Earlier this month Treasury released a report indicating the reasons behind particular vulnerability for New Zealand young people.

The Tindall foundation welcomes reports such as this one because they help to inform our decision making around organisations we might support who work with vulnerable children and their families.

The purpose of paper which is titled, Using Integrated Administrative Data to Understand Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes as Young Adults, was to provide an improved understanding of both population needs and current patterns of social service provision

It summarises the main findings of an exploratory analysis of the Ministry of Social Development’s Integrated Child Dataset (ICD). The analysis investigates the characteristics of children who are at risk of poor outcomes as young adults; their patterns of contact with selected government social service agencies; and some of the costs associated with the provision of services by those agencies.

In summary, the research has studied two groups:

  1. babies born 1990/91, and
  2. all children who were born between 1 July 1995 and 30 June 2012, who were aged 0 to 17 years at 30 June 2012.

In general terms, it has analysed the characteristics, outcomes, selected social service use, and costs of those children.

Researchers found that the outcomes were considerably worse for children if by age 5 they had the following characteristics:

  1. were known to Child Youth and Family (CYF),
  2. had a parent or caregiver with a corrections sentencing history, and
  3. had been supported by a benefit for most of their childhood,

About 1 percent of children in the 1990/91 birth cohort met all three criteria.

Those children were:

  1. five times more likely to have been referred to CYF youth justice services
  2. two times more likely to have failed to gain NCEA level 2
  3. five times more likely to have been on a benefit for more than 2 years
  4. seven times more likely to have been in prison before age 21
  5. estimated to have future social service costs around 5 times higher than the comparable average per person for the provision of income support, CYF and corrections services

In addition, another 6 percent had two of the three characteristics. This larger group of children also had relatively poor outcomes.

These children were:

  1. four times more likely to have been referred to CYF youth justice services
  2. nearly two times more likely to have failed to gain NCEA level 2
  3. four times more likely to have been on a benefit for more than 2 years before age 21 than other children
  4. four times more likely to have been in prison before age 21
  5. estimated to have future social service costs around four times higher than average

Children placed in CYF care

The outcomes of children who were ever placed in CYF care (around 1,500 or 2.4% of children in the 1990/91 birth cohort) were considerably worse than those of all children on average.

These children were:

  1. seven times more likely to have had a referral to CYF youth justice services
  2. two times more likely to have failed to gain NCEA level 2 by age 21
  3. six times more likely to have been on a benefit for more than 2 years before age 21 than other children
  4. ten times more likely to have been in prison before age 21
  5. estimated to have future social service costs around six times higher than average

To read the full report click here.

This research, together with a recent report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner , point to the need for careful attention to be paid to what happens for children in our foster care system.