The first five years of a child’s life is a time of rapid development that lays the foundations for health and wellbeing later in life. During this time, children must be nurtured, supported and protected to ensure they grow up happy, healthy and thriving.

Unfortunately, not every child in Australia is getting the support they need. Significant inequalities – both in developmental and educational outcomes – exist between children experiencing socio-economic vulnerability and their peers.

In Australia, early childhood hubs* have the potential to meet many of the needs of children and families experiencing socio-economic vulnerability. They offer a unique set of wrap-around supports that are responsive to the needs of children and their families. And they are a safe space to build social networks.

Equally important, they also provide a range of crucial services: early learning programs, maternal and child health, and other targeted supports. With the right approach, early childhood hubs can help fill a major gap in the current early years landscape.

SVA has been exploring how the current system could better respond to the unmet needs of children and families experiencing disadvantage across Australia.

Together with our partners, we have explored ways to increase the impact of integrated early years supports in shaping happy, healthy and thriving children.

Together with the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and Deloitte Access Economics, we hosted an event to launch two new papers exploring the critical role of early childhood hubs.

We unpack the key enablers to increase their impact and pathways to scale up and better embed them into Australia’s early years policy and service system.

Our panel of sector leaders included:

  • Tim Moore, Senior Research Fellow, CCCH, MCRI
  • Caitlin Graham, Policy and Program Manager, Early Childhood, SVA
  • Cassy Bishop, Manager, Cairns & Gordonvale Early Years Centres, The Benevolent Society
  • Lachlan Smirl, Partner, Deloitte Access Economics

*We previously called these Integrated Child and Family Centres (ICFCs) but have updated our terminology to Early childhood hubs to support common usage across the sector.

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Children and families benefit most from ICFCs where the staff come from multiple disciplines and have a clear understanding of, and commitment to, transdisciplinary, wrap around support along the whole service model continuum, from universal support to targeted support.” Cassy Bishop • Manager, Cairns & Gordonvale Early Years Centres. The Benevolent Society
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A national approach to ICFCs is needed to support consistency and quality across centres and to identify critical systemic reforms that could see significantly more children in Australia thriving in the early years.” Caitlin Graham • Policy and Program Manager, Early Childhood. Social Ventures Australia

Related information

  • Early Years
  • Publication
Early childhood hubs: exploring need, funding models, and a national approach

We are seeking to transform the early childhood development landscape so that children experiencing vulnerability have access to high-quality, integrated supports.