National has released its "First 1000 Days" policy before the election. Photo / 123rf
The National Party is promising all expectant mothers $3000 and to make paid parental leave more flexible so both parents can take it at the same time.
In its "First 1000 days" policy released this afternoon, National said it would implement a $226 million a year "seven-part plan" if elected into government at the election.
It includes a $3000 credit per child for parents to purchase approved and specified services over their child's first three years.
It would be available to parents of adopted and foster children and for mothers who lose their child to a miscarriage so they could access services like counselling if they wanted.
Mothers and babies with higher needs would be entitled to a further $3000 - up to $6000 in total - if needed.
National's social investment spokesperson Louise Upston said the credit wouldn't be provided as a cash payment and would be for services that are "over and above" what are already offered for free.
And it wouldn't come at the expense of baseline Government funding to organisations which support the first 1000 days, like Plunket which gets about $66 million per year, Upston said.
"Women in some areas struggle to access lactation specialists or have to pay for physiotherapy for pelvic floor issues. Someone might want additional home visits," Upston said.
"I think back to when I had my first child, I was a solo mum and I didn't have family support. I didn't have a clue about some of the things I needed to do and I really lacked confidence as a new mum with a new baby.
"So, for me, I would have liked to be able to purchase some hours for someone to come into my home and to help me with some of the basics of Mothercraft. I had real difficulties when my baby was six weeks old, figuring out how to get him to sleep and it was really stressing me out."
Upston envisaged organisations would be able to offer new services which parents could purchase.
Some of the options included in the policy document included:
• Additional pre- or postnatal parental education
• Extended postnatal stay
• Specialist support including lactation consultants, sleep specialists and pelvic health practitioners.
• Home-based support to develop mothercraft skills.
• Participation in parenting groups such as SPACE, Play Centre and Te Kōhanga Reo.
• Additional paid parental leave.
• More ECE hours for older siblings.
National would also ring-fence $16 million per annum funding to district health boards for every new mother to have a three-day postnatal stay, compared to the currently allocated 48 hours.
Upston said not every mother would use the three days so it could be reallocated to another mum who needed more time in hospital after birth.
As well, mothers would pre and post-birth GP visits and National promised to revamp the B4 School check at 3 years to identify developmental concerns and trigger early intervention services. The B4 check is currently at age 4.
National also promised to:
• Develop a "child passport", an enhanced version of the current Well Child/Tamariki Ora book with electronic record-keeping.
• Establish a National Centre for Child Development headquartered at a university.
• Allow parents to take paid parental leave at the same time if they wish.
Paid parental leave was extended by 22 to 26 weeks under the current Government. While it can be split between parents, it can only be taken by one parent at a time.
National would seek to make this leave flexible so parents could take some of that time concurrently.
It attempted to introduce the policy in 2017 as an amendment to the bill which extended paid leave and was passed under urgency.
The National Party put up an amendment to make that time flexible, meaning parents could take some of that time concurrently - but the Government did not support it, saying its bill focused on the primary caregiver.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the time she liked the idea of flexibility and it had a "really good chance" of Government support, but wanted it to go through the public scrutiny of a select committee process.
National leader Judith Collins said their package would "give parents control and choice over the type of support they receive, regardless of their situation or parenting experience".
Act leader David Seymour said National's policy was "good" but deemed the $3000 payments "universal welfare" which he said was unaffordable.
"The social investment approach and enhanced screening for newborns is smart, but universal welfare is irresponsible in the current climate," he said.
"A universal welfare payment will mean even millionaires will receive a handout from Government. We have to be smarter about how we target money to where it is most needed."