Planned Area of Action
Area of Action 18
Expand and improve home, community, pre-school and school-based services and programmes.
Responsibility
Lead |
Other |
|---|---|
| Agencies represented on HESSOG (i.e. Education, MSD, DCYFS and Health) | FVFG (sub-group to be established that will include Early Childhood Development) |
Action details
Action details Continue to work on expanding home-based and community-based family support services and pre-school and school-based services and programmes. In particular:
- parent education and support services; and
- children's and young people's opportunities to learn non-violent values and interpersonal skills.
As part of this work, develop and/or improve in conjunction with:
- Maori, culturally relevant parent education and support services and interpersonal skills programmes for Maori; and
- Pacific and other ethnic peoples, culturally relevant parent education and support services and interpersonal skills programmes for Pacific and other ethnic peoples.
Link to goals and objectives
Goals 1, 2, 3 & 4. Objectives 1(vi), 2(iii), 2(vii), 3(ii), 3(iii), 4(1)(ii), 4(2)(i).
Rationale
Violence in families/whanau occurs predominantly in the home. This is where the subtle signs of violence can first be noticed and addressed with appropriate intervention and support.
Early childhood education can build children's resilience, provide oversight of young children outside the home, and can be a critical point of connecting with parents. And school is a key environment in which to teach relationship skills to children and young people, to model non-violent behaviour, to reach parents, and to identify and take early action when there is violence or risk of violence.
Research suggests that well targeted home-based and school-based services can be effective for promoting positive parent-child, partner and caregiver relationships, enhancing health and well-being, increasing knowledge about the availability of community services, and preventing violence within families/whanau. In addition, in order to adequately engage Maori, parent education and interpersonal skills programmes must be culturally relevant to the specific and diverse needs of whanau, hapu and iwi. Similar considerations apply to Pacific and other ethnic populations.
Effective parent education and interpersonal skills programmes require some understanding of diverse cultural perspectives pertaining to roles, authority and discipline.
Preliminary targets
- To have increased the availability of home-based and community-based family support services and pre-school and school-based services and programmes by June 2006.
- To have improved the range of culturally based parent education and support services and interpersonal skills programmes for Maori, Pacific and other ethnic peoples by June 2006.
Preliminary measures
- Framework for consultation with relevant stakeholders developed and agreed to.
- Consultation with relevant stakeholders is undertaken and completed according to the framework's criteria.
- At the end of the five-year timeframe the number of home-based and community-based family support services and pre-school and school-based services and programmes has increased28.
- At the end of the five-year timeframe the range of culturally based parent education and support services and interpersonal skills programmes has improved29.
28. Numbers will be determined during the project scoping phase.
29. Numbers will be determined during the project scoping phase.
