The Government is failing to implement many elements of its policies on children due to a lack of money, excessive bureaucracy and laziness, a new report has found.
The Children's Rights Alliance Report Card 2010 gave the Government an overall grade of D minus for progress on its commitments to children in the areas of education, health, material wellbeing and safeguarding children.
It also awarded the Government its first ever F grade for failing to implement policies on alcohol, primary care and financial support for families and in some cases making poor decisions.
"It gives us no pleasure to introduce a new F grade- a fail. But the Government has simply forced our hand. The new grade is indicative of the way in which children are the casualties of the recession," said Jillian van Turnhout, chief executive of the Children's Rights Alliance, an NGO which writes the report card on an annual basis.
In 2009 the Government was awarded a D grade by the Children's Rights Alliance but this year's report card shows 13 of the 29 commitments entered into by the Government are lagging seriously behind. Seven have made progress while the remaining nine commitments have remained static, according to the report card.
Ms van Turnhout cited cutbacks announced by the Government in the budget in child benefit and the primary care sector as major failures.
She said the decision to make a 10 per cent cut in child benefit across the board rather than reform the system to direct payments to families that needed them most was "lazy". She said she was also "gravely concerned" at the decision to reduce the price of alcohol in the budget through changes in excise duties. "Why when we know alcohol is such a big problem did the Government make this decision? It beggars belief," said Ms van Turnhout.
Education is the only area where the Government does better than last year in the report card scoring a B grade, up from an E last year. It praises advances in early childhood care following the introduction of the free pre-school year initiative.