Tracking the health and wellbeing of New Zealand children will be stepped up amid national concerns from academics, doctors and child welfare organisations about the potential for rising child health problems and poverty during the current economic downturn.

As the first step, the New Zealand Children's Social Health Monitor Website will be launched at the Paediatric Society's annual conference in Hamilton on Wednesday 25th November.

The Children's Social Health Monitor was developed collaboratively by organisations concerned about the impact of the economic downturn on children's wellbeing. These include the Paediatric Society of New Zealand, the Population Child Health Special Interest Group of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Maori SIDS Program, TAHA (the Pacific Well Mother and Infant Service), the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service, the Kia Mataara Well Child Consortium, the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, and academics from the Universities of Otago and Auckland.

"The Children's Social Health Monitor will track the economic wellbeing of New Zealand children and their families over the next few years, along with a range of conditions which might be expected to change during the downturn," says working group member and Director of New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service Dr Elizabeth Craig.

"If we find that child health outcomes are deteriorating, this will be brought to the attention of policy makers so that appropriate responses can be implemented."

The New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service based at the University of Otago will update the health indicators annually, until the economic position of New Zealand children improves. It is also intended that the number of conditions monitored will expand, as new issues emerge over the next few years.