Insights reports offer evidence on experiences of children and young people

Published
The Social Wellbeing Agency has published four Insights Briefs summarising recent work to better understand the needs and life experiences of children and young people, and the impact of services provided to them.

“These reports show how existing data and evidence can be better used to provide insights on how government can support children, young people and their families who are interacting with social sector agencies.

“Data enables us to understand a huge amount about the lives of children and their families, including how they are interacting with government over their lifetimes and where there are opportunities to do better.

“These insights have already been used by policymakers and decision-makers to better respond to the additional needs of children and young people through improved services and programmes,” says Aphra Green, Deputy Chief Executive, Policy, Data and Insights.

The details of the four reports are below.

  • Wellbeing of children and young people who offend(external link)  summarises previously published(external link) analysis we undertook for Ministers to enable a better understanding of the needs and life experiences of children and young people associated with offending behaviour, and the indicative distribution of those children and young people across New Zealand. Findings from this research informed Government decisions over the course of 2022 to strengthen support for young people who had offended, particularly in regions where our analysis showed need was highest. 
  • Children with additional learning needs (external link)summarises previous analysis(external link) we undertook for the Ministry of Education and Oranga Tamariki to support the Highest Needs Review and Oranga Tamariki Action Plan, looking at how children with the highest needs are identified and can be better supported in the education system. Findings from this research informed the Ministry of Education’s work on the Highest Support Needs Review.
  • Cross-system implications of the Alternative Education evaluation summarises previous analysis(external link) we undertook to support the recent Education Review Office (ERO) Review of Alternative Education. We are supporting the Ministry of Education with insights from this work as they review supports for these learners.
  • Long-term impact of Teen Parent Units (external link)identifies the long-term and intergenerational impacts of Teen Parent Units (TPU). It builds on an earlier evaluation carried out in 2017 and was used to further test our methodology of using research data sets to provide insight on the impacts of programmes and policies.

“We intend to build on the above analysis over the coming year to provide further insights to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families,” she said.

← Back to the news