Healthy early childhood
Every child has the right to a good start in life. While Australia is a wealthy, developed country, a significant number of children have experienced declining health and wellbeing in recent years. There is a wealth of evidence showing that a child’s experiences in their first few years of life can dramatically affect their physical and mental health, emotional wellbeing, and educational attainment and employment in later life.
News
- Lack of paid employment is the most important cause of child poverty in Australia. Getting more people into secure, reasonably paid jobs is a critical step in breaking the cycle of poverty. Our clients are your clients – bringing services together to tackle family joblessness explores opportunities for child and family services that work with jobless families to promote parents' pathways to education and employment.
- Our Shaping Brains project helps children overcome learning difficulties and negative early life experiences. Read the Shaping Brains research snapshot for a summary of the research on neuroplasticity during early childhood, on which the project is based.
- Submission to the Productivity Commission for the Early Childhood Development Workforce Study, in response to issues posed by the Commission about the sector including current and future demand, workforce planning and development and building workforce capability.
- Unemployment and the wellbeing of children aged 5-10 years explores the potential impact of an increase in the unemployment rate on children’s behavioural and emotional problems. Research Snapshot Full report.
- It is vital that families, workers and communities support children’s early development through warm, nurturing care. Our Position Paper, Investing in children’s development: The importance of relationships, explores why this is so, particularly for children living in disadvantaged families and communities.
More policy papers and recommendations
- The Partnerships in Early Childhood Program improves the quality of early education and care by focusing on building warm, supportive relationships between children and adults. The PIEC model has advantages for both families and for government.
- Communities for Children is an early intervention program that improves young children’s health, safety and wellbeing in disadvantaged communities. It highlights the importance of a child’s local community to their wellbeing. The Benevolent Society has drawn a number of policy recommendations from its evaluation of the program. Research snapshot.
- Issues Paper: Health and social inclusion of young children. This issues paper explores the challenges and potential solutions related to access to the health and social inclusion of young children.
- There are more than 30,000 Australian children in out-of-home care. Read our recommendations on how best to support kinship carers to provide safe, stable, loving homes for children and young people who cannot live with their birth parents.
- Our response to the 2010 consultation paper on National Standards for Out of Home Care.