Cabinet paper, May 2018

This paper seeks Cabinet agreement to the scope of New Zealand's first child wellbeing strategy and to a public engagement approach. The paper proposes a draft framing of wellbeing, a vision statement, a set of desired outcomes for all children and 16 indicative focus areas to drive action in support of child wellbeing. Subject to Cabinet agreement these will provide the basis for public engagement in the May to December 2018 period.

Appendix B: "Child Wellbeing Strategy: Draft outcomes for all children and potential focus areas for policy work", a one page diagram can be accessed separately via the link.

Cabinet agreement is also sought to a sub-set of six focus areas, to be prioritised for initial exploratory policy over the next six months.

The Strategy is an opportunity to significantly improve the lives of New Zealand’s children. It will set out the actions the Government intends to take to improve the wellbeing of all New Zealand children.

The Child Wellbeing Unit (CWU) has been established in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) to support Ministers in this work.

The CWU’s role includes:

- supporting the development of the Government Strategy to improve the wellbeing of all children in New Zealand;
- working with others to identify actions and policies for improving child wellbeing, including the particular groups of children identified in the proposed legislation;
- providing advice on other relevant matters. An initial cabinet paper was prepared in January 2018 to commence the Child Wellbeing Strategy process (#5907). These cabinet papers further information are available on the Child Wellbeing Unit website. See the NZFVC news item (May 2018) for further information. Record #5908