KARORI UNDER FIVES CONSULTATION - Undertaken for Plunket by Mary-Jane Rivers and Carolyn Watts - Delta Networks
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KARORI UNDER FIVES CONSULTATION
Undertaken for Plunket
by
Mary-Jane Rivers and
Carolyn Watts
Delta Networks
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This consultation would not have been possible without the support of the parents, Plunket staff and
volunteers, and Karori community members who were part of the Advisory Group. Thank you for
guiding this work and ensuring the consultation reached those it needed to.
Thank you to the Plunket staff, including the teachers at the Crèche for openly and generously
participating.
A big thank you to Lisa Allen who expertly recorded the notes from all the consultation meetings.
Last but by no means least thank you to the hundreds of Karori families who had input into the
consultation.
2
1 August 2018
INTRODUCTION
Plunket’s Karori Under Fives Consultation was about understanding the priority needs of young
Karori families and how Plunket could meet them. The consultation gathered the views and ideas of
Karori parents, including those who currently use Plunket’s services, Plunket staff and volunteers,
and other local service providers.
The purpose of the consultation was to make sure Plunket understood the full picture of the needs
of Karori children and families so that good decisions about future community services, including
provision of a crèche service could be made.
APPROACH
The consultation was undertaken by two independent consultants guided by a Project Advisory
Group of local Karori residents, Crèche parents and Plunket local and national volunteers and staff.
The consultation used a variety of methods: individual interviews, consultation meetings, a survey,
workshops and Playgroup visits. An additional workshop for the Crèche and Plunket was provided
during the consultation in order to explore options. As well, the privacy of those interviewed was
guaranteed, the online survey was promoted through a wide range of channels through a great deal
of local support, and crèche parents were reassured by Plunket that no sudden decision would be
made about the crèche without discussions with parents.
Table 1: Number of people participating in the consultation
Survey Interviews Consultation Crèche Crèche Playgroup Total
meetings Parent options visits
consultation workshop
meetings
Karori 349 12 17 9 34 421
parents
Plunket 5 4 4 3 16
staff and
volunteers
Other local 11 4 15
service
providers
Total 349 16 16 21 12 38 4521
Further details about the methods are included in Appendix 1.
1
In some cases people will have participated in more than one consultation method
3
1 August 2018
CONTEXT
Karori
Demographics
Karori had a population of 14,736 in the Census 2013 with a diverse ethnic makeup. Overall 76.3% of
the population identified themselves as European, 15.9% as Asian, 5.1% as Māori and 3.6% as Pacific
Peoples, compared with 72.8%, 15.9%, 7.6% and 4.7% for the Wellington City respectively. 30.7% of
the population were born overseas compared with 29% in Wellington city as a whole.
The three Karori primary schools reflect the population to varying extents. Karori West and St
Teresa’s have higher proportions of students from Asian families - 16% of their school population
(compared with 13% at Karori Normal). For St Teresa’s, 14% of their school role is Filipino and the
school specifically supports a Filipino families’ group. At 10% of the school roll, Karori West has the
highest proportion of Maori students compared with Karori Normal at 4%. St Teresa’s has the
highest proportion of Pacific Peoples at 9% and has established a Pasifika family group.
2013 data also shows that just over half of the population is employed - 7,686 people. There was
frequent comment that in Karori many mothers have gone back to work. There is a growth of
grandparents looking after kids in Karori, particularly in the Chinese community.
Karori is known as a well-off suburb, but there are some pockets of real poverty. “We don't have
some of the problems that may result from this because of the services provided in the community.
Most don't know what difference these services make, but if you take them away, then you'd notice.
Part of our community wellbeing is because of places like Plunket. Take that away and you don't
know what's going to happen.” (Consultation participant)
Anecdotal comments reinforced the census data, with many families in Karori new to Wellington
coming from overseas or other places in New Zealand. Those new to New Zealand are primarily
migrants rather than refugees2 and, along with those from other parts of the country, do not have
any family support and activities such as the Plunket Crèche and Playgroups are a lifeline. Consistent
and frequent comments during the consultation were, the Crèche offers the respite from full time
care that enables mothers to stay well and Playgroups are important social connectors.
As a suburb, Karori has a number of services, facilities and activities, including the well-used
community and recreation centres, playgroups, playcentre and kindergartens. A visioning exercise in
2017 identified four areas of change and development in Karori envisaged by local people. These
four shifts focused on emphasising Karori as a:
• nature-lover’s paradise, a living centre for outdoor activity with Karori living and leading a
low-carbon future
• humming, entertaining and activated hub for the western suburbs
• place where there is a ‘working buzz’. Home-workers and start-ups have spaces they love
working in together. We support our local businesses who provide everything we need
• place where we can walk around our humming centres with a coffee, meeting different
people and saying hello. Karori is an inclusive place where generations and cultures are
mixing
2Red Cross, NZ’s refugee settlement agency, has no refugee families in Karori because of an absence of social housing in
the suburb.
4
1 August 2018
Seen as essential to enable this are: community leadership, intentionally designing Karori and social
resilience.
At the same time as these ideas have been put forward, St Mary’s Anglican Church is planning a
more community-focused redesign of their facilities and the former College or Education site is to
become an elder care facility. Karori Community Hall Trust has also fund raised and completed the
base build construction phase of the new Karori Event Centre. The final ‘fit out’ phase is underway.
Plunket
Plunket restructured between 2011 and 2016. The Wellington/Wairarapa area was one of 18 area
boards. The move to consolidate culminated in the area boards voting at their AGM in 2016 to
consolidate. Each Area Board was in charge of the consultation with their members (rather than the
whole community as they were each operating under their Society rules). The consultation found
most people did not understand or were unaware of the move from regional to national Plunket
structure.
The ramifications of the original decision to close the Plunket Crèche
The decision and its communication have had impacts that reach across the whole community in
Karori. There remains a lot of confusion in the community about Plunket services and what Plunket
will do in Karori. Many people thought Plunket was planning to withdraw all Plunket services from
Karori. This was not the case. There is a need to rebuild trust between the community and Plunket.
Plunket nationally
Plunket is facing challenges of declining volunteer numbers, year on year financial losses, many
buildings requiring significant improvements, inconsistent and poorly integrated services across New
Zealand and an inequitable distribution of community services available to those communities
needing them most.
While the costs of Plunket Nurse services are covered by the national Well Child Ministry of Health
contract, all other Plunket community services differ between communities and are resourced by
local fundraising, annual appeals, grants and donations. Specific local developments, such as the
Plunket Hub in Johnsonville (a nearby suburb on the north-western side of Kaori), are funded
through specific, non-core funding. In the case of the Johnsonville hub the development was only
made possible through a bequest from local business people.
Plunket services in Karori
The services currently provided to Karori families by Plunket staff and volunteers, either at the Karori
centre or other locations, include:
• Plunket nursing services for 787 children in Karori, with over 3,413 WellChild appointments with
parents at home or in the clinic in the past two years
• More than 1000 PlunketLine calls from Karori parents looking for advice and help
• Plunket in the Neighbourhood (PIN) coffee groups to bring parents together
• Free parenting education courses (PEPE)
• The Plunket Karori Crèche
• Free additional courses for parents on important topics e.g. feeding and sleeping
• Monthly visits of parents and babies to the local Retirement Home
5
1 August 2018FINDINGS
The findings from the consultation are summarised in this section. More detail about the findings is
available in Appendix 2.
What are the needs and priorities of Karori parents for support with their children
under 5?
I'm not from NZ, but Plunket made me feel like I belonged to something - Nurse, PIN groups, Crèche -
I felt like I had a community, not a new mum with no family (Survey respondent).
Plunket Nurse – everyone believes this service is essential and extremely valuable. It is unlike any
other service as it reaches out to all parents with new babies. Many people felt Karori needed a
greater Plunket Nurse resource, and that the Plunket Nurse is under resourced compared to other
suburbs. The community health worker support was mentioned as very helpful by many people.
Breastfeeding support in the Karori community – this is vitally important and not available in Karori.
After a c-section I don't want to drive to J'ville, Lyall Bay or anywhere else (Consultation participant).
Karori Crèche is very important offering sessional, reasonably priced care from long-standing
experienced teachers. Especially important for under 2s, there are other options such as Kindy for
3+ years.
PIN groups are important in many ways - they build social connections, provide support and can also
identify families that are struggling. The hosting of the groups by Plunket volunteers is essential and
highly valued.
Plunketline is highly valued, 24-7 help and staffed by excellent nurses.
PEPE and other parent education courses are valued but not offered in Karori. For most people
travelling out of Karori was inconvenient but did not stop them.3 Their preference would be for all
Plunket courses to be run in Karori – it is New Zealand’s biggest suburb. A number of people said the
need to travel would make these courses unavailable to many parents in Karori.
Which Plunket services did people use?
Ninety percent of people who participated in the survey had used Plunket services, 5% intended to
and 5% had not used Plunket services.
The top 5 services people4 used were:
1. Plunket Nurse (97%)
2. Plunketline (70%)
3. PIN Group (60%)
4. Plunket Crèche (33%)
5. Car seat advice (31%)
What do people value most about Plunket?
Parents value the support and advice from the Plunket Nurse, a trusted, caring expert who is non-
judgemental. This gives them peace of mind and reassurance. The four key themes from an open-
ended question in the survey about what people value most about Plunket were:
3
The views and experience of members of Playgroups who were interviewed
4
% of people who answered this survey question n=318
6
1 August 20181. Support and advice from the Plunket Nurse (62%)
Advice and support for everything baby and parenting that I am learning or don't know. It
has made a huge difference and helped me become a more confident mum (Survey
respondent).
2. The local presence in Karori, available to everyone and free, creating a supportive
community environment linking parents and supporting those who are isolated (38%)
In the community and for the community! (Survey respondent)
It’s local and all the mums I know locally and through PIN also use it and we were able to
share our knowledge and experiences of plunket. (Survey respondent).
3. Parents value the comprehensive range of services Plunket offers to support both mothers
and children including Plunketline, PIN groups and home visits (16%)
24/7 Plunketline was amazing. When you don’t know what to do with your baby these
wonderful women talk you calmly through what to do and reassure you it’s ok and normal or
advise further help (Survey respondent).
4. Plunket Creche offers flexible, affordable and high quality child care (13%)
The creche was amazing and very affordable and we had the option of flexible hours in the
creche which worked well alongside part time work (Survey respondent)
What are the gaps in support for children under 5 in Karori?
Fifty percent of people who answered this survey question said there were gaps in support for
children under 5 in Karori, 40% didn’t know and 10% said there were no gaps in support.
The main gaps identified were:
1. Lack of flexible, reasonably priced childcare particularly for children under 3 (41%)
2. The Plunket Nurse is under resourced in Karori (18%)
3. The full range of Plunket services is not available in Karori (for example lactation consultant,
and parenting courses) (15%)
4. There will be a gap if the Plunket Crèche closes (11%)
5. There are gaps in group-based activities which are year-round for under 3s, suitable for
parents with more than one child and outdoor play areas and activity spaces with organised
activities (11%)
What services and activities do people want Plunket to provide?
Figure 1 shows the services and activities that people most want Plunket to provide:
1. The Plunket Nurse (95%)
2. The Karori Plunket Crèche (77%)
3. Plunket PIN Groups (73%)
4. Plunketline (71%)
5. Lactation consultant clinic (68%)
6. The Plunket community health worker (67%)
7. PEPE (Parent Education Programme) courses (66%)
8. A drop-in clinic with the Plunket Nurse (61%)
7
1 August 2018Figure 1: Services and activities Plunket should provide
Antenatal advice
A clinic with the Plunket Nurse where you can drop in…
Toy library
Plunketline (0800 number)
The Plunket community health worker (Community…
Plunket playgroup
Car seat advice
Lactation consultant clinic
First aid courses
PEPE (Parenting Education Programme) course
Plunket PIN Group (coffee group)
The Karori Plunket Creche
The Plunket Nurse
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
How would people like to see Plunket services offered?
There was wide support for a community hub, where family services, including Plunket services, and
the Crèche could be provided at one site.
Increased resource for the Plunket Nurse, Community Support Coordinator and Community Health
Worker and access to Plunket services not currently available in Karori, such as PEPE (Parenting
Education Programme) and other Plunket courses and lactation consultant advice were identified as
priorities.
A greater priority placed on supporting volunteers.
Continuation of the Crèche (either by Plunket or as a parent-led community initiative) was strongly
supported.
8
1 August 2018CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
These key findings were reinforced by the sense-making workshop whose participants concluded
that Karori is:
• The largest suburb in New Zealand with a strong community. It has a large number of
families from overseas, a growing number of families from Asia and increasing numbers of
grandparents caring for young children.
• A great place to raise children and has many activities for children under 5 years. Karori is
well served by Playgroups run by local Churches offering important social connection for
children and families.
The consultation findings showed that all of Plunket services are valued by families in Karori. The
Plunket Nurse and Plunket Community Health Worker are both essential and require increased
resource in Karori. Karori is fortunate to have two long standing volunteer coordinators for the PIN
coffee groups whose work is supported by the Community Support Coordinator. PIN groups are an
important Plunket service offering many benefits including support and community building. The
combined impact of this ‘team’ provides a group who have a deep understanding of the needs of
Karori children under 5s. They are a resource for the community and National Plunket, and they are
facilitators of a network of community support and interconnections.
The Plunket Crèche is very important and unique because of its flexible, reasonably priced care
provided by long standing and experienced teachers.
The main gap identified in Karori, at least in part currently filled by the Plunket Crèche, is for
reasonably priced, high quality, flexible childcare, particularly for children under 3.
Better access to Plunket services not currently available in Karori such as PEPE (Parenting Education
Programme) and other Plunket courses and lactation consultant advice is a priority.
The preference for Plunket service delivery in Karori was for a hub to include existing services, the
Crèche and those Plunket services not currently provided in Karori. The hub could also be used for
other activities and services to support families not run by Plunket. Participants recognised, and
supported, that local fundraising would be needed to achieve this.
Recommendations:
1. Maximise the use of the current Plunket building by creating a hub to house the Creche,
existing and potentially expanding Plunket services. This would be based on:
• improving access to services, not currently available in Karori, by offering as many as
possible of the Plunket services in Karori and increasing the Nurse and Community
Worker resource
• the knowledge that Plunket does not have additional resources to invest in building
expansion, and would therefore need the support of the community and Council for
funding and development
2. Plunket and the Creche parents continue to work together, within a defined timeframe,
to agree (i) how best to continue to run the Creche from the Hub, and (ii) agree on any
transition arrangements for ownership and management
9
1 August 20183. The need for flexible, affordable, high quality child care and family support, especially
for children under three, has been identified as a key need for Karori and is one of the
reasons the crèche is so highly valued. This is likely to be the same in many other
neighbourhoods and communities. In April 2018, the Minister of Education announced
that a new strategic plan is being developed for early learning that will set the high level
direction and vision for the next ten years. This provides an ideal opportunity for
Plunket to advocate for improvements to the current provision of flexible, affordable,
high quality child care and family support for children under three.
10
1 August 2018APPENDIX 1: CONSULTATION METHODS
Survey
The purpose of the survey was to obtain a wide range of views from people in Karori on the needs
for children under 5 and views on what Plunket could provide. The online survey was promoted
through a wide range of channels including the I Love Karori, Karori Plunket Crèche, Plunket and
Neighbourly Facebook pages; directly by email to the database of 300+ PIN families5, the
respondents to the petition to save the Crèche6 (who had agreed to be re-contacted); in paid and
unpaid content in local newspapers; via relevant local websites including the Karori Community
Centre, Plunket; and via newsletters from schools and early childhood education centres including
Kindergartens.
349 people completed the survey. The views of people from across Karori were included with 40%
from Karori East (City End) 1% from Makara, 46% from Karori West (Park End) and 13% other
(including other Karori locations and some from outside of Karori).
Interviews
The purpose of the interviews was to gain an in depth understanding of the context relevant to the
consultation. A total of 16 people were interviewed with interviewees selected to represent three
broad groups:
1. Community service perspectives (4)
2. Service perspectives (7)
3. Plunket perspectives (5)
Semi-structured interview schedules were used to guide the interviews. Interviewers took notes and
wrote these up more fully after each interview.
Consultation meetings, workshops and Playgroup visits
Two consultation meetings were held with parents who currently or previously had children at the
Crèche and Crèche teachers (20 people attended these 2 meetings). A further workshop was held
to consider options for the Crèche moving forward (attended by 11 parents and teachers).
Six community consultation meetings were held at a range of times (morning, afternoon, evening
and weekends) at two venues (the Karori Community Centre and Karori West School). Twelve
community members, the majority parents who had children at the Crèche attended these
meetings. Because of the lower than expected turn out at the consultation meetings, visits were
made to the St Mary’s, Karori Baptist Church and Cicada (Chinese) Playgroups. Thirty-eight parents,
caregivers and volunteers participated in one on one or small group discussions.
A note-taker was used to take notes at the consultation groups and workshops. Interviewers
recorded their own notes at the Playgroups.
5
Emailed directly by Plunket PIN Group Volunteer Coordinator
6
Emailed directly by the petition organisers
11
1 August 2018Sense-making workshop
All those who had participated in the consultation were invited to participate in a workshop to
review the findings, draw conclusions and make recommendations to feed into the final consultation
report for Plunket. Fourteen people attended the workshop.
12
1 August 2018APPENDIX 2: FINDINGS
Which Plunket services did people use?
Ninety percent of people who participated in the survey had used Plunket services, 5% intended to
and 5% had not used Plunket services. Figure 1 below shows the services that people had used.
The top 5 services people7 used were:
6. Plunket Nurse (97%)
7. Plunketline (70%)
8. PIN Group (60%)
9. Plunket Crèche (33%)
10. Car set advice (31%)
Figure 1: Plunket service usage
Plunket antenatal service (run in Johnsonville) 18
Plunket toy library 45
Plunketline (0800 number) 219
The Plunket community health worker 37
Plunket playgroup 25
Plunket car seat advice 98
Plunket lactation consultant clinic 66
Plunket first aid courses 35
PEPE (Parenting Education Programme) course 73
Plunket PIN Group (coffee group) 189
The Karori Plunket Creche 104
The Plunket Nurse 303
How important was each service?
For each service people had used we asked them how important it was to them:
• Not at all important
• Nice to have but not essential
• Important
• Very important, I could not have managed without it
There are two ways to analyse the answers to this question. Figure 2 shows the numbers of people
using the service who said it was important or very important. Figure 3 shows the proportion of
people using the service who said it was important or very important (which gives importance of
each service regardless of the actual numbers using the service).
The Plunket Nurse was rated as important or very important by the largest number of people,
followed by the Plunketline, PIN Groups and Creche (see Figure 2).
7
Refers to people who answered this question n=318
13
1 August 2018Figure 2: Number of people who said the service was important or very important
Plunket toy library
Plunket antenatal service (run in Johnsonville)
Plunketline (0800 number)
The Plunket community health worker
Plunket playgroup
Plunket car seat advice
Plunket lactation consultant clinic
Plunket first aid courses
PEPE (Parenting Education Programme) course
Plunket PIN Group (coffee group)
The Karori Plunket Creche
The Plunket Nurse
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Important Very important
The services rated as important or very important by the largest proportion of users (see Figure 3)
were the Plunket Nurse (95%) and the Creche (95%), the Plunket lactation consultant clinic (91%)
and Plunketline (86%).
Figure 3: Proportion of people who said the service was important or very important
Plunket toy library
Plunket antenatal service (run in Johnsonville)
Plunketline (0800 number)
The Plunket community health worker
Plunket playgroup
Plunket car seat advice
Plunket lactation consultant clinic
Plunket first aid courses
PEPE (Parenting Education Programme) course
Plunket PIN Group (coffee group)
The Karori Plunket Creche
The Plunket Nurse
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Important Very important
14
1 August 2018What do people value most about Plunket?
People value the support and advice from the Plunket Nurse, a trusted, caring expert who is non-
judgemental. The support is available to everyone, it is accessible, free and in their own community.
This gives them peace of mind and reassurance.
The four key themes were:
1. Support and advice from the Plunket Nurse 2. The local presence in Karori, available to
and Community Health Worker (62%) everyone and free, creates a supportive
community environment linking parents and
supporting those who are isolated (38%)
3. The range of services available to support 4. The Creche, which provides flexible,
parents and children including Plunketline, reasonably priced care from experienced
PIN groups and home visits (16%) teachers (13%)
15
1 August 2018What are the gaps in support for children under 5 in Karori?
Fifty percent of people said there were gaps in support for children under 5 in Karori, 40% didn’t
know and 10% said there were no gaps in support.
The main areas identified were:
1. Lack of flexible, reasonably priced childcare particularly for children under 3 (41%)
2. The full range of Plunket services is not available in Karori (for example lactation consultant,
family centre for sleep and behavioural issues) (15%)
3. There will be a gap if the Plunket Crèche closes (11%)
4. There are gaps in group-based activities which are year-round for under 3s including groups
for toddlers and infants and multiple under 5s, play areas, activity spaces (11%)
5. The Plunket Nurse is under resourced in Karori, there is a need for more than one Nurse to
provide adequate appointments (10%)
6. Very few Plunket visits after the first year, other than B4 School check (8%)
What are the needs and priorities of Karori parents for support with their children
under 5?
I'm not from NZ but Plunket made me feel like I belonged to something - Nurse, PIN groups, Crèche - I
felt like I had a community, not a new mum with no family.
Plunket Nurse – everyone believes this service is essential and extremely valuable. It is unlike any
other service as it reaches out to all parents with new babies. Many people felt Karori needed a
greater Plunket Nurse resource, that the Plunket Nurse is under resourced compared to other
suburbs. Several Mums had opted to go to Plunket in another suburb because appointments are so
hard to get in Karori. The community health worker support was mentioned as very helpful by many
people.
Breastfeeding support in the community. Vitally important and not available in Karori.
After a c-section I don't want to drive to J'ville, Lyall bay or anywhere else. There is insufficient
breastfeeding support in the Wellington region. People said face to face support is important for
breastfeeding and you need someone experienced, who is a mum or has been a mum.
Karori Crèche is very important offering sessional, reasonably priced care from long-standing
experienced teachers. Especially important for under 2s, there are other options such as Kindy for
3+ years. The Crèche is unique because:
• Flexible number of days with shorter hours - Plunket Crèche runs 8.30-1.30. The hours are
shorter which suits younger kids better and you don't have to commit to full days or a full
week. As a parent you have the opportunity to put them into a crèche and get a break, a bit
of mental health time.
• Run by trained registered teachers. We've had a lot of development with our children from
a young age due to trained teachers.
• Cost - $35 per session for under 3s. Children 3 -5 years are eligible for 20 hours subsidised
care.
• Low staff to child ratio
• Teacher tenure - Older teachers been there a long time, work well together, and a lot of
time for individual time with children. Bonding is different as a result of that. Otherwise the
tenure is the same as kindergarten.
• Crèche staff support parents’ wellbeing as well – the Crèche is a safe environment to ask
questions, get advice & let someone know when you are not coping.
16
1 August 2018• Unlike Playgroups it allows children to build independence from parents.
• Safe environment - "Always felt my kids were safe here - not sure I would at other places."
PIN groups are important in many ways - they build social connections, provide support and can also
identify families that are struggling. The hosting of the groups by Plunket volunteers is essential and
highly valued.
Plunketline is highly valued, 24-7 help and staffed by excellent nurses.
PEPE and other parent education courses are valued but not offered in Karori. For most people
travelling out of Karori was inconvenient but did not stop them. Their preference would be for all
Plunket courses to be run in Karori – it is New Zealand’s biggest suburb. A number of people said the
need to travel would make these courses unavailable to many parents in Karori.
Karori has enough Playgroups that are run by organisations other than Plunket although the Cicada
Playgroup (Chinese, Mandarin speaking) is interested in a closer link to Plunket. People attending
the St Mary’s and Baptist Church playgroups said it is important that playgroups are hosted and a
rotating roster would not work. Both these groups have a gold coin donation system. They are
hosted by Mums from the Church and both have older women volunteers and pastoral support.
They are attended by Mums and Dads, Grandparents, Au Pairs and people from outside of Karori.
There needs to be good parking, a supportive environment for those with English as a second
language and a welcoming space.
Karori has a good range of activities for under 5s
The Karori Rec Centre offers Tumbling Tots ($10/session) on a Tuesday and Gym Jam on a Friday
The Karori Library has Baby Rock and Rhyme on Thursday and Friday, Preschool Storytime Monday-
Wednesday and Chinese Storytime and Kōhunga Kōrero once a month.
Some people mentioned it would be good to have more non-religious associated play groups. There
is also support for more organised activities (similar to a playgroup) that are outside, at playgrounds
in summer. Activities during school holidays for under 5s is a gap.
Gaps
For those that couldn't afford the Crèche it would be good to have a drop-in centre that was free,
where children could play and Mums could get together. Flexibility and access are both really
important - for some families even the gold coin donation for a playgroup is a lot. A mother at one of
the playgroups said she had $10 per week for her children’s activities including bus fares if it was
raining.
Parent education on the importance of active movement, its neurological and development benefits.
More support for Mums when they are distressed, a place to go to ask questions or just to hang out
and get support.
A place where you can get support for breastfeeding, bonding, attachment, toddler behavioural
issues, maternal mental health, like the Plunket Family Centres.
Activities to encourage integration of working and non-working parents. There is lots of interaction
while on parental leave and then families fall into two groups, working and not working.
Playgroups were seen as very beneficial because a lot of learning happens simply watching other
parents with their children. Parents talking to each other was seen as important.
17
1 August 2018What services and activities do people want Plunket to provide?
Figure 4 shows the services and activities that people most want Plunket to provide:
1. The Plunket Nurse (95%)
2. The Karori Plunket Crèche (77%)
3. Plunket PIN Groups (73%)
4. Plunketline (71%)
5. Lactation consultant clinic (68%)
6. The Plunket community health worker (67%)
7. PEPE (Parent Education Programme) courses (66%)
8. A drop-in clinic with the Plunket Nurse (61%)
Figure 4: Services and activities Plunket should provide
Antenatal advice
A clinic with the Plunket Nurse where you can drop in…
Toy library
Plunketline (0800 number)
The Plunket community health worker (Community…
Plunket playgroup
Car seat advice
Lactation consultant clinic
First aid courses
PEPE (Parenting Education Programme) course
Plunket PIN Group (coffee group)
The Karori Plunket Creche
The Plunket Nurse
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
How would people like to see Plunket services offered?
It is important to have all the Plunket services together. It would be great to have a hub where
you can take another older child with you and know they're ok while you're seeing the Nurse.
A hub would be great with all the services located together and a space for people to meet, perhaps
including a drop-in clinic. The current Plunket building would need to be modified for that purpose
or a combination of that and renting space to the Crèche. Ideally would be nice to have everything
(the parent education courses, lactation consultant) in Karori.
A Hub would be useful for the nurses, they're working in isolation a lot.
There is strong support from most people to continue the Crèche, however, there is also support for
the Plunket building to be used as a hub for Plunket services. Parents would like to attend courses
(PEPE and others) and have the rooms available as a place to meet, breastfeed and connect.
A hub gives the opportunity for a community of Plunket people providing services and a continuous
cycle of people/families coming in.
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1 August 2018If I had to choose between a Plunket Crèche or a Plunket hub, I would choose the hub. (Baptist Church
Playgroup Mum).
The options favoured by the Crèche Parents (from the meetings) for transition involve the Crèche
remaining in the current building, leasing the space from Plunket and running as an independent
Community Crèche. This Crèche would probably require more room to increase the numbers of
children, provide a larger separate sleep space, have an office for the teachers and also have
separate adult toilets.
Plunket brand presence in the community is important, people drop in and ask questions. It's
important to have that presence. At present the Crèche is seen as Plunket.
Having a centrally located Plunket service that is on the bus route is important. Many people
thought the Plunket Nurse could be located elsewhere, for example at the Community Centre.
Maximise the use of the current Plunket building – other Plunket services could be run out of the
Plunket building after 2pm when the Crèche has finished. If the Plunket Nurse is not in her office
this area could also be utilised.
Look at other existing space in Karori - the Event Centre is going to open soon so that might create
new space or free up space in the Community Centre. The Karori Mall has just been bought and is
being developed and the entry to the Mobil station is changing.
There is a need to structure volunteering differently, people don’t have time for big commitments.
There are opportunities for more sporadic volunteering, for example for those working a corporate
day could support a local Plunket playgroup. For some reason there's not a lot of Plunket volunteers
in Karori. The volunteers might need to be grandparents, retired people.
A greater emphasis needs to be placed on supporting volunteers by Plunket. The Community
Support Coordinator role is under resourced. Volunteers need to be looked after and valued by
Plunket. At present the resource for this is limited.
More collaboration across existing services and activities, for example, Plunket isn’t represented at
the local Community Centre. What are the win-win options?
• The Community Centre has a list of volunteers, who could be linked in with Plunket.
• The Cicada Playgroup would like to be more closely linked with Plunket.
• Babies in retirement villages is really great. Lisa's doing some great stuff but if she is no
longer able to volunteer, then it can get lost. Things get picked up and dropped.
• It would be great if Plunket coordinated and managed a list of all available activities for
under 5s.
Paid volunteer coordinators are essential, the current resource across all of Wellington South is not
enough.
Better use of existing Karori services, for example Karori already has a community bus that may be
able to be used by Plunket. Plunket Nurses/Playgroups/PIN Groups may know where there are
pockets that would benefit from extra outreach and help.
Different ways to convey information that isn't a group – Webinars, online courses, quizzes, video,
snapchat, and other non-online based for those who aren't into the technology stuff.
Look at other sustainable ways to fundraise - Playgroups can be run with some profitability,
especially where you can raise funds locally through local funders - Rotary, etc. They like to support
concrete things like Playgroups. Paid coordinator is important, so they can drive the fundraising.
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1 August 2018You can also read
