Government ignores advice on universal child assessment

A 'tool' that has identified children of beneficiaries at risk of being abused should be applied to all children if it's a solution to keeping kids safe from maltreatment, the Green Party said today.

As part of its Children's Action Plan the Government announced a new predictive screening tool that could help identify children at risk of being abused, in many cases before they are even born.

"Background papers reveal the tool had so far only been used for screening children whose parents had been on a benefit. The papers also show that the academics who devised the tool recommend it be applied to every child in the country at the time of birth," Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.

"Nothing in the White Paper indicates that the Government has plans to apply the tool to all children born in New Zealand.

"The Green Party needs more information about how the Government plans to use the tool before endorsing its use, but the Government risks turning a blind eye to the thousands of non-beneficiary children at risk of abuse if it has no plans to use it to screen all children.

"The White Paper itself talks about how, unless support mechanisms are universal, they will not pick up on all at risk children as most don't wave a red flag to identify themselves.

"That's why so many submitters on the Green Paper agreed with Plunket's recommendation for a universal child health database to stop children at risk of abuse and neglect from going unnoticed.

"Measuring the poorest families in the country for risk is like erecting a net at the bottom of the cliff and catching the children as they fall down it.

"Rather than stop children becoming vulnerable, this Government has manufactured more at risk children by failing to deal with the root causes of vulnerability - poverty and family stress.