Nearly a third of all children in Northland under the age of five are at risk of abuse, neglect, need to live in care or have an uneducated mother with addictions or mental illness.
After scoring higher than any other New Zealand region, Northland has qualified for a new wrap-around service for the target group of pregnant women and mothers of toddlers.
A shocking 29 per cent of all Northland children under 5 years old had two or more of the four risk factors used to determine which district health boards qualified for the Ministry of Health funding boost.
Northland is one of three regions to get $1 million a year for four years to provide more support for mothers of children under 3 years old and pregnant women with addictions, or were mentally unwell or vulnerable for other reasons.
The four at-risk factors were children under 5 who: suffered abuse, neglect or were in the care of Child, Youth and Family; had been supported by benefits for more than three quarters of their lifetime; either parent had a Department of Corrections history of prison or community sentences; or the mother had no formal qualifications.