While most families of young children are well supported socially and make good use of services, some do not. Children from families that have poor social supports and that make limited or no use of early child and family services are at increased risk of poor health and developmental outcomes. Research confirms what many professionals...

Skin infections are a common and widespread ailment among children. While these infections have generally been considered benign, the number requiring overnight hospitalisation for treatment, termed 'serious skin infections', has risen markedly in recent years with the incidence in NZ children thought to be significantly higher than that in children of comparatively developed countries. This...

Once upon a time, not so long ago, we believed that when we mapped the human genome we would be able to identify the kinds of people children would grow up to be. We hoped that understanding genetics would make it simple: Johnny has gene variants xyz so will grow up to be 190 centimetres...

This policy brief outlines the complexities involved in selecting interventions for early childhood services. It advocates for a broader method of assessing outcomes of interventions through incorporating practice-based evidence into our understanding of evidence-based practice. For services in the early childhood sector, choosing the most effective interventions for children and their families often involves a...

Explores why there has been an overall lack of progress in improving health outcomes for New Zealand children aged under six and makes recommendations to improve these outcomes.