Parent Help Reply Budget
In today’s Budget a total of $642 million, to be spent over four years, has been allocated to a range of initiatives
within the social investment package. One such initiative includes ongoing investment in New Zealand children and their
families.
Parent Help acknowledges the Government’s commitment to ensuring wrap-around services for vulnerable children and in
placing the needs of children at the centre of policy decision-making, in particular those children and their families
most at risk.
While our vulnerable children must always be the priority, at Parent Help we hope that during the Budget’s four year
funding period more resources can be directed to programmes which focus on both prevention and early intervention.
Research has shown that the outcomes for children are greatly improved when effective early intervention takes place.
This applies to both vulnerable families and those who do not yet meet this threshold, particularly in families where
there may be incipient family violence or parents are in need of support in their parenting role.
At Parent Help our family therapy service places high importance on working holistically with the whole family to not
only improve parenting skills but, most importantly, to strengthen relationships within the family to provide a
continuing safe and nurturing environment for children as they develop and grow into adulthood. We provide timely
intervention aimed at supporting parents with information and strategies, maintaining family relationships and working
towards a better long-term outcome for all.
The national parenting and child abuse prevention Helpline which Parent Help has provided for many years is also
considered to be a valuable prevention and early intervention service for parents and family/whanau needing crisis or
other support. The Helpline is available between 9 am and 11 pm, seven days a week. Where risk is identified callers to
the Helpline will be referred direct to Child, Youth and Family, to the Children’s Action Plan triage centre The Hub or
to appropriate services in their area.
Parent Help is a community agency that has been offering services to families since 1989. Our vision is to support
parents to ensure children and young people live in families/whanau free from the impact of family violence abuse and
neglect. We provide help with all parenting issues from the smallest to the most serious issue of child abuse. Parents
can call the telephone helpline on 0800 568 856, or access our Wellington-based family therapy, counselling, mediation
and parent education services.
ENDS