State under fire for failings in child health

THE Government will today be accused of breaking a string of promises on child welfare and of overseeing a health system more interested in money than child wellbeing.

In an overview of the Government’s performance on child health to be published today, the Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA) will claim that shortfalls in primary care and mental health provisions are just two areas where the state is falling dangerously behind targets.

The Children’s Rights Alliance Report Card 2009, which checks whether commitments made in documents such as the National Development Plan have been delivered, also criticises Government performance in other areas such as education, giving the Government a D grade overall, and claims that out of 25 key commitments in documents such as Towards 2016 and the Programme for Government, 50% are seriously behind schedule and seven commitments show significant monitoring problems.