14/10/2016

1

Child-centred public policy? Qualitative case study of Australia,

New Zealand, and Sweden

Dr Amanda D’Souza, Assoc Prof Louise Signal, Prof Richard Edwards Health Promotion & Policy Research Unit, Department of Public HealthUniversity of Otago, WellingtonNew Zealand

Image from Just Focus: Youth Parliament 2010. www.justfocus.org.nz

OECD Doing Better for Children 2009

Overall rank

14/10/2016

2

Research aims

• To understand how children have been considered in the public policy process in New Zealand and Australia compared to Sweden.

• To examine the explanations for this and the implications for how to improve public policy for children in Australasia and more broadly.

Overall approach & theoretical considerations

• Health In All Policies

• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

• Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• Political theories

• Sociology of childhood

14/10/2016

3

Qualitative methods - 3 country case studies

• Review of context, policy & UNCRC framework

• 45 Key informant interviews with ‘policy elites’– Insider view of policy process to gain knowledge not easily

obtainable elsewhere.

• Purposive sampling – Positional, reputational, snowball techniques (Lewis 2006)

• Senior bureaucrats, politicians, indigenous leaders, statutory advocates, academics, NGO leaders

• Across politics & portfolios, past or present

• Thematic analysis, NVivo11 Data management

Image courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC

14/10/2016

4

Extent to which children considered in public policy: Sweden

• Overwhelmingly seen as “quite important” (IV44) and “high on the agenda” (IV33)

“Children are prioritised in the debate, and when we make decisions in Sweden” (IV44)

• But some areas of concern:

– “less considered today” (IV41)

– Children’s rights “in the book but not in the reality” (IV32)

– Sami children important as children, “invisible” (IV39) as Sami

– Variable children’s participation

• Strategic political (& societal) consensus “Children

are valued very high, and that’s independent of political mind or conflicts” (IV40) “This general feeling among grown-ups that children are the most important thing you have” (IV32).

• Specific history behind Sweden’s “revolution of the child” - Key policy developments triggered by 1930s “population crisis”, led to Myrdals’ policy blueprint where were children central to nation-building

• A century of NGOs and experts influencing policy and attitudes

• Influential individuals e.g. authors Astrid Lindgren

Sweden: A case of broad pro-child consensus and path-dependency

14/10/2016

5

• Children (& women) seen as individuals with rights “To consider children as individuals, and not primarily part of the family, it’s an important part of the view of children in Sweden” (IV32)

• A holistic view: “non-specific” (IV139) “It’s basically everything which has an impact on children, or enough impact on families to impact the family’s children” (IV45)

• Societal attitudes policy

Societal attitudes that value and respect children as individuals

Other important themes

• General post-war affluence

• Social democracy a key enabler

• High awareness and multi-faceted impact of UNCRC - child rights progressively embedded

“It’s important being a welfare state … but you still need to have a [child] rights perspective” (IV38)

• Long-standing policy blind-spot of indigenous rights: Acculturation, discrimination, stigmatisation “No Sami people, no problem” “Built-

in decades of anti-Sami opinion in the governmental agencies” (IV35)Swedish Riksdag committee room

14/10/2016

6

Alva Myrdal Politics

Image: Reto Stöckl / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Extent to which children considered in public policy: Australia

“We have a kind of warm feeling about children … but I don't think they operate a very central place in the thinking” (IV28)

• Inadequately, narrowly, & not systematically considered“A narrow lens …. not usually as a very prominent piece of public policy-making, unless it's specifically about an issue people identify with children” (IV29)

“a very adult focus, even when children are the beneficiaries of policies directly” (IV22)

• Generally getting better – 3 felt it was “Reasonable”

• Families (with children) a focus

• A “significant gap” between words & action“Everyone [political leaders] says that children are [on the political agenda]. I’m not sure if the reality is that though” (IV26)

14/10/2016

7

Consideration of indigenous and marginalised children in policy

“I don't think vulnerable children, and I particularly don't think vulnerable aboriginal children have been taken into account to the degree that they should be … I don't think the culture and history of aboriginal people has been taken into account” (IV21)

“Children get treated differently if they're from vulnerable communities” (IV21)

Picture of Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice responding to the Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generation. Image: Australian Human Rights Commission

”Cumulatively … in the way we make policies, children aren't always advantaged” (IV28)

• Policy incoherence“a very fragmented approach to the child, one that is largely framed by sector services” (IV30)

“confusion of funding and ambiguity of administration, which undermines effective public-policy making” (IV27)

• Narrow focus & reactive“there is not a holistic conception of the child within public policy”(IV30)

“There are whole areas of public policy where having a distinct focus on children is meaningless” (IV23)

“about solving problems, not actually creating the conditions of a sustainable, healthy and social-emotional development” (IV30)

Australia: A complex case of fragmented, incremental policy development

Image: Adam Carr - Parliament House, Melbourne (& First Federal Parliament 1901-1927)

14/10/2016

8

Politics

• Some focus on families “Families have always been important … they're the target, in a political sense” (IV25)

• Short-term cost and economic concerns dominate“Economic policies permeate everything we do”(IV18) “Little dividend from serious dedication to tackling major issues and solving problems” (IV23) “I don't want to peg it all down to a community or society that is so focused on economic growth that it loses sight of what's really a human, but I can't help but do that” (IV20)

• A “hard-line” element to politics “I would have said it improved no

end, until we started imprisoning children who were children of refugees. … if we scratch the surface here, we still find an underlay of racism” (IV18)

• Inconsistent political leadership for children – but some improvements “It's really the perfect bipartisan issue, except that we just

can't seem to cut it” (IV19) “Changed quite a bit for the better as a result of the scandals that have been very prominent in recent times…” (IV23)

Other important themes• Complex attitudes to children: Ambivalent,

tolerated (“brutal” in the past), paternalistic -linked to colonial Victorian heritage.

“I think we tolerate children rather than celebrate them” (IV19)

“To say that Australians don't value children is too simplistic. We value them enough that it's politically effective for a government to claim to be protecting children, to do something that otherwise they wouldn't get away with doing” (IV28)

• The enduring & powerful legacy of colonisation, “settler society”, assimilation, and discrimination

“Why don't we hear the voice of aboriginal children? Well, for the very reason that society in country towns, or even in Melbourne, don't employ Aboriginal people” (IV21)

• General affluence (but growing pressure)

• Children’s Commissioners, Advocates & NGOs

• Evidence about early child development

14/10/2016

9

Comparisons & contrasts –Some initial thoughts

• Vastly different scale & complexity of policy issues

• Determinants of wellbeing: Narrow vs holistic view Effect of equity- and rights-based social democratic welfare regime?

• Fragmentation more prominent in Australia

• Child rights not as prominent in Aus – starting to embed?

• NGOs/Advocates – important in both but more prominent in Swedish interviews

• Indigenous and marginalised children an issue in both– Minimal disparities in Sweden but indigenous rights not discussed

• Children special in Sweden – more complex in Aus but some political commitment to “traditional” families

Implications for policy• Sweden – a unique context – but shows that a country

can change, create & maintain a (relative) consensus for children’s rights and child-friendly policies

• There are lots of interactions: “attitudes, to a certain extent,

sometimes both feed and follow” (IV18)

Child-friendly society Child-friendly public policy

• Important ingredients:– Power of a simple, high-level consensus (society & policy)

– Coherent community & NGO action

– Societal attitudes/understanding/narrative: Holistic view vs narrow; respect for children as individuals

– Progressively embed child rights at every level

– High-level signals / leadership at all levels

14/10/2016

10

Conclusions – Final reflections• Pro-child policy appears harder to realise in a neoliberal

than a social democratic system– Problems are more complex & more unequal

– Policy responses more narrow and late stage, disproportionate to need & complexity, & fragmentation appears to be magnified

– Sweden’s social democracy appears to have moderated the structural marginalisation of children in society. Is a child-focus an inevitable part of social democracy? What about cultural rights?

• Better understanding of the policy process may enhance public health action, and help develop more effective and equitable policy responses for all children.

• Thanks to the Arrernte people, conference organisers, my interviewees, supervisors & advisors.

Contact amanda.dsouza@otago.ac.nz

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Pro

po

rtio

n o

f p

op

ula

tio

n (%

)

Year

NZ ratifies

Convention

on the Rights

of the Child

Government

positive

parenting

education

campaigns

start

‘Crimes

(Substituted

Section 59)

Amendment Bill’

drawn from

ballot

Crimes

(Substituted

Section 59)

Amendment

Act 2007

passes into

law

Citizens’ Initiated

Referendum and

extensive

community

advocacy

% of Adult NZers agreeing “there are certain circumstances when it is alright for a parent to smack [or use physical punishment with] a child

Legislation

passes

prohibiting

physical

punishment in

schools

14/10/2016

11

Strengths & limitations

• Systematic and persistent approach to recruitment and analysis – well-prepared for interviewees.

• Theoretical and data triangulation.

• Obtained unique and rich data from powerful people across the political spectrum and within bureaucracies.

• People appeared willing to talk and were candid

• An outsider, don’t have full understanding of context and phenomenon

• Complexity – needed to maintain a high-level, not feasible to examine policy detail. Might have had different interpretations of what I meant, or what aspect I was interested in.

Thoughts on how to improve policy-making

– Build a culture of leadership for children and children’s rights at all levels, esp operational

– Changing societal attitudes fundamental – through community action, education system (e.g. child rights, child participation, civics)

– Policy levers and child rights infrastructure e.g. National Plan

– Most felt symbolic measures, such as a Minister for Children, were important but is not sufficient

– More people-centred policy in general (e.g. Social responsibility legislation, or good policy making guidelines)

– More children’s participation but needs more research on how

– Importance of research, data