Re-imagining a fairer future for Australia’s children: making systems better at addressing complex disadvantage

Following numerous calls for service reform, this report proposes new governance arrangements for improving integration of early childhood wellbeing systems.

Anna Kalamkarian, HLPF Fellow supported by Freya Phillips National Scholarship.

Executive Summary

Despite Australia’s pride in being the land of the “fair go,” many Australian children experience disadvantages in their early life. Australia spends $15.2 billion per year on crisis services for young people, including hospital admissions, intensive family support services and youth justice costs (Teager et al. 2019). Multiple support services are required when families experience combinations of disadvantages such as income poverty, housing stress, domestic violence, mental health, substance misuse, and health concerns. However, the onus of navigating an early childhood support system is on families; and this system is complex, siloed and under strain.

New governance arrangements can help achieve a national commitment to the wellbeing of families. This policy recommends implementing a 10-year National Agreement on addressing child and family disadvantage. The proposed agreement includes establishing an agency that will coordinate responses to child wellbeing concerns across all relevant government portfolios and drive national progress on child and family wellbeing. While new governance arrangements may risk adding further bureaucracy without achieving interdepartmental cooperation, strong Cabinet-level leadership can mitigate these risks by guiding the new agency and fostering shared ownership of early childhood wellbeing across national and state government portfolios.

Problem Identification

Entrenched disadvantage in children and families is a complex problem. A recent Senate inquiry into the extent and nature of poverty in Australia highlighted the multidimensional nature of poverty in that it arises from various aspects of individuals’ lives and is influenced by structural and systemic problems (Senate Community Affairs References Committee 2023). This is reflected in the prevalence of disadvantage in Australia, in which:

• 1 in 4 children are notified to child protection services by age 10 (Pilkington et al. 2019)

• 1 in 7 children aged 4-11 experience mental illness (AIHW 2022a)

• 1 in 5 children are developmentally vulnerable on one or more Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) domains at school entry (AEDC 2022)

• 1 in 6 Australian children live below the poverty line (Davidson et al. 2023)

• More than 1 in 5 children live in households experiencing housing stress (AIHW 2022b)

  
  

Children and families can experience co-occurring disadvantages and thus can require multiple government support systems (Klassman et al. 2024). In South Australia, more than 60% of children with child protection contact had experienced prior contact with the public housing system (Malvaso et al. 2022). Children who experienced both child protection and public housing system contact were also more likely to have experienced emergency department presentations, hospitalisations, developmental vulnerability and youth justice contact (Malvaso et al. 2022). 

There are growing concerns about the number of children and families requiring crisis-support due to problems of poverty, homelessness, neglect, or family violence (Teager et al. 2019; Klassman et al. 2024). It is estimated that Australia spends $15.2 billion every year on crisis services for children and young people, including hospital admissions, intensive family support services or youth justice costs (Teager et al. 2019). The economic and social costs of child poverty are much higher. Child poverty costs the New South Wales economy approximately $60 billion annually; only $4 billion was attributed to the delivery of government services and the remainder was attributed to labour market outcomes and diminished health and life expectancy (Jackson et al. 2024). Early support provided to children and families can prevent crisis-point, but only if the underlying wellbeing systems are set up in a way that can cater to the unique range of issues a child or family experiences (Moore and McDonald 2013).

Context

Currently, the Australian early childhood system is complex and fragmented (Department of Social Services 2024a). This system refers to the range of services and programs made available that provide health, early learning, care, social and financial support for children from birth to five years of age (Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care 2022). 

The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children declares that “protecting children is everyone’s responsibility,” yet child wellbeing concerns are primarily directed towards state-level departments of child protection. Families who attract the attention of child protection services often include experiences of poverty, substance use and poor mental health (Bromfield et al. 2012; Klassman et al. 2024). Inquiries into the deaths of children and young people who had contact with child protection services acknowledge a context of high demand for child and family services, and a child protection system stretched due to high caseloads and staff vacancies (Commission for Children and Young People 2023a). Without having the remit or resources to help families address the context where wellbeing concerns arise, child protection decision-making remains limited to the removal of children; this in turn can have adverse effects for both children and parents (Bennett et al. 2020).

The siloed approach to support services makes it difficult for children and families to access the help that they need. For example, a 2022 inquiry relating to a surviving child victim of domestic homicide found that no multi-agency protocol was in place for children in Victoria who had lost a parent due to domestic violence (Commission for Children and Young People 2023a). People with multiple or complex needs require access to coordinated services but often have to navigate a complicated system of service delivery (Productivity Commission 2016), and children in particular have to rely on parents or carers navigating this system for them. 

Departmental silos also create funding challenges (Deloitte Access Economics 2023) and impede on data collection and evaluation of whether interventions are effective in tackling complex disadvantages (Pascal et al. 2019).

Current policy landscape

The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-2031 called for a national approach to early intervention for child wellbeing as one of its four focus areas (Department of Social Services 2021). This message was reinforced in the 2024-2034 Early Years Strategy where a key theme was to improve coordination of Australian Government early childhood programs, policies and services (Department of Social Services 2024a). There is a need for funding of the “glue” between services so that families and children can have access to the multiple and complex supports they may require (Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care 2022; Deloitte Access Economics 2023). Calls for greater collaboration and an integrated service system have been echoed in health (Rahman et al. 2024), early learning (Centre for Policy Development 2024), disability (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 2023), and child protection (Child Protection Systems Royal Commission 2016). Recently, the Australian Human Rights Commission also called for national reform of child justice systems, recommending the establishment of a National Taskforce, a Ministerial Council for Child Wellbeing and legislation of a National Children’s Act (Australian Human Rights Commission 2024). 

Under the Package to Address Entrenched Disadvantage (Department of Social Services 2023), the federal Department of Social Services has a range of projects currently in place to work with the community sector to improve child and family wellbeing (Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children 2023; Department of Social Services 2024a, 2025a, 2025b). In 2025, the Government released a new grants framework to reform the way community services are funded to align with a “whole-of-government” approach (Department of Social Services 2025). 

Current legislative landscape

Existing commonwealth legislation related to the welfare of children and families is limited to the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth), Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), and Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth). The Family Law Act 1975 Part IIA focuses on family risk screening but does not include prevention or early intervention on family disadvantage. 

Australia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 (Australian Human Rights Commission n.d.) and established a National Children’s Commissioner to monitor policy and legislation of children’s rights in 2012 (Human Rights Law Centre 2012). However, the Australian Government still has no national agenda, policy, legislation or budgeting process to support children’s rights and wellbeing (National Children’s Commissioner 2019); the National Children’s Commissioner says that a “greater sense of urgency” for reform is required (Australian Human Rights Commission 2023).

States and territories have their own legislation on family services and safeguarding of children (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2022) of which some include legislation prioritising early life intervention. For example, legislation in South Australia outlines and promotes early intervention in Section 2 and Section 5 (Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017, 2024), while Victorian legislation only briefly mentions early intervention (Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, 2024). 

Case studies on inter-departmental collaboration and reform

Local-level integrated Child and Family Centres

There are over 400 integrated child and family centres in Australia (National Child and Family Hubs Network 2013). The George Town Community Hub is one integrated service centre in Tasmania, established in 2014 to deliver a range of state government services to the George Town community (Healthy George Town 2019). The collaboration is between the Learning and Information Network Centre, Service Tasmania (including Centrelink and other government services), and a Child and Family Centre (Healthy George Town 2019). One evaluation found the number of visits to some integrated centres in Tasmania were comparable to enrolment numbers at a small primary school (Taylor et al. 2015). It is estimated that the George Town Hub connected 50 more families and 100 more children to services, though with mixed levels of engagement (Deloitte Access Economics 2018).

It is estimated that an additional 170 integrated centres in high need areas would allow an additional 24,000 children in need to access a centre (Deloitte Access Economics 2023). Research on the social return on investment into child and family hubs have identified a social benefits return of $2.20 for every $1 invested into hubs in Australia (National Child and Family Hubs Network 2013).

State-level early childhood reform in Government of South Australia

Recent efforts have been conducted to create state-level reform of the early childhood system. For example, the SA government established the Office for Early Childhood Development in 2023 to steward the early childhood development system and respond to recommendations of the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care (Office for Early Childhood Development 2024b; Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care 2022). This involves working collaboratively with government departments, Aboriginal leaders, and other professionals to reduce developmental vulnerability across South Australia. Outcomes of this initiative include the roll-out of universal preschool for all 3-year-olds in South Australia commencing in 2026, and investment of $127.3 million to develop 20 integrated hubs to reduce developmental vulnerability in communities that need it the most (Office for Early Childhood Development 2024a). The program aims to reduce developmental vulnerability from 23.8% to 15% over 20 years (Office for Early Childhood Development 2024a). Evidence on the impacts of this policy reform will take years to become available; internationally, evidence on impacts of early childhood reform is limited and challenging to estimate (Pascal et al. 2019).

Federal multi-sector collaboration

In Australia, the Women and Women’s Safety Ministerial Council established in 2022 consists of commonwealth and state government representatives and provides a forum to work collaboratively and oversee national progress on women’s safety (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 2024). The Council reports to the National Cabinet and has power to convene subject-matter-specific jurisdictional working groups (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 2025). 

Options

There are several major policy reforms that can improve cross-portfolio collaboration and coordination for early intervention: 

1.  Federal government invests $350 million in grants to cover infrastructure, maintenance or “glue” costs to build new integrated Child and Family Hubs in areas of need, over the next 4 years.  Local community and early learning centres would benefit from federal funding to support operational costs and expand partnerships with existing community services. Grants, funded through a Federation Funding Agreement (Department of Finance 2019), can be pooled with state funding to incentivise greater service integration within centres. This would enable centralised place-based care, allowing Commonwealth services (such as Centrelink), state services (such as maternal child health), and local non-government organizations (such as food banks) to operate from a single location. Based on South Australia’s and Tasmania’s recent budgets for integrated service centres (Minister for Education 2024; Office for Early Childhood Development 2024a), overall delivery is estimated to cost ~$7 million per community hub over 4 years. Thus, if each grant covers approximately 50% of the cost of establishing and running a centre, it would create 100 new centres in Australia. However this policy lacks long-term sustainability. In the absence of overarching partnership agreements, there is no commitment to sustained planning or the funding security and reform needed to achieve lasting service delivery (Deloitte Access Economics 2023).

2. The federal Department of Social Services leads development of a 10-year national agreement on addressing child and family disadvantage, tasked with co-ordinating multi-disciplinary and multi-sector collaboration at national, state and community levels. A national agreement would allow Commonwealth and state/territory ministers with a portfolio responsibility of children and families to work together to address system shortages. This agreement would invest $240 million to establish a national Child and Family Wellbeing Agency that can coordinate long-term service planning across government and local levels, and would create the terms and conditions for national partnership payments to reform the fragmented funding of services.

A national agreement would allow for consistency and oversight of service provision across Australia, ensuring child and family needs are being met. As intergovernmental agreements are non-legally binding formal commitments, they can be implemented faster than passing new legislation. However, success would be dependent on strong stewardship of an agency collaborating across multiple levels of government and a broad portfolio of departments.

3. Establishing a Ministerial Council for child and family wellbeing.

Introducing a Ministerial Council for Child and Family Wellbeing would consist of four annual intergovernmental meetings and allow for reporting to the National Cabinet. Co-chaired by the Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education and the Minister for Social Services, and attended by relevant state and territory ministers, the objective of the Council would be to drive the national agenda on child and family wellbeing. Establishing such a council is estimated to cost $3.9 million over four years, modelled off the Women and Women’s Safety Ministerial Council  (Gallagher and Rishworth 2024). 

However, while each state and territory have a Minister for Women (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 2025), there is less consistency for defined portfolios concerning children and families, whose issues span multiple portfolios including ministers for child protection, human services, education, and health and wellbeing. Unclear selection of council members for child and family wellbeing is a barrier. Additionally, there is a risk that a ministerial council may add further bureaucracy that hinders action and decision-making, rather than simplifying systems and creating true partnerships (Conran 2020).

Policy recommendation

Option 2, “Develop a ten-year national agreement on addressing child and family disadvantage and create an Agency for Child and Family Wellbeing, tasked with co-ordinating multi-disciplinary and multi-sector collaboration at national, state and community levels.” is recommended as the preferred model to create a national agenda for child and family wellbeing. 

Establishing a National Agreement

The broad objective of the National Agreement would be to build a coalition of national, state, local and community stewards around a coherent wellbeing agenda, from which families and children would benefit. The National Agreement would expand on existing agreements such as the Working Together Agreement between Government and philanthropic partners on collaboration for child and wellbeing, which is not yet supported by state governments (Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children 2023). It would also unify best practice approaches across governments and community sectors into a national vision such that children born anywhere in Australia have the opportunity to access the high-quality services they require. 

In the first year of the Agreement, the primary objective would be to establish a National Childhood Wellbeing Agency within the federal Department of Social Services, responsible for monitoring and improving service provision across health, early childhood education and care, child protection, housing and financial need.

The second objective would be to design new funding frameworks through the Federal Financial Relations’ national partnership payments (Department of Finance 2019); this can create bilateral agreements between the Commonwealth and each of the states, and facilitate reform on agreed objectives. Funding arrangements could also be made with the community sector using the new Community Sector Grants Engagement Framework (Australian Government 2025) as many child and family wellbeing services are currently offered by a range of non-government organisations. 

As system reform takes time, it would be beneficial for the agreement to have overarching 10-year targets, advanced by a series of intermediate targets covering 3-4 year periods (Centre for Policy Development 2024). Progress on the targets can be monitored by the Productivity Commission which already regularly reports on government services such as Early Childhood Education and Care (Productivity Commission 2024).

Establishing a National Childhood Wellbeing Agency

The National Childhood Wellbeing Agency would consist of a Chief Executive Officer and five executive roles: policy and planning director; partnerships coordinator; funding director; data and evaluation director; operations and delivery director. This organisational structure has been influenced by the South Australian Government’s Office for Early Childhood Development team (Office for Early Childhood Development 2024c). However, this executive team would operate at a federal level but create partnerships in state-level departments. 

The states could also play a role as system managers by creating communities of practice, connecting services to other systems, identifying individuals not receiving integrated services, facilitating data and information sharing (Centre for Policy Development 2024).

Establishing a new agency inclusive of salaries for a Chief Executive Officer and five employees would cost $15.2 million over 10 years, modelled on a recent Parliamentary Budget Office costing to establish an Office for a Commissioner for Future Generations (Scamps 2025). The cost of mobilising an agency is higher and can be likened to the $96.1 million allocated over 4 years to support the Office for Early Childhood Development in the recent South Australian budget (Government of South Australia 2024).

Funding

The cost of supporting a new National Childhood Wellbeing Agency is $240 million over 10 years, modelled on the budget for the Office for Early Childhood Development (Government of South Australia 2024). However, additional investments would be required depending on reform initiatives determined in the National Agreement. 

Funding can be drawn from multiple federal budget allocations, including the Targeting Entrenched Disadvantage (TED) package of $198 million over 6 years (Department of Social Services 2023) and the National Action Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 of $1.3 billion over five years (Department of Social Services 2022). 

Barriers and risks

There would need to be broad political support to enter a National Agreement and create a new Agency that invests in children’s wellbeing. It is difficult to achieve co-operation of several layers across multiple government portfolios and departments and to coordinate funding arrangements; care would be needed to garner state and territory support of this issue. However, this risk may be low as the Early Years Strategy (2024) has reinforced the need for better collaboration and the economic cost of not addressing children’s disadvantage early is already substantial (Jackson et al. 2024; Teager et al. 2019). Existing funding partnerships with philanthropy (Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children 2023) would also require involvement.

Though a clear mandate for intersectoral collaboration from a central agency can facilitate implementation, intersectoral collaboration works best when it is built on trust and genuine partnership, not just in formal settings. Mitigating these risks requires strong Cabinet-level leadership to guide a new Childhood Wellbeing Agency and to foster shared ownership of wellbeing across state and national government portfolios. 

References

AEDC (2022) Australian Early Development Census National Report 2021, Department of Education, Skills and Employment, Canberra, https://www.aedc.gov.au/resources/detail/2021-aedc-national-report.

AIHW (2022a) Australia’s children, Children with mental illness, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/health/children-mental-illness, accessed 18 December 2024.

AIHW (2022b) Australia’s children, Housing stress, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/housing/housing-stress, accessed 31 March 2024.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2022) Australian child protection legislation: A brief overview of child protection legislation across state and territory jurisdictions in Australia, https://aifs.gov.au/resources/resource-sheets/australian-child-protection-legislation, accessed 13 May 2024.

Australian Human Rights Commission (2023) Scoping project for National Child and Family Investment Strategy, Children’s Rights, https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/publications/scoping-project-national-child-and-family-investment, accessed 18 December 2024.

Australian Human Rights Commission (2024) Help way earlier! How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing, Australian Human Rights Commission, https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/1807_help_way_earlier_-_accessible_0.pdf.

Australian Human Rights Commission (n.d.) About Children’s Rights, https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/about-childrens-rights, accessed 18 December 2024.

Bennett K, Booth A, Gair S, Kibet R and Thorpe R (2020) ‘Poverty is the problem – not parents: so tell me, child protection worker, how can you help?’, Children Australia, 45(4):207–214, doi:10.1017/cha.2020.39.

Bromfield L, Sutherland K and Parker R (2012) Families with multiple and complex needs: Best interests case practice model, specialist practice resource, Victorian Government Department of Human Services, Melbourne, https://www.cpmanual.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/Families%20with%20multiple%20%26%20complex%20needs%20specialist%20resource%203016%20.pdf, accessed 18 December 2024.

Centre for Policy Development (2024) ‘Growing together: a future universal early childhood education and care system for Australia’, https://cpd.org.au/work/growing-together/, accessed 14 June 2024.

Child Protection Systems Royal Commission (2016) The life they deserve: Child Protection Systems Royal Commission Report, Government of South Australia, https://www.childprotection.sa.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications/child-protection-systems-royal-commission.

Chowdry H (2018) Estimating the prevalence of the ‘toxic trio’: Evidence from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, UK Children’s Commissioner, https://assets.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wpuploads/2018/07/Vulnerability-Technical-Report-2-Estimating-the-prevalence-of-the-toxic-trio.pdf.

Commission for Children and Young People (2023a) Annual Report 2022-2023, Commission for Children and Young People, Melbourne, https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/assets/corporate-documents/AnnRep2022-23/CCYP-AR-22-23-Final.pdf, accessed 1 September 2024.

Commission for Children and Young People (2023b) Let us learn: Systemic inquiry into the educational experiences of children and young people living in out-of-home care, Commission for Children and Young People, Melbourne, https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/assets/Publications-inquiries/let-us-learn/CCYP-Education-inquiry-report-FINAL.pdf, accessed 18 December 2024.

Conran P (2020) Review of COAG Councils and Ministerial Forums: Report to National Cabinet, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, https://www.pmc.gov.au/resources/final-report-review-coag-councils-and-ministerial-forums.

Davidson P, Bradbury B and Wong M (2023) Poverty in Australia 2023: Who is affected – Poverty and Inequality, Partnership Report no. 20., Australian Council of Social Service and UNSW Sydney, https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/poverty-in-australia-2023-who-is-affected/, accessed 31 March 2024.

Deloitte Access Economics (2018) Case Study: George Town Community Hub, State of Queensland, Department of State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning, https://www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/18319/case-study-george-town-community-hub.pdf, accessed 20 June 2024.

Deloitte Access Economics (2023) Exploring need and funding models for a national approach to integrated child and family centres, Social Ventures Australia in partnership with the Centre for Community Child Health, https://www.deloitte.com/au/en/services/economics/perspectives/exploring-need-funding-models-national-approach-integrated-child-family-centres.html.

Department of Finance (2019) National partnership payments, https://www.finance.gov.au/about-us/glossary/pgpa/term-national-partnership-payments, accessed 18 December 2024.

Department of Social Services (2021) Safe and Supported: the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-2031 | Department of Social Services, Australian Government, https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children-programs-services-children-protecting-australias-children/safe-and-supported-the-national-framework-for-protecting-australias-children-2021-2031, accessed 13 May 2024.

Department of Social Services (2022) Women’s Safety Measures: Budget 2022-2023, https://www.dss.gov.au/system/files/resources/fact_sheet_-budget_22-23_womens_safety.pdf, accessed 14 March 2025.

Department of Social Services (2023) Entrenched disadvantage package, https://www.dss.gov.au/entrenched-disadvantage-package.

Department of Social Services (2024) Early years strategy 2024-2034, Government of Australia, https://www.dss.gov.au/system/files/resources/early-years-strategy-2024-2034.pdf, accessed 13 May 2024.

Department of Social Services (2024b) Stronger Places, Stronger People, https://www.dss.gov.au/stronger-places-stronger-people, accessed 14 March 2025.

Department of Social Services(2025a) ‘Community Sector Grants Engagement Framework’, https://www.dss.gov.au/system/files/documents/2025-02/community-sector-grants-engagement-final.pdf.

Department of Social Services (2025b) Commonwealth Outcomes Fund, https://www.dss.gov.au/social-impact-investing/commonwealth-outcomes-fund, accessed 14 March 2025.

Department of Social Services (2025c) Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment, https://www.dss.gov.au/supporting-community-change/partnerships-local-action-and-community-empowerment, accessed 14 March 2025.

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (2023) ‘Working together to deliver the NDIS: Independent Review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme’, Commonwealth of Australia.

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (2024) Women and Women’s Safety Ministerial Council, https://www.pmc.gov.au/office-women/womens-safety/women-and-womens-safety-ministerial-council, accessed 18 December 2024.

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (2025) Women and Women’s Safety Ministerial Council Terms of Reference | PM&C, https://www.pmc.gov.au/resources/women-and-womens-safety-ministerial-council-terms-reference, accessed 14 March 2025.

Gallagher K and Rishworth A (2024) Working to keep women safe | Media Release, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, https://ministers.pmc.gov.au/gallagher/2024/working-keep-women-safe, accessed 18 December 2024.

Government of South Australia (2024) State Budget 2024-2025: Early Childhood, State Budget 2024-25, https://www.statebudget.sa.gov.au/our-budget/early-childhood, accessed 14 March 2025.

Healthy George Town (2019) George Town Community Hub, https://georgetown.tas.gov.au/george-town-community-hub, accessed 20 June 2024.

Human Rights Law Centre (2012) Legislation to establish National Children’s Commissioner, Human Rights Law Centre, https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/legislation-to-establish-national-childrens-commissioner, accessed 18 December 2024.

Jackson A, Craston A, Ruting B and Blane N (2024) Lasting impacts: the economic costs of child poverty in New South Wales, Impact Economics and Policy,New South Wales Council of Social Service, https://www.ncoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Cost-Child-Poverty-NSW_V8_WEB_SINGLES.pdf, accessed 16 December 2024.

Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children (2023) Working Together Agreement, https://www.investmentdialogue.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Working-Together-Agreement-December-2023.pdf, accessed 14 March 2025.

Klassman K, Malvaso C, Delfabbro P, Moulds L and Young J (2024) ‘A rapid evidence assessment of barriers and strategies in service engagement when working with young people with complex needs’, Children and Youth Services Review, 156:107292, doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107292.

Malvaso C, Montgomerie A, Pilkington RM, Baker E and Lynch JW (2022) ‘Examining the intersection of child protection and public housing: development, health and justice outcomes using linked administrative data’, BMJ Open, 12(6):e057284, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057284.

Minister for Education (2024) Our Strong Plan to expand access to quality early childhood education and care and early learning, Premier of Tasmania, https://www.premier.tas.gov.au/budget-2024/budget-releases/our-strong-plan-to-expand-access-to-quality-early-childhood-education-and-care-and-early-learning, accessed 18 December 2024.

Moore T and McDonald M (2013) Acting early, changing lives: how prevention and early action saves money and improves wellbeing, Benevolent Society, Centre for Community Child Health, https://www.communityhubs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/acting-early-changing-lives.pdf, accessed 17 December 2024.

National Child and Family Hubs Network (2013) Integrated Child and Family Hubs: A Plan for Australia, National Child and Family Hubs Network, https://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/377224/sub220-childhood-attachment2.pdf, accessed 18 December 2024.

National Children’s Commissioner (2019) Children’s Rights Report 2019 - In Their Own Right: Children’s Rights in Australia, Australian Human Rights Commission, https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/publications/childrens-rights-report-2019.

Office for Early Childhood Development (2024a) ‘Our Investment Plan’, https://www.earlychildhood.sa.gov.au/3-year-old-preschool-roll-out/our-investment-plan.

Office for Early Childhood Development (2024b) ‘Reforming the early childhood development system in South Australia’, https://earlychildhood.sa.gov.au/about-the-office-for-early-childhood-development, accessed 12 May 2024.

Office for Early Childhood Development (2024c) Office for Early Childhood Development: 2023-2024 Annual Report, Adelaide, https://www.earlychildhood.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/1008789/OECD-2023-24-Annual-Report.pdf.

Pascal C, Bertram T and Peckham K (2019) Integrated early years systems: a review of international evidence, Wales Centre for Public Policy, Wales, https://www.wcpp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Integrated-Early-Years-Systems.pdf.

Pilkington R, Montgomerie A, Grant J, Gialamas A, Malvaso C, Chittleborough C, Smithers L, Chittleborough C and Lynch J (2019) An innovative linked data platform to improve the wellbeing of children – the South Australian Early Childhood Data Project. In: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australia’s welfare 2019: data insights, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra, https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/75c9f692-c72c-438d-b68b-91318f780154/australias-welfare-chapter-8-summary-18sept2019.pdf.aspx.

Productivity Commission (2016) Introducing Competition and Informed User Choice into Human Services: Identifying Sectors for Reform, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/human-services/reforms/report/human-services-reforms.pdf. 

Productivity Commission (2024) Report on Government Services, https://www.pc.gov.au/ongoing/report-on-government-services, accessed 18 December 2024.

Rahman R, Reid C, Kloer P, Henchie A, Thomas A and Zwiggelaar R (2024) ‘A systematic review of literature examining the application of a social model of health and wellbeing’, European Journal of Public Health, 34(3):467–472, doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckae008.

Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care (2022) Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care, Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care, https://www.royalcommissionecec.sa.gov.au, accessed 13 May 2024.

Scamps S (2025) Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill 2025: Explanatory memorandum and statement of compatibility with human rights, https://assets.nationbuilder.com/imack/pages/8848/attachments/original/1739086489/PMB_Dr_Scamps_Wellbeing_of_Future_Generations_Bill_2025_EM.pdf?1739086489, accessed 14 March 2025.

Senate Community Affairs References Committee (2023) The extent and nature of poverty in Australia, https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/PovertyinAustralia, accessed 13 May 2024.

Taylor C T, Jose K, Christensen D and Van de Lageweg W I (2015) Engaging, supporting and working with children and families in Tasmania’s  Child and Family Centres. Report on the impact of Centres on parents’  use and experiences of services and supports in the Early Years, Telethon Kids Institute, Perth.

Teager W, Fox S and Stafford N (2019) How Australia can invest in children and return more, Early Intervention Foundation, The Front Project, Telethon Kids Institute, https://colab.thekids.org.au/siteassets/media-docs---colab/coli/how-australia-can-invest-in-children-and-return-more----final-bn-not-embargoed.pdf, accessed 13 May 2024.

The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales (2015) Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, https://www.futuregenerations.wales/about-us/future-generations-act/, accessed 20 June 2024.

-------

The views and opinions expressed by Global Voices Fellows do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation or its staff.