There’s times I start wondering why anybody tries to do anything to help people these days when it seems that people are no longer able to help themselves.

So this morning I’m reading about the nations before school check programme.

When every child in the country turns four they are offered a check up which can help identify health, behavioural, social or developmental issues, such as a hearing problem, which could affect learning. The aim is to help those children access health and learning support.

About 55,000 children will be covered this year at a cost of more than $10 million.

That sounds good.  But after a review called Welcome to School, there are concerns that the programme isn’t working and in fact making things worse.

So how on earth can anyone stuff up a health check. 

One example given was the eye test. There had been a misunderstanding about what checks covered. Schools thought that the test was a comprehensive one but in fact it was just checking for lazy eye.  So then we have kids at school with vision problems but the schools and the parents thought everything was tickety-boo because the before school check had passed the kid.

Now this is not the tests fault.  This is from the old once over lightly, Iain Lees Galloway school of incompetence. The schools haven’t even read and comprehended what was being done. Honestly the amount of stuff ups we have these days due to laziness, assumption and lack of research is astounding.

But this is a minor quibble.  

The review found that the before school check actually increases iniquity. The rich, intelligent and healthy catch the problems early while the poor, less qualified and unhealthy get worse.

Part of the check is a questionnaire filled out by parents. 25 questions relating to emotions, peer relationships, hyperactivity, socialisation and development goals. Better off parents answer diligently and honestly while parents from the bottom end of the rung either hide the truths or because of their own background fail to recognise unsociable or destructive behaviour.

Apparently a lot of the worse off parents don’t like the questionnaire because they view it as labelling.  And yes it is but the way to process that is to rename it identifying and then get on with making things better for your kids.

Well off parents know that labels can be shaken off and changed.  Worse off parents think a label is forever.

The upshot is the kids of the better off get prompt attention early while the less privileged kids get nothing.  Generation by generation getting worse.

It’s always deeply depressing when you hear of programmes designed to help that are being spurned because of either parental bloody mindedness or disinterest.

One final point though.  The Welcome to School study Welcome to School research showed the challenge facing low decile schools was bigger than suspected.

Many children were starting at a language development age of 3-4 years. More than 30 per cent had a language proficiency in the bottom 2.5 per cent of the population.

That’s not good.  We knew it was bad.  Now we know it’s worse than that.