18 May 2001
Barnardos, New Zealand’s largest child focussed charity, welcomes the recommendations of the ‘About Time’ report
released today by Hon Matt Robson, Minister of Corrections. We hope that the Government will now seek the support and
assistance of community based organisations such as Barnardos in implementing these recommendations.
“With our focus on “Children Come First” we are particularly interested in recommendation two which deals with support
for high risk new mothers and their families. Early intervention in high risk families, as a policy, is something that
Barnardos has long supported. Our own research over several years in association with Massey University, “Working
Successfully with Families”, shows that early intervention with families can achieve a high success rate.
“Sex health education can reduce unwanted pregnancies and therefore the number of high risk infants. Accordingly, we
also support whole-heartedly measures in that direction.
“Similarly, the current Social Workers in School” programme is already paying dividends as an early intervention
programme. The allocation of further resources to this programme could only enhance its level of success and should lead
to greater assistance to those families whose children have conduct disorders.
Ends