Govt is dishing out free meds and free mental health services – and it looks like truants’ parents can stay free of prosecution
The word “free” has been dubiously bandied by Health Minister Ayesha Verrall in two of her three press statements over the past 24 hours or so.
She has been enthusing about
A free mental health programme (which provided 1 million support sessions without apparently costing anyone a proverbial brass razoo); and- Almost 3 million free prescriptions” being dished out to help around 900,000 New Zealanders since the $5 co-payment was removed on July 1. That’s a lot of meds in less than two months.
Any ideas where the money is coming from?
As to the second statement, Verrall said 97 per cent of all funded prescriptions dispensed since the start of July have been “free”, compared to only 41% in July last year.
“We know lots of people are finding it tough at the moment and this initiative is reducing pressure on budgets already, putting around $8.4 million dollars back into people’s pockets.”
But they are doing this by taking it out of taxpayers’ pockets – or by borrowing money which taxpayers must repay.
The 2023 Budget provided $707 million over four years to remove the $5 prescription co-payment.
Some business people in the food-and-fibre industry have been rewarded by our generous government, too. They have been given awards to “shine a light on leading employers”.
The awards and the ceremony at which they were announced no doubt cost somebody something. How much it cost was not mentioned in Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s press statement. Nor did he say who picked up the tab.
One of the other new ministerial press statements comes into the “hey, look at what a great job I am doing” category.
Education Minister Jan Tinetti wants us to rejoice in her news that Government programmes are helping to lift attendance at our schools (never mind attendance is supposed to be compulsory).
Tinetti has made no secret of the cost of the government’s response to embarrassing statistics showing high truancy rates.
“The Government responded quickly to address low attendance rates following the pandemic, by implementing new attendance officers and a $40m programme to back local solutions led by schools and their communities,” Jan Tinetti said.
Then she has provided the numbers that enable us to judge her accomplishment:
“Regular school attendance is moving in the right direction which is exactly what we need to be seeing. Term 1 this year saw regular attendance improve to 59.5 per cent an increase of almost 10 percent from the end of the previous year.”
Wow. So that’s what can be done with a $40 million boost.
Mind you, 59.5 per cent regular attendance implies 40.5 per cent irregular attendance, which sounds (dare we say it?) like a lot of truancy.
A figure we would like to see, of course, is the number of delinquent parents who have been prosecuted for aiding and abetting their offspring’s truancy.
Tinetti did give us an idea of the employment opportunities that have been generated by a $40 million war chest.
“Nearly all full-time and part-time attendance officers are now in place, with 80 already working in schools across the country.”
At first blush, this suggests a cost of $500,000 for each new job from the $40 million.
Tinetti went on:
“Attendance officers work with students who have low or declining attendance rates, to ensure they are going to school every day unless they are sick. It’s expected these attendance officers will help make a real difference to attendance rates over the longer-term.”
The new attendance officers are employed by Attendance Services and are in addition to existing 275 people who work with students who are chronically absent for the Attendance Service providers around Aotearoa.
Another initiative, the Regional Response Fund, has funded 412 initiatives across 762 schools over the past year to help get kids back to school, Tinetti said.
“The previous iteration of the fund, which was rolled out to re-engage young people during the pandemic, initially supported 2,000 schools, kura and early learning services and 300,000 young people with things like additional teacher and teacher aide time to provide mentoring and academic catch-up, as well as engaging with whānau.
“There can be many reasons why attendance rates fall. That’s why it’s so important that schools come up with their own ideas that work for their communities, which the Government can then help support through this fund. There’s no easy fix and the answer is about tailoring help to the child and their whānau.”
The first $10 million of the Regional Response Fund has been successfully invested and schools are being encouraged to come up with new ideas for future years, Tinetti said.
Latest from the Beehive
22 AUGUST 2023
Wellington barrister and solicitor Dale Robert La Hood has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today.
A primary sector employer that focuses on helping young people reach their potential is the Supreme Winner of the 2023 Primary Industries Good Employer Awards, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced last night.
Rapid action taken by the Government to improve attendance is working, Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said today.
21 AUGUST 2023
New regulations to limit youth vaping have been confirmed and will come into effect on 21 September this year, Health Minister Ayesha Verrall has announced.
The Government’s mental health and addiction programme Access and Choice has hit the one millionth support session since it started delivering services in 2020.
The Government’s cost of living policy of making most prescriptions free is working, with almost 3 million free scripts provided to around 900,000 New Zealanders since the $5 co-payment was removed on July 1.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
No comments:
Post a Comment