Initiatives to support child development

The impact of the first 2000 days of a child’s life (from pregnancy to age 5) has been shown to have an impact throughout life. Through effective and collaborative support and intervention during the first 2000 days there is an opportunity to give children the best possible start in life physically, developmentally, socially and emotionally.

What we're doing

Brighter Beginnings is a cross-government initiative to give children the best start in life and learning. It aims to:

provide families with the information they need, when they need it, empowering them with clear, reliable and timely information to support them as parents and help make decisions
improve universal services that lift the standard of opportunity for all, facilitating full participation in universal health, education and family services
target support and services for families that need it most, improving existing services and delivering evidence-based supports for families with additional needs.

Health and development checks

Free health and development checks are available for 4-year-old children in preschool and long day care services. Read about what to expect from the checks on the NSW Health website.

Many 4-year-old children do not attend their recommended health and development checks, meaning parents and carers are missing out on important information about their child’s health and development.

Making the 4-year-old-health and development check available in preschool settings will make it easier for parents, carers and children to access these important checks and help parents and carers ensure their child has the best start in life and learning.

Pregnancy Family Conferencing

Pregnancy Family Conferencing (PFC) is a strengths-based, trauma-informed program offered to expectant parents and their families where significant child protection concerns have been identified for the unborn baby. The program is a partnership between NSW Health and NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) and aims to provide a forum for families and services to have open and transparent conversations about child protection issues. By working with expectant parents during pregnancy, the program supports families to connect with services and resources that can strengthen their wellbeing and preparation for childhood. By working with expectant parents during pregnancy, the program, leverages this time as one of motivation for behaviour change, encouraging and assisting parents to access the supports they need.

PFC has been operating in 6 metropolitan sites throughout Greater Sydney for several years and has since been expanded to include regional and remote districts across NSW. PFC is currently available to eligible families in 12 local health districts.

Sustaining NSW Families

Sustaining NSW Families is a health home visiting program which:

promotes child health and development;
helps families work together and build strong bonds;
supports parent health and wellbeing.

The program starts in pregnancy or shortly after giving birth and continues until the baby's second birthday. Specially trained Child and Family Health nurses lead the program with support from social workers and other allied health professionals. Families need a referral and to meet eligibility criteria to take part in the Sustaining NSW Families program.

Sustaining NSW Families operates in 17 locations across NSW. The expansion of the program with 8 additional sites has enabled more families to benefit from the program to help them give their child the best start in life. Learn more about how it works and eligibility on the NSW Health website.

Aboriginal Family and Child Centres

Aboriginal Child and Family Centres (ACFCs) provide key culturally safe services and supports for Aboriginal families with children aged 0-8 years. They deliver early childhood education and care, parent and family support, maternal and child health advice, and adult education opportunities. They provide a seamless experience for children and families and improved access to critical services.

ACFCs in NSW are operated by Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and are tailored to the local needs of families and communities.

There are currently 9 ACFCs with 6 additional centres being delivered in the coming years to ensure more communities have access to these important services.

Child Health Record (The Blue Book)

The Blue Book is given to all parents in NSW soon after the birth of their baby. It is a place to record the child’s health, growth, development, illnesses, injuries and immunisations. It provides important information for parents/carers about their child’s development to help them best support their child. The Blue Book recommends when to take children for routine health checks and vaccination from birth until they start school. These can be provided at their local Child and Family Health Centre or General Practice.

The health checks are important as they help parents and carers, and health professionals track the development of a child and pick up any potential problems early. Currently, parents and carers carry their child’s Blue Book with this vital information between various healthcare appointments; but these books can easily be forgotten or misplaced. This can make it difficult to provide safe, high-quality, continuity of care at the time of presentation and pick up any potential problems early.

NSW Health is developing an online version of “The Blue Book” that will be accessible via the My NSW Health app. This will enable parents and carers to access relevant child development and parent/carer support information and resources, as well as individual child reminders for important developmental checks and vaccinations.

Through routine health and development checks, opportunities for early intervention can be improved in the first 2000 days.

The secure My NSW Health app is linked to the single digital patient record (SDPR) providing parents/carers the ability to also easily access children's health record information and share relevant information from hospitals and community settings.

Why we're doing this

The first 2000 days of life, from conception to around the time a child starts school, is a critical time for physical, cognitive, social and emotional health. What happens in the first 2000 days of life has been shown to have an impact throughout an individual’s life.

Assisting children and families to thrive in the early years leads to better long term life outcomes.

There are many factors that impact on a child’s development. They include individual, parental, environmental and community factors. The role of parents and carers in their child’s development is very important. To support families we have good evidence for services and supports that have been shown to improve children’s health and developmental outcomes. More evidence emerges daily on practices to better support children and their families.

Our vision

We are committed to giving every child in NSW the best start in life and learning.

Making sure more children are developmentally on track when they start school is the first step to achieving full participation and lifetime health, education, social and economic benefits. A connected approach will drive better outcomes for children across every decade of their life and across generations.

We seek to support individuals who are parents and carers now, will be parents in the future, or who are supporting parents to raise children so that children achieve the best of their potential.

Our approach

Identifying the shared goals and needs of parents and carers is at the heart of our approach. Families were engaged to understand what they need and how we can better support them during these early years of a child's life.

We’re mapping your experiences of the service system so that we can make your connection with services smoother and more accessible in the first 2000 days of your child’s life.

By understanding this better, we will have:

a comprehensive view of your experiences across multiple government and non-government interactions
a greater ongoing understanding of your needs and policy impacts
identified opportunities to improve your experience, and improve the quality of supports for the children and families of NSW
opportunities for improved service delivery in ways that best meet your needs.

We are working collaboratively across human services agencies to draw on the breadth of expertise and continue to grow the evidence base to improve outcomes for children and their families. We are looking to partner with local agencies, communities, the Australian Government and other jurisdictions to ensure we continuously innovate and improve how we provide and how you access early childhood services across NSW.

For professionals

Catch up on all the 2022 Brighter Beginnings First 2000 days summit

The Brighter Beginnings First 2000 days summit was a 2 day event on 31 October and 1 November, sharing the latest research and evidence on programs that support children and their families in the early years. A recording is now available.