allowing departments to design
responses that are specific to the needs and
situations of different communities. However, at this point the specific
initiatives
that are intended to enable improvements in Maori and Pacific
peoples’ employment status have yet to be approved by the
Government.
Development of iwi social services
- The
Iwi Social Services Strategy has been in place since 1992 and is designed to
approve and resource iwi social services to care
for and protect their own
children and young people. The intent of this strategy is to improve the life
outcomes of Maori children
and young people who have come to the attention of
Child, Youth and Family. As at December 1999, 17 iwi social services have been
approved and received funding for development and establishment purposes. Seven
of those iwi social services hold contracts with
Child, Youth and Family to
provide services. These include:
- community social
worker liaison visits
- reports to
family group conferences
- facilitation of
Family Group Conferences
- managing Family
Group Conference plans and court orders.
- A
particular focus in the social services area has been the Crown’s response
to a report of the Waitangi Tribunal on a claim
made by the Te Whanau O
Waipareira Trust. In June 1998 the Waitangi Tribunal reported on the claim that
the Department of Social
Welfare had breached the Treaty and other requirements
by failing to recognise and support Waipareira as the appropriate social service
provider for its community. The Tribunal’s specific recommendations were
that the Department:
- deal with any
Maori community which has demonstrated its capacity to exercise rangatiratanga
in welfare matters and not just kinbased
groups
- amend section
396 of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 by substituting
the term “Maori Social Service”
for the term “Iwi Social
Service”
- negotiate with
Waipareira to devolve sufficient authority and resources so it can undertake a
coordinated and holistic approach to
community development within
whänau.
- Key
messages for Crown agencies from the report included the need
to:
- develop
relationships with Maori communities that are based on the Treaty principles of
utmost good faith, mutual cooperation and
trust
- work with Maori
communities in a way that empowers them to develop in their own
way
- resolve the
‘piecemeal’ approach to social policy and Maori
policy.
- In
response to the Tribunal ruling, the Government proposed to amend the Children,
Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 to increase
access to culturally
appropriate social services and increased choice for children, young people and
their families. The amendments
will require the Government to recognise nonkin
based Maori social service agencies, where they demonstrate they are exercising
rangatiratanga.
The proposed law will also allow the court to vest sole
guardianship of a child in a wider range of agencies, including nonkin based
Maori social services, iwi social services and cultural social services. The
impact of the proposed legislation on children and
young people was assessed
during the policy development phase.
- In
addition to legislative responses to the Tribunal’s decision, the
Government is seeking to enhance measures for Maori children
and young people in
a number of ways:
- striving to
achieve better coordination between Crown agencies involved in delivering social
services (particularly health, education
and welfare)
- commiting to
give Mäori communities more control over social services.
Courts and the Justice system
- The
Department for Courts is currently developing a Service Charter, which includes
a service standard requiring staff to demonstrate
respect and sensitivity toward
the client’s culture. Implementation of the Charter is expected by
December 2000.
- There
are various legislative provisions in the Children Young Persons and Their
Families Act 1989 that allow the court to access
specific information on a child
or young person’s cultural context. In any proceedings the judge can
appoint a lay advocate
to:
- ensure that the
court is made aware of all cultural matters that are relevant to the
proceedings
- represent the
interests of the child’s or young person’s whanau, hapu, and iwi (or
their equivalents (if any) in the culture
of the child or young person) to the
extent those interests are not otherwise represented in the
proceedings.
- The
Court can also order a cultural and community report to advise
on:
- the heritage and
the ethnic, cultural, or community ties and values of the child or young person
or the family group
- the availability
of any resources within the community that would be likely to assist the child,
young person, or family group.
- Specified
people in the Act can request such a report. The Department for Courts is
responsible for administering appointments and
payment for services under these
sections.
- Under
the Domestic Violence Act 1995, the Department for Courts purchases specific
programmes for Maori children.
New initiatives for Maori children and young
people
- In
addition to improving existing services for Maori children and young people, the
government has developed a number of new initiatives
for Maori. For example,
the Maori Community Initiative for Youth at Risk of Offending referred to
earlier in the report (see paragraph
889).
- These
Maori Youth at Risk Programmes received an extension of funding
to 30 June 2001 as part of Budget 2000. This maintained current
funding levels. The total amount of funding is $399,000. The current level of
funding is sufficient to meet part of the costs of
the
programmes.
Maori/Pacific health initiatives
- As
mentioned in paragraph 594 of this report there is an increasing emphasis on
health services being provided by Maori and Pacific
providers. Some of these
services are whanau/familybased, and others, such as WellChild services, are
child focused. Providers
responding to surveys carried out during the
development of the Child Health Strategy stressed the importance of providing
culturally
effective health services that are acceptable to the populations they
serve. Accompanying the development of culturally effective
services are
government funded, workforce development initiatives.
- Additionally,
the 2010 National Road Safety Strategy has a particular focus on Maori youth
death and suicide and injury rates on New
Zealand roads. Te Puni Kokiri
and the Land Transport Safety Authority have been working together to improve
the data collection
in an attempt to develop ways to reduce these
rates.
Police initiatives
- The
New Zealand Police have also taken steps to reduce Maori
offending/reoffending and Maori victimisation through a number of initiatives.
For example, the Police operate fourteen Youth at Risk of Offending programmes
(see paragraph 884). There are a total of 339 young
people on the
various programmes across the country, over 50 percent are Maori. The
Youth at Risk programmes are undergoing extensive
evaluation and have shown
a 78 percent reduction in offending on average across participants.
- The
Police Commissioner also operates a Maori Focus Forum that enables consultation
and partnership with Maori at the highest level
in the organisation. Similarly,
in police districts, most district managers work in partnership with a Maori
Focus Group who offer
consultation and partnership.
- A
Cultural Affairs Unit within the Office of the Police Commissioner is addressing
offending and victimisation issues for Maori.
The unit’s staff work
closely with a national network of Police Iwi Liaison Officers throughout the
country. District staff
create many of their own locally responsive initiatives
for reducing offending by young Maori.
Family violence initiatives
- Since
1997, a number of nongovernment agencies have been funded through Child, Youth
and Family to provide programmes to address the
abuse of Maori women and
children, and the needs of Maori youth at risk of offending. The aim has been
to mobilise Maori communities
by involving whanau, hapu and iwi in developing
solutions that are more appropriate for Maori. The programmes are showing
strong
evidence of high rates of effectiveness and success through a range of
approaches. All share common elements of social work and
kaupapa Maori, but
otherwise differ significantly, ranging from a remote outdoors residential
programme with followup care, to a
theatre, dance and waiata
programme.
- Programmes
designed by and for Maori are also mandated under the Domestic Violence Act
1995. The Domestic Violence (Programmes) Regulations
1996 provide that every
programme that is designed for Maori must take into account tikanga Maori,
including a specified list of
Maori concepts and cultural values. Programme
approval panels must have at least one member with knowledge and understanding
of
tikanga Maori.
Measures for Pacific children and young people
- The
closing of socioeconomic disparities is a key priority for the Government.
- The
July 1999 Pacific Vision Conference in Auckland identified seven key strategic
priorities to significantly:
- strengthen
Pacific families
- improve
educational achievement of Pacific peoples
- improve the
health status of Pacific peoples
- improve Pacific
peoples access to justice
- increase
economic development within Pacific communities
- improve
employment outcomes for Pacific peoples
- improve Pacific
peoples’ participation in decisionmaking processes.
- As
a result of the conference, the Pacific Directions Report (Annex 75) suggested a
pathway for the government towards significantly
improving the standard of
living of Pacific peoples in New Zealand.
- Pacific
children have poorer health outcomes than other New Zealand children. A
range of measures has been adopted to benefit Pacific
children to reduce this
disparity. The Government has set aside $2 million for Pacific provider
development schemes to improve the
ability of providers to deliver services for
Pacific peoples, including children. Evaluation of new health care initiatives
is a
requirement of most contracts to deliver services. Pacific sexual health
programmes using peer educators in schools have also been
established in some
centres.
Views of Pacific young people seminars
- During
1999 the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs in collaboration with the Department
for Courts, Ministry of Justice and Child,
Youth and Family, ran two Pacific
Youth Justice Seminars. One was held in South Auckland, and the other in
Porirua areas where
a high density of Pacific peoples live. At both seminars
the views of Pacific young people were sought about the effectiveness of
the
youth justice system and the issues that they faced.
- These
sessions involved a panel of three young men who had been through the Youth
Justice system. Some common issues arose out of
the panel discussion and are
set out below.
Effectiveness of the Family Group Conference
(FGC)
- The
FGC process could not be completely effective, if at all, unless those present
were respected and liked by the young offender.
Family break up may be a reason
why the young person is unable to trust the group and is reluctant to cooperate
because their own
experience of what a family is able to
provide.
Communication gaps
- Communication
gaps between New Zealandborn Pacific youth and their islandborn parents and
the need to support and assist Pacific parents.
- All
participants acknowledged the struggles that their parents experienced at the
time and noted the need for some type of service
or support to better assist
Pacific parents to adjust their parenting skills to meet the needs of their
New Zealandborn youth. All
participants experienced a communication gap
between themselves and their parents. This gap wasn’t necessary
deliberate but
more one resulting from:
- a lack of
understanding due to language barriers
- unmet and
differing expectations
- strict
imposition of cultural values and practices.
- Participants
noted that they were from good homes and acknowledged the good intentions of
their parents. In hindsight they said that
their parents were doing what they
thought was best. However, due to lack of understanding of western systems and
ideals as well
as the new environment and external influences that were
affecting their children, they were unable to respond in ways other than
what
they were used to in the islands which were based on their own childhood
experiences.
Alternatives required to harsh physical
discipline
- The
panelists said Pacific parents need to be equipped with alternatives to the
harsh physical discipline of children. A comment
was made on the biblical
teaching of “spare the rod, spoil the child” tempered by the
principle of “discipline
out of love and not anger”. One panelist
commented that “Samoan parents discipline out of anger”. It was
also
explained by venting frustration based on the inability to communicate
effectively and the difficulty in accepting the habits and
attitudes that
New Zealandborn youth were bringing home. Such a problem could be
alleviated through training, reeducation and support.
It was mentioned that
this could be achieved through taking advantage of the influence that the church
has on Pacific parents.
Absence of positive role models and mentors
- The
panelists said there was an absence of positive role models and mentors who
could relate to them and what they were going through.
- One
panelist mentioned sport as being his mentor. It was something that not only
filled the gap in terms of activity but also something
that motivated him to
stay out of trouble to avoid the penalty of not being able to participate and
progress in sport from behind
prison bars. Many personal qualities such as
commitment, discipline and selfcontrol were also attributed to his involvement
in sport.
Waikeria Prison interviews with Pacific young
people
- Interviews
were also carried out with young people from Waikeria Prison early in 2000 to
gain their views on violent offending and
the programmes that they felt were
effective.
- The
most prominent point was the lack of Pacific services available that were
responsive or specific to meeting the needs of young
Pacific
offenders.
- Another
key feature was the need for services to assist Pacific
parents.
- The
Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs has used these consultations to inform policy
development in the area of Youth Justice and
the development of effective
programmes for youth offenders.
Further issues to be addressed for Pacific
children
- As
a result of their parents’ immigration status in New Zealand, some
Pacific children miss out on many benefits that are available
and indeed
necessary for the welfare and wellbeing of any child in New Zealand (see
paragraphs 445451).
- The
issue of children adopted from Samoa to Samoan parents in New Zealand is
currently being addressed by officials in response to
the recent case of abuse
of Samoan children in Wellington by their New Zealand adoptive parents.
Work is progressing into a proposal
for developing a bilateral agreement between
the Samoan and New Zealand Governments.
- The
alarmingly high incidence of violent offending by Pacific youth is a major
concern as is the lack of input from Pacific families
towards developing Family
Group Conference plans to avoid imprisonment. Another issue is the need to
invest funds into programmes
that will successfully address the topic of child
abuse and discipline amongst Pacific communities.
- It
is hoped that a closer relationship between the Ministry of Pacific Island
Affairs and the Office of the Commissioner for Children
will contribute to an
increased awareness amongst Pacific communities about the role of the
Commissioner.
Pacific Island Liaison Service
- The
Department for Courts is implementing a Youth Court Pacific Community Liaison
Service as a new initiative within Budget 2000.
The service will promote better
links between the Department for Courts, the Youth Court and Pacific peoples in
South Auckland.
It also aims to assist Pacific families and communities to
participate in Youth Court processes and better support young people
appearing
before the court.
CONCLUSION
- This
concludes New Zealand’s second periodic report to the United
Nation’s Committee on the Rights of the Child. New
Zealand looks
forward to discussing this report and updating the Committee when it is
presented and considered.
Notes
[1] The Human Rights Act
1993 required the Human Rights Commission to examine all Acts, regulations,
government policies and administrative
practices, and to report to the Minister
of Justice before the end of 1998 on any conflicts with the provisions of the
Human Rights
Act, and any infringements of the spirit or intention of the Act.
This project was conducted by the Human Rights Commission in conjunction
with
individual Government departments and was known as Consistency 2000.
[2] This paper is available
on: http://www.treasury.govt.nz/workingpapers/2000/0013.asp
[3] Growth in the
Dispersion of Earnings: 198497. (1998) Labour Market Bulletin 1998: 1&2.
pp 71107. The Department also has the
following article on the
distribution of earnings in New Zealand The Distribution of Earnings in
New Zealand, 198494. (1996) Labour Market Bulletin 1996:1 pp.45100.
Both bulletin papers are available on the Department of Labour website:
www.lmpg.govt.nz/bulletin.htm
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