Child wellbeing Indicators for Social Development

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Child wellbeing Indicators for Social Development

• Andy Dawes

Child Youth, Family Social Development research
programme Human Sciences Research Council Cape
Town, South Africa (www.hsrc.ac.za)
adawes_at_hsrc.ac.za Presented to the Department of
Health Social Development Limpopo 21 February
2007
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Outline

• Who are we? The HSRC
• ME quick review
• Indicators
• A rights-based approach to monitoring child
  well-being
• Some examples

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Who are we? www.hsrc.ac.za

• Status Research Council established by Act of
  Parliament 1968 / 2007.
• Structure 4 National Research Programmes (plus
  centres) offices in 3 Regions
• Mandate
• to undertake research in the human and social
  sciences
• to provide advice on social science research and
  the utilization of research to the benefit of the
  country
• to co-operate with national and international
  research counterparts as well as users of
  research
• to publish and disseminate research findings.

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ME Review Programme Evaluation

• The systematic collection of information about
  the activities, characteristics, and outcomes of
  programs in order to
• evaluate the programmes effectiveness in
  achieving intended outcomes and goals.
• improve effectiveness, and/or inform decisions
  about future programming.
• Add to the data on what works (is effective) in a
  particular field.

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Main Purposes of M E (1)

• Internal
• To assist programme staff to do a better job.
• M E is a fundamental tool to improve practices
  and strengthen your programme.
• M E helps you find out what works for which
  participants at what cost.
• M E is therefore an ethical practice.

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Main Purposes of M E (2)

• External
• To advance good practice through gathering
  evidence as to what works and what does not.
• Allows us to ensure that what we only go to scale
  with what works.
• To improve the state of knowledge on how to
  improve child / family / community outcomes.
• Enables us to be accountable for what we do.

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ME Review Monitoring

• Refers to the systematic process of tracking all
  relevant aspects of an intervention. Used in
  process evaluation.
• In order to enable one to judge both the quality
  of programme delivery (programme inputs) and the
  outcomes (effectiveness) we require
• An effective information system for recording the
  goals, resources, inputs, activities outcomes
  of the programme.
• The development of good indicators and simple
  measures of delivery (inputs integrity etc),
  outcomes and if possible, impacts.

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Why have indicators?

• The primary purposes of indicators are
• To provide decision-makers with information to
  influence policy development, programme
  implementation, resource allocation and services
• To raise public awareness about peoples needs
  and circumstances
• To facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of
  social policies, services and programmes.

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What are indicators?

• Indicators provide information. Indicators point
  to something e.g. Childrens risk of injury.
• Indicators are normally (but not always)
  quantitative.
• When measured across time, they point to changes
  (or consistencies) in the situation.
• Indicators are derived from one or more measures.
  
• These must be a reliable, and an accurate gauge
  of the specific phenomenon (child status service
  coverage etc).
• Indicators are like the instruments on the
  dashboard.

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Child Indicators

• Tell us how well our children are doing, whether
  our services are good enough and whether there
  are enough of them (coverage)
• Assist us to develop and target policy and target
  interventions for children
• Assist us to monitor whether our interventions
  make a difference to children
• Tell us whether or not we are wasting our limited
  finances
• Help us advocate for children and show why it is
  good to invest in children.

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A rights-Based Approach to monitoring Child
Well-being

• Draws on local and international Child Rights
  provisions
• Specifies the rights assess delivery on rights
  assess child outcomes (monitor duty bearers as
  well as children)
• Incorporates the childs present while using a
  developmental perspective (wellbeing well
  becoming)
• Assesses both positive and negative outcomes for
  children
• Where possible uses public administrative data
  and surveys
• Generates child-centered statistics
• Documents the relationship between the quality of
  childrens environments and child outcomes, and
• Considers the timing of measurement the cost of
  data collection and the availability of good
  data
• http//www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid2
  200

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What is a Child-centered Statistic?

• It provides a view of the situation from the
  childs perspective!
• Lets look at two ways of describing households
• Adult-centered The proportion of workless
  households in the district.
• Child-centered The proportion of children living
  in workless households in the district!

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How it works The Rights Component

• Identify the rights held by children (e.g. The
  2006 Childrens Act)
• Measure achievement of the rights (e.g. to
  survival, development, protection) by monitoring
  the status of children.
• Identify who is responsible for ensuring the
  delivery of rights (e.g. access to school
  health quality of services quality of housing
  neighbourhoods) so as to monitor duty bearer
  performance in regard to delivery.

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How it works The Well-being component

• The Rights approach is combined with a Well-being
  approach which
• Emphasises the whole child
• Covers a range of domains of functioning (e.g.
  Health education protection)
• Is informed by evidence on factors that influence
  the course of child development and can be
  addressed in policy and intervention.

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What is child well-being?

• 5 broad outcome areas really matter to childrens
  well-being
• Economic well being having sufficient income and
  material comfort to be able to take advantage of
  opportunities
• Being healthy enjoying good physical and mental
  health and living a healthy lifestyle
• Staying safe being protected from harm and
  neglect and growing up able to look after
  themselves
• Enjoying and achieving getting the most out of
  life and developing broad skills for adulthood
• Making a positive contribution developing the
  skills and attitudes to contribute to the society
  in which they live

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Rights-based Child Wellbeing Monitoring
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How does our model apply to policy and
interventions? Five indicator Types

• Child status Who are the vulnerable children you
  want to assist (and from which population)? What
  outcomes do you want to promote your indicators
  of wellbeing / realisation of rights.
• Home Contexts What is their living context? Do
  you intervene a this level? If so what changes do
  you want?
• Surrounding environment What community level
  risks exist? What inputs do you want to see?
• Access to services What of children have
  access to grants health services ECD etc?
• Service quality. And what is the quality of the
  service rendered?

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Indicators developed for

• Childrens Contexts The home and neighbourhood
  environments
• Child Poverty (mapped at small area level)
• Child Survival and Health (including HIV AIDS)
• Education Development (including ECD
  Disability)
• Child Protection (maltreatment juvenile justice
  street children trafficking commercial sexual
  exploitation).
• OutputTechnical volume plus user friendly Core
  Sets

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EXAMPLE 1

• Child Protection (CP)
• What is it you want to measure (the issue of
  definition?)!
• Where is the data?
• Can one get it regularly?
• Is the quality OK?

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Child Abuse data The Tip of the Iceberg
Reported Cases
Unsubstantiated Reports
?
Substantiated Investigations Child Court
SAPS
Unreported Cases
Unknown Cases
Thanks to Peter Dudding Child Welfare Canada for
the graphic
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Child Protection (CP) indicators

• Indicator Child Maltreatment Incidence Rate
• Measure
• Denominator The proportion of children in a
  specific area (province or admin. District)
  referred to a Childrens Court Inquiry in a
  specific year.
• Numerator Child population of the province or
  district
• Rate Report per 1000 of the child population
  within each DoJ district and province.
• Source Department of Justice.
• Period Annual Statistics

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CCI Data Incidence of Probable Maltreatment per
1000 children by selected districts
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Child Protection (CP) indicators

• Data Quality is really important!!!!!
• Is SAPS data useful for telling you whether or
  not the risk of sexual assault on children is
  going up or down?
• In a Western Cape study we found that for SAPS
  crime data, the age of the rape victim was
  unknown in
• 60 of cases for 2003
• 82 of cases 2004 ..!

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Next Step Admin Data Local Geography Using
court maltreatment data to plan Protective
Services for children
\
Risk Areas
Risk Areas
Areas where young children are at most at risk
Services
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EXAMPLE 2
Mapping and Tracking Child Poverty The South
African Index of Multiple Deprivation 2001
(SAIMDC) Team Oxford Noble, Wright, Barnes
HSRC/UCT Dawes http//www.hsrcpress.ac.za/produ
ct.php?productid2217cat0page1featured
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A Model of Child Poverty
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Key Features of the Multi-dimensional Approach to
Child Poverty

• A multidimensional absolute poverty core (the
  minimum)
• A multidimensional relative poverty component
  that addresses the childs capacity to
  participate in society (poverty relative to
  others in society)
• Appropriate domains of deprivation (risks to
  children)
• Take into account access to quality services
• Be child-centred the child is the unit of
  analysis the poverty that is measured must be
  relevant to the life of the child, and children
  should be involved in defining poverty
• Be adjusted for different age groups of children.

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The SAIMDC-2001Domains

• Income and Material deprivation
• Employment deprivation
• Education deprivation
• Adequate Care Deprivation
• Living Environment deprivation

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1 The Income/Material Deprivation Domain

• This domain aims to capture the proportions of
  children experiencing income/material deprivation
  in an area.
• Numerator Number of children living in
  households where
• household equivalent income below 40 of the
  national mean (ltR850 per month)
• without a refrigerator
• with neither a TV nor a radio.
• Denominator Total children

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2 The Employment Domain

• This domain measures the proportion of children
  living in workless households in an area
• Numerator Number of children living in
  households where no adults aged 18 or over are in
  employment
• Denominator Total children

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3 The Education Domain

• The purpose of the domain is to capture the
  extent of childrens deprivation in education in
  an area
• Numerator
• Number of children (aged 9-15 inclusive) who are
  in the wrong grade for their age, or
• Number of children (aged 7-15 inclusive) who are
  not in school.
• Denominator Number of children of the relevant
  age bands.

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4 The Living Environment Domain

• The purpose of this domain is to identify
  children in poor quality living environments.
• Numerator Number of children living in
  households
• With no piped water inside their dwelling or in
  their yard
• With no use of electricity for lighting
• Living in a shack
• With no pit latrine with ventilation or flush
  toilet
• With no access to a telephone
• That are crowded (Canadian National Occupancy
  Standard).
• Denominator Total children

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5 Adequate Care Domain

• The purpose of the domain is to capture
  children who lack adequate care in an area
• Numerator
• Number of children (aged 0-17 inclusive) whose
  mother and father are no longer alive or not
  living in the household
• Number of children (aged 0-17 inclusive) living
  in a child-headed household (HH with 0 gt 18yrs).
• Denominator Number of children

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M E EXAMPLE 3
Evaluating the outcomes and impact of
interventions to improve early childhood health
and psychological development
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Evidence Investing in ECD promotes well-being
and well-becoming
Cost-benefit
Optimal Investment Levels
School
ECD
Post School
Source Heckman Carneiro Human Social Policy,
2003, Voices for America and the Child and Family
Policy Center. Early Learning Left out An
Examination of Public Investment in Education and
Development by Child Age, 2004
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TheChallenge! E.G Improving ECD

Programme Goals 1 More Jobs for ECD 2 Better
child Outcomes
Programme Outcomes A Centres
Programme Activities
Desired Programme Outcomes Improved Child
Status

• A
• Facility Examples
• Education training for various job levels
• Strengthening service integration

• Examples
• Increased Access to integrated quality ECD
  Services
• More ECD Jobs

Possible Target Groups / Sites A ECD Centre
Staff B Family programme staff

• Examples
• Improved
• Nutritional Status
• Language Dev.
• Cognitive Dev.
• Early Literacy
• Desired Impact
• Grade R
• Readiness to learn

Programme Outcomes B Families-Caregivers
Demonstration Programme Training and Jobs for
ECD
B Family Programme Examples Caregiver
support Education for stimulation Parenting
skills HBC interventions

• Examples
• Improved caregiver wellbeing
• Improved parenting skills and stimulation of the
  childs development

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Impact Child Caregiver Outcomes

• Child IMR and lt5MR
• Child Hunger Under Weight Stunting Rates
• Child under 2 years with moderate and severe
  disabilities
• Child Motor, language, cognitive, social and
  emotional developmental outcomes assessed in
  Grade R Grade 3 (outcome data linked to
  assessments of ECD site quality)
• Caregiver Caregiver behaviour outcomes following
  programmes designed to improve their care and
  stimulation of children in the home environment
  (e.g. home visiting).

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Supports for Early Development in the household

• Caregiver health status HIV caregivers on
  Anti-Retroviral Therapy
• Caregiver literacy rate (ABET cover)
• Home stimulation of language numeracy
  (UNICEF-MICS)
• Children living in households without
• food security
• access to potable water
• in households without access to adequate
  sanitation
• access to electricity
• access to adequate housing or shelter.
• Neighbourhood safety (violent crime patterns).

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Thank You adawes_at_hsrc.ac.za