Restacking the Odds

Restacking the Odds empowers communities, service providers and governments with the data and skills they need to improve Australia’s early years services.

Our vision for equity in early childhood

A child’s early years are the foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing. We want to ensure all children can access and participate in high-quality, evidence-informed early childhood services that put them on the path to fulfil their potential.

Changing outcomes for children

In Australia, 1 in 5 children are starting school developmentally behind their peers because they can’t access or participate in high-quality early years services.

To tackle this, Restacking the Odds is empowering communities, service providers and governments with the data and skills they need to improve the quality, quantity and participation rates of early childhood services.

Children’s health, development and wellbeing can be improved by ‘stacking’ or combining multiple early years services. We focus on strengthening a combination of existing services that we know support good outcomes for children and families:

early childhood education and care
antenatal (pregnancy) care
early years of school
sustained nurse home visiting
parenting programs

The cumulative benefit of stacking is clear, with Restacking the Odds research showing that children can boost their learning by participating in two or more high-quality services simultaneously.

Advocacy for stacking high-quality services

The Policy and Advocacy team are working to shape a policy environment that supports adoption and scaling of Restacking the Odds so that children and families, especially those experiencing adversity, can access and participate in a combination of high-quality, evidence-informed services.

This involves:

Advocating for investment in stacking: encouraging smarter investment in a combination of essential evidence-informed early years services.
Prioritising equity: supporting policies that ensure all children get the best start in life.
Championing data: promoting the adoption of consistent lead indicator data – including those that help us understand quality, quantity and participation across early years services – and investment in continuous improvement to drive more timely and effective action.
Making evidence useable: partnering with communities and early years leaders to shape policy together.