New Zealand children's health camps face a funding crisis which may force the closure of those at Roxburgh, in Central Otago, and either Rotorua or Otaki.
The camps' chief executive, Dr Fiona Inkpen, has told Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson that the camps "will no longer exist in their current form" unless they can fill a $5 million shortfall before a board meeting next Thursday.
Talks with Social Development Ministry officials have resulted in an increase of only 3.4%, or about $414,000, to the camps' existing $12.2 million annual contract with the ministry - well short of the $5 million required.
"At this stage, given your officials' response, the board will announce the closure of Roxburgh and that it will not proceed with vital redevelopments at Otaki and Rotorua," Dr Inkpen told Ms Dyson in a letter dated October 9.
Last night, a staff member at the Roxburgh camp, who did not wish to be named, said she had not heard anything about the possible closure.
Roxburgh Community Board deputy chairwoman Helen Pinder said if the camp and accompanying school closed it would be a major blow.
"Things are pretty tight around the place now with sheep farming down and fruit growing not good," she said.
The camp, which is understood to employ about 45 people, is one of the largest employers of permanent staff in the town. The camps are among the country's oldest social services, dating to 1919. Since 1929 they have been part-funded by annual NZ Post health stamps.
Last year, the seven camps worked with 2719 children, most of them with behavioural problems. The foundation running the camps employs 350 people, about 45 at each camp, plus field workers. Dr Inkpen said the camps were a crucial early intervention for children who were at risk of "sad life outcomes" such as addictions, mental health problems or crime.
The camps' main source of money has always been taxpayers. The foundation has survived by selling three-quarters of its Pakuranga camp site, making a net $13 million gain four years ago. But its board has decided not to sell its remaining stock investments of $7 million because it would lose $1.5 million at current share prices.
The Social Development Ministry's general manager of family and community services, Marti Eller, said the ministry recognised health camps as an "essential service" and was committed to funding them fully "over the next three to four years" under the Pathways to Partnership programme.
The programme, announced by Prime Minister Helen Clark in February, will double funding to essential social services to $396 million a year by 2011.
But Ms Eller said only a $51 million increase was available in this financial year and priority was being given to "smaller essential services currently being funded at a lower level".
She said the foundation had been considering the closure of its Roxburgh and Otaki camps anyway because of their remote locations and ageing facilities.
Dr Inkpen said the two camps had been earmarked for closure eventually, but only as part of a long-term plan to move those facilities closer to Dunedin and Wellington
Helping hand
• Health camps started in 1919 to aid malnourished children.
• First permanent camp established at Otaki in 1932.
• Now seven camps at Whangarei, Pakuranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, Otaki, Christchurch and Roxburgh.
• Camps now deal mainly with emotional and behavioural problems, and encourage parents to stay with their children for part of their five weeks in residence.
