New Zealand’s Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy is an integrated policy plan to improve the well-being of children and young people under 25. The Strategy’s implementation timeline is open-ended and it encompasses a wide range of policy areas.
New Zealand’s Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy
Abstract
Context
In 2018, the New Zealand Government enacted legislation to ensure that reducing child poverty and improving child well-being remains an on-going priority for the country. Part of this legislation is a requirement for successive governments to develop and adopt a strategy to improve the well-being of all children. In 2019, New Zealand adopted the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. The Strategy is an open-ended integrated policy plan led by the Child Well-being and Poverty Reduction Group in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Centre of government. The Strategy was launched amid strong cross-party support.
The Strategy was developed through broad consultations with Māori and iwi groups, community groups, NGOs, the government, and the public. Consulting children and young people is a requirement of the legislation underpinning the Strategy. Interviews and focus groups were undertaken to hear from more than 420 children and young people who were more likely to have faced, or be facing, challenges in their lives. These included children and young people living in poverty, living in state care, with a disability, from rural areas, with refugee backgrounds, who identify as LGBTIQ+, who are recent migrants or who have received a mental health diagnosis.
Description and key outcomes
The Strategy identifies six high-level and interconnected outcomes: children and young people are loved, safe and nurtured; children and young people have what they need; children and young people are happy and healthy; children and young people are learning and developing; children and young people are accepted, respected and connected; children and young people are involved and empowered.
The government is required by law to set out measures for these outcomes. A linked monitoring system of 36 indicators, the Child and Youth Wellbeing Indicators, was subsequently developed. These indicators are featured in the annual progress report for the integrated plan.
The government is also required to report annually to the parliament on its progress in achieving the Strategy’s outcomes. It is also required to review the Strategy every three years. Any change to the Strategy is examined in accordance with national law, the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
Finally, New Zealand’s well-being budgeting efforts has included a child well-being priority area linked to the Strategy. To date, New Zealand has found that including a child well-being priority area into the budget process makes it easier for officials to consider the integrated plan for child well-being in policy development. Assessing budget bids against this child well-being priority has evidenced that government policy and investment decisions are primarily ‘aligned’ with the integrated plans, and thus the government’s priority goals for child well-being.
Policy relevance
The Strategy provides a shared understanding of what is important for child and youth well-being and sets out nine principles for stakeholders to work towards it. New Zealand will focus the next stage of the plan’s implementation on improving coordination and alignment across agencies and between agencies and local communities.
Further information
DPMC, Child and Youth Wellbeing website, https://www.childyouthwellbeing.govt.nz/ (accessed November 7 2023)
DPMC (2023), Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy: Annual report for the year ended 30 June 2023, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Government of New Zealand, https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/annual-report-2023
DPMC (2022), Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy: Annual Report for the year ending 30 june 2021, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, https://www.childyouthwellbeing.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2022-04/cyws-annual-report-year-ended-june-2021.pdf
DPMC (2019), Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy, https://www.childyouthwellbeing.govt.nz/resources/child-and-youth-wellbeing-strategy (accessed on 2 March 2023)
DPMC (2019), Strategy development, https://www.childyouthwellbeing.govt.nz/our-aspirations/strategy-development
United Nations (2006), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-persons-disabilities
United Nations (1989), Convention on the Rights of the Child, https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child
OECD resources
OECD, How’s Life in your country? Country notes, New Zealand, https://www.oecd.org/wise/measuring-well-being-and-progress.htm#country-notes
Dirwan, G. and O. Thévenon (2023), "Integrated policy making for child well-being: Common approaches and challenges ahead", OECD Papers on Well-being and Inequalities, No. 16, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1a5202af-en
