On the whole, the specific needs of school-aged children tend to be recognized in provinces that have developed broad children's strategies, which recognize that the benefits of early intervention are easily lost if children do not continue to get the supports they need as they mature. Where such broad strategies do not exist, the research found a tendency to focus on early child development at the expense of later years, a result particularly marked in some fields and certain provinces. All provinces, moreover, have combined targeting with an emphasis on getting parents off social assistance and into the labour force. The existence of the complex needs of families struggling with poverty and unemployment should certainly be recognized. Yet special measures work best when they are designed to supplement strong, broad-based programs.
Prevention is an especially strong concern in health-related matters.
Here, schools as well as recreation and cultural programs are assigned a prominent role. Prevention is also a major theme of child protection reforms, where more emphasis is being placed on fostering good parenting. There remain, however, visible differences in the degree of investment in prevention, and in understandings of the best way to avoid negative outcomes. This is nowhere more apparent than in the area of juvenile justice. In some provinces, these efforts remain modest in scope.