A presentation to StartStrong: a children’s rights seminar on early and sustained support

for children with a disability

Dr John Angus

Children’s CommissionerWellington, 22 March 2010

Attitudes to children, Attitudes to children, attitudes to disability and attitudes to disability and

children’s rightschildren’s rights

Attitudes to children, attitudes to disability and children’s rights

• The position of children in contemporary New Zealand

• A children as citizens approach

• Children with disabilities

The social and economic position of children: some reflections

Three paradoxes

• We know poverty harms children - but they remain the group most likely to be in hardship

• We have smaller families - but children get less time from their parents

• Social services have improved - but wide disparities remain

Childhood and poverty

Proportion of all individuals in low-income households by age

0 %

1 0 %

2 0 %

3 0 %

4 0 %

5 0 %

1 9 8 0 8 5 9 0 9 5 0 0 0 5 2 0 1 0

H E S y e a r

Proportions below the threshold

0 - 1 7

1 8 - 2 4

2 5 - 4 4

4 5 - 6 4

6 5 +

F i x e d l i n e ( C V ) t h r e s h o l d ,

6 0 % o f 9 8 B H C m e d i a n , l e s s 2 5 %

Household Incomes in NZ: Trends and indicators of inequality and hardship 1982-2008 (MSD 2009)

Childhood and access to parents

Social disparities

In short, we have:

• Hardship within wealth

• Poverty of time within families

• Disparities despite progress

Three hypotheses

• Children are relatively invisible

• Children carry little weight politically

• Some adult attitudes to children devalue them

Children’s invisibility

Political weakness

Attitudes to children

• Children as ‘human becomings’ - the development view

• Children as innocents - the romantic view

• Children as sinners - the fundamentalist view

A way ahead: children as citizens

Children as citizens: the new sociology of children

• Children as a unique social group with their own culture

• Children as social actors capable of participating

• Children as agents in their own lives not passive recipients

Children as citizens

Photographs of school children used with permission of Kawerau South School. Photo of mother and child used with permission of the Families Commission.

Children with disabilities

• A children’s rights approach

• Inclusive education

• The importance of attitudes

A rights approach

• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

• NZ Disability Strategy

Inclusive education

• A rights focus?

The importance of attitudes

In conclusion…