The fate of the country's children's health camps is now in the hands of an independent financial review, and a decision could be a month away.
Te Puna Whaiora, The New Zealand Foundation for Child and Family Health and Development, has asked the Government to clarify funding before deciding whether to close one or more of their seven camps.
The camps' board met in Wellington this week saying it would be forced to close its camp at Roxburgh in Central Otago, and eventually a camp at either Rotorua or Otaki, unless it could meet a $5 million funding shortfall.
It had been corresponding daily with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) since the camps went public with their funding crisis last week.
Board chairman Wayne Chapman said today that while the organisation's "critical financial situation" had not changed, it had agreed to put on hold any decisions about cuts to the service until the findings of the financial review were available in four weeks time.
He said the agreement was made in good faith, following a meeting with senior MSD officials who had provided an assurance that they were committed to developing a "sustainable funding plan going forward".
"While the board feels that some progress has been made, we remain disappointed that it has taken this long for our desperate situation to be acknowledged.
"For the past four years we have gone through a series of similar reviews of our operation and our cost structures. Consistently, these reviews have found that our service is effective, that we are badly under-funded, and that our costs are beyond dispute," Mr Chapman said.
"MSD has given us no assurance that our funding shortfall will be met at the completion of the review. However we remain hopeful that camp closures can be averted."
The service could not continue to run while it was so under-funded, he said.
The camps are run at Whangarei, Pakuranga, Gisborne, Rotorua, Otaki, Christchurch and Roxburgh. They have been operating for 82 years.
