One of the better initiatives of the Clark government regrettably did not begin until it was virtually on its last gasp, and now may founder through mismanagement, political stratagems and a totally inadequate level of public engagement.
As bright ideas go, the B4 School Check scheme had been canvassed for many years as a means of identifying (at the earliest possible stage) health, behavioural, social and developmental issues which could affect a child's ability to learn.
The theory was that by so doing professional attention could be paid to problems at the very beginning of their development, and thus avert a range of social misdemeanours, intellectual impairment, and even criminal activity at a later age.
The scheme combined the best elements of the kind of free preschool health checks provided by many family doctors, although on a more elaborate scale, and similar checks often carried out by public health nurses and Plunket.
The voluntary programme when finally tested in 2007-08 was very ambitious, covering not just the obvious search for potential mental and physical problems, but also including questionnaires for parents and early-childhood teachers about the subject child's behaviour and development.
It was tried out in the regions controlled by the Counties Manukau and Whanganui District Health Boards, deemed worth continuing, and $23.6 million over four years was allocated to fund it across the country.
It began nationally in September last year - although lagging Otago health managers were told by the Ministry of Health in no uncertain terms to get on with it - when an estimated 3000 Otago and Southland 4-year-olds were due to be given the free checks before they started school, but perhaps too few took notice of an official's warning that health boards should not underestimate the size of the project, which would involve hundreds of schools across both districts.
At the time, it had still to be determined who or what organisation would carry out the tests.
By January this year, only 100 Otago preschoolers had been given the checks - and it had still to be decided who would be doing them on a permanent basis.
That alarming term "an advisory group" emerged earlier this year to describe where the project had locally been beached while, apparently, some pathway was determined through various competing services to carry out the tests.
There was some expectation the scheme would be properly functioning by this month, nine months after Otago was warned to get a move on.
Now, predictably, the new Minister of Health Tony Ryall - probably prompted by his officials - is using terms which threaten the future of the scheme.
He has much justification for being concerned, for the administration of it across the country has been, in his words, "shambolic".
It was clear, he said, that the implementation across the country was rushed and that some boards clearly considered it important while others did not.
His statistics support his words - a mere 11% of eligible children had received checks by last month, of which 17% were referred for services or further assessment - but they clearly also support the need for such a scheme.
The health boards will doubtless argue that the core problem has been funding, that future funding is uncertain and is causing problems for boards arranging contracts for the service.
Mr Ryall, perhaps understandably, thinks the delaying and shilly-shallying means unspent funding should be returned by the health boards; after all, according to him, by the start of May only 150 of 1648 eligible children in Otago had received the checks while in Southland the number was just 46 out of 1154.
This is a very poor performance by the health boards by any standard and gives ground for suspicions that the B4 scheme is viewed as an unwanted imposition.
It is reported that target numbers and funding for both boards have been revised downwards, meaning far fewer checks in total on children in both Otago and Southland, while, according to the minister, 10 boards have affirmed their targets and the capacity to achieve them.
It would be unfortunate indeed if the B4 scheme foundered on the kind of bureaucratic procrastination and lack of leadership that seems evident in this region: the future of our very young citizens and the benefits in the long term to society in general are far too important.
The minister intends deciding on the future of the programme at the end of this year.
Parents will rightly hope local health administrators do not provide him with reasons to abandon it.
