Foundation North carries out strategic review of early years investment

A review of opportunities for philanthropic investment into programmes to improve early childhood outcomes has been carried out by the Centre for Social Impact for Foundation North, in collaboration with NEXT Foundation.

“Early childhood interventions deliver substantial long-term benefits, both to individual children and their families, and to society as a whole,” Foundation North Chief Executive Jennifer Gill said.  “There are some innovative local initiatives underway which are showing promising results.  We need to identify the best ideas and look at their potential for wider application.”

The review cites OECD data which shows that children in New Zealand are struggling behind those from other countries, and that action is badly needed to improve outcomes for children. Comparative data across 30 OECD countries (from 2009) shows that New Zealand does poorly across many measured dimensions of wellbeing.  We rank 29th out of 30 for child health and safety (indicators include birth weight, infant mortality, vaccination rates and suicide rates), 24th for child risk behaviours (indicators include smoking, alcohol and teenage births), and 21st for material wellbeing (indicators include disposable income, household deprivation and educational deprivation).

Foundation North and NEXT Foundation are now considering the review’s recommendations with a view to identifying innovative programmes that with funding and organisational support could be scaled up for greater social impact.

Click here to read the early years review, the strategic review of early years investment and the appendix.