28342 (2025). Ingrid Leary to the Minister for Social Development and Employment

28342 (2025). Ingrid Leary to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: How, if at all, is the Government addressing the intersection of child poverty and mental health, particularly in ensuring access to necessary support wraparound services, as a response to Stats NZ finding 157,048 children were living in material hardship as of June 2024?

Hon Louise Upston: The Government acknowledges the intersection between material hardship and child poverty and mental health, and recognises the need for all children and young people to have access to health services, including mental health supports, and that financial costs can be a barrier for some. The Child and Youth Strategy sets out the connection between mental health and child poverty and material hardship, including that poverty and hardship are associated with worse physical and mental health in the present and in the future. The Strategy establishes a cross-government programme of work in three interconnected priority areas- supporting children and families in the first 2,000 days, reducing child material hardship and preventing child harm. Maternal mental health is also a focus area for the first 2,000 days priority. Wider work is underway across government to increase access to services and supports and better understand need for children and young people. This includes: • Establishing a Mental Health Innovation Fund to help community and non-government providers scale up successful services, with organisations like Youthline and the Rotorua Community Youth Centre Trust are already benefiting from this support • Investment in Gumboot Friday, which delivers free mental health counselling to children and young people aged 5 to 25 Funding a Child and Youth Mental Health and Addiction Prevalence Survey — the first of its kind in New Zealand — to better understand the scale of need and ensure services are fit for purpose.