10. Parent Support—Parents as First TeachersJACINDA ARDERN (Labour) to the Minister for Social DevelopmentParent Support—Parents as First Teachers10. JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) to the Minister for Social Development: What is the estimated number of families who are recipients of the Parents as First Teachers programme who will no longer have access to support when the programme is cut in September 2016?Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development): I expect that all families who are currently in the Parents as First Teachers Programme (PAFT) will still have access to some kind of support after September. We are reprioritising $7.3 million a year from PAFT into Family Start so that we can better target those at-risk families and children who need support the most. Family Start is an evidence-based intensive home-visiting programme with proven results and the changes will see an increase from 5000 to 6250 in the number of vulnerable families who can access Family Start at any one time. Parents as First Teachers is aimed at lower-risk families and has shown no evidence of effectively reducing child maltreatment and families receiving PAFT will be able to access Family Start if appropriate and other resources such as SKIP Incredible Years Whānau Ora Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters and Mokopuna Ora right through to Well Child / Tāmāriki Ora Plunket Barnardos Parents Inc. and Early Start. No one needs to miss out.Jacinda Ardern: Is she aware that in many areas especially those that are rural Parents as First Teachers or PAFT is the only early intervention programme available and even here in Wellington there will be more than 100 families enrolled in PAFT who will have nowhere to go in just 3 months' time?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Actually that is not right because all areas currently offering Parents as First Teachers will be covered by Family Start. There will be new Family Start locations which include Tauranga Palmerston North New Plymouth and Timaru/Ashburton. I have made sure that the current PAFT contracts were extended through to September instead of ending at the end of June to allow providers to work with families to identify the most appropriate support for them.Jacinda Ardern: I seek leave to table the list of providers for Family Start which shows there is no service provision in Wellington and that PAFT is the only service here.Mr SPEAKER: Where was the list being prepared from?Jacinda Ardern: It is embedded deeply in the Ministry of Social Development website.Mr SPEAKER: Then I will not bother to put the leave; members can find it. I thank the member.Jacinda Ardern: Was the evaluation she used as the grounds to cut Parents as First Teachers the same evaluation that her own ministry conducted in 2011 that concluded: We consider the current evidence strong enough to support continuing to fund PAFT …"?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Yes but you selectively quote from a report that also says "to better meet criteria associated with child maltreatment" PAFT "would need to be more intensively and flexibly delivered and perhaps augmented by a case-management approach for dealing with more serious family concerns". That is from the same report.Jacinda Ardern: Did Child Youth and Family (CYF) advise her before she cut Parents as First Teachers claiming that it did not work with the most vulnerable families that CYF itself frequently refers high-needs and at-risk families to this programme?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: The decision was finally made based on an evaluation by the Ministry of Social Development and it was not able to determine whether families who were enrolled with PAFT had better outcomes than families who were not. As I say the PAFT programme is being replaced by Family Start which targets the most vulnerable children in communities has shown proven results and is well evaluated.Jacinda Ardern: The 2011 evaluation?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Well we are talking 2016.Jacinda Ardern: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek for the Minister to table the evaluation she has referred to. She has used it in an official supplementary response and it is not an evaluation I have seen publicly available.Mr SPEAKER: It is easily solved. Was the Minister in giving her answer quoting from an official document?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: No.Mr SPEAKER: She was not.Jacinda Ardern: Has she seen reports from PAFT teachers who have listed a huge range of cases of women living with violence suffering post-natal depression struggling with premature birth or with English as a second language or just living without support who have all benefited from this programme and will she commit to meeting with PAFT teachers and petitioners about her decision?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I understand that there are many families and educators who believe that PAFT has value. What I have said is that this Government is also targeting the most vulnerable children and families and Family Start is a well-researched well-evaluated programme that shows good results in the reduction of maltreatment.Sue Moroney: Why are parents and parenting under attack from her National Government with both her cuts to Parents as First Teachers and the financial veto just issued against parents having 26 weeks' paid parental leave?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I refute absolutely every assertion in that member's question."