Early Years Initiatives
Early Years Service Hubs
Teenage Parent Service Coordinators
Information for Invited Tender
Early Start and Family Start Extension
Roots of Empathy Pilot
A $7 million package of early intervention services including establishing family hubs, service coordinators for teenage parents, trialling a programme called ‘Roots of Empathy' and extending the Early Start and Family Start programmes was announced recently.
The Early Years package aims to improve children's health and education which research indicates will reduce the likelihood of them offending as adults or becoming unemployed long term, and help reduce family abuse or neglect.
The package also aims to improve the coordination of services for families and to help vulnerable families access and stay connected with the support that is available.
Early Years Service Hubs
$3.8 million over the next three years will be invested in making core health, education and social services more accessible and better coordinated for vulnerable families with young children.
Seven Early Years Service Hubs will be established in high need areas to provide a central point where families can access a range of services including ante natal care, Well Child health checks and immunisation programmes, and quality childcare and education for under fives.
Each hub will be supported by an Early Years Worker who will help with their initial set up, develop a strong network of Early Years Services providers and keep families connected to core services.
Service Hubs will be set up in existing community-based facilities. Priority will go to communities where there are high numbers of vulnerable families, there is a need for better coordinated services, and strong community support for Service Hubs.
Hubs will be able to access a Service Development Innovation fund to respond to specific gaps in family services in their community.
The Ministry of Social Development is working on introducing the Early Years Service Hubs in consultation with the Ministries of Health and Education. Funding will be administered through Family and Community Services.
Teenage Parent Service Coordinators
Almost $2.6 million over the next three years will be invested in helping vulnerable teenage parents and their children access community based services.
From March 2007 eight Teenage Parent Service Coordinators will be employed to work with teenage parents and their children. They will support and facilitate their access to health services, education providers, government agencies like Housing New Zealand and Work and Income, and other social services. They will also put teen parents in touch with parent support groups who can help them develop parenting knowledge and skills.
The Coordinators will ensure the children have access to Well Child / Tamariki Ora health checks, immunisation programmes, and quality childcare and education for under fives.
Research shows that teenage parents and their children are more likely than older mothers to have multiple and complex needs. There were 4,136 babies born to teenage mothers in 2005.
The Teenage Parent Service Coordinators will be located in existing youth services in communities with high rates of teenage births.
Coordinators will be selected through an invited tender process. It is expected the programme will be up and running towards the middle of 2007.
Information for Invited Tender
Family and Community Services has invited proposals from youth-focused service providers to apply for the coordinator to be located within their organisation.
They will be located in the following areas: Rotorua (with an outreach in Kawerau), Christchurch, Auckland, Gisborne, Hastings District and Whangarei District, Manakau City and Mangere.
Ninety-eight providers have been invited to apply.
Invited Tender – Questions and Answers
Q: Is there a proposal template available for applicants?
A: No, there is no proposal template. Part 2, section 2.4 of the Request for Proposal document sets out the Format of Response required.
Q: Are organisations located outside NZDEP 8, 9 & 10 eligible to apply for the Teen Parent Service Co-ordinator initiative?
A: Yes. Providers must demonstrate in their proposal that they can access and involve teenage parents living in NZDEP 8, 9 & 10 areas.
Early Start and Family Start Extension
An additional $200,000 per year will enable the successful Early Start and Family Start programmes' boundaries to be extended to include a further 43 families in high need areas.
Government currently provides $27 million to enable the Early Start and Family Start programmes to assist 5,600 families across 32 locations in New Zealand.
Early Start and Family Start provide intensive, home-based support services for families with high needs, to ensure that their children get the best possible start in life.
For more information on Early Start go to the Early Start website.
Roots of Empathy Pilot
$321,000 over the next three years will be invested in piloting the Roots of Empathy programme in up to 10 primary schools in New Zealand.
Roots of Empathy is a classroom based programme developed and operating in around 1,200 primary and intermediate schools in Canada. It involves parents bringing babies into the classroom nine times over the course of a year.
Through the programme children learn about the development stages of a baby's first year, their needs, and how the baby communicates its needs to the parent. By observing the interaction between the parent and baby the children learn to understand others' feelings, to put names to those feelings and how to resolve problems.
The programme in Canada has been found to improve empathy or pro-social behaviour amongst school children taking part in the programme.
The Ministries of Social Development, Education and Health will work together with the Peace Foundation over the next few months to determine which schools will be included in the pilot.
For more information contact Polly
O'Brien
04 978 4258
