Every Child Counts Discussion Paper Number 2, August 2011

The effectiveness of public investment in New Zealand children underlines the economic cost resulting from inadequate investment in young children. Using a human capital framework, the report documents the economic impacts of poor
child outcomes. The focus is solely economic and does not address political,
social equity or child rights implications of child outcomes. It is entirely evidence based and draws upon a wide range of international literature. Drawing on OECD data, Infometrics find that child outcomes in New Zealand are typically almost twice as bad as outcomes obtained in Denmark, which is
the best performing of thirty OECD countries. Greater levels of investment in
early-years education, health and poverty reduction are warranted by economic analysis of positive impacts, but are not in themselves sufficient. Firstly, it should be observed that economic growth and prosperity typically improve child
outcomes. Secondly, the effectiveness of early childhood policies, programmes
and interventions vary considerably from one country to another.
Not only is New Zealand one of the poorest performing countries of the OECD in terms of cold outcomes, but its results for every dollar spent is among the least effective. North European countries such as Denmark achieve the best outcomes
with the highest rates of per child public spend. The Netherlands achieve a startling
result. Although they spend only a fraction per child of the Nordic countries they achieve nearly comparable child outcomes. In other words, their programmes are very effective and much less costly. It needs to be borne in mind, though, that their public expenditure per child is nearly twice that of New Zealand’s. (From the Executive summary). Record #6393