A whole-of-Government initiative to drive transformational change in early childhood development is to be expanded to provide children with a full suite of developmental checks before they start school.
Minister for Education and Early Learning, Sarah Mitchell, who leads the Brighter Beginnings initiative, said it was a partnership between the Department of Education, NSW Health, the Department of Communities and Justice, the Department of Customer Service, the Department of Regional NSW, Multicultural NSW, Aboriginal Affairs, and the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Ms Mitchell said the suite of developmental checks would be made available in every NSW early childhood service.
“It’s clear that getting it right early in a child’s life has lifelong benefits for their future,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Almost half of all four-year-old children do not get their recommended health and development checks, so making these available in every NSW early childhood service will open the door to brighter futures for thousands of children,” she said.
“Knowing where children are developmentally and physically before they start school is so important, allowing any necessary support to be identified.”
Ms Mitchell said the initiative would also make a huge difference to outcomes at school, from behaviour to academic results.
Supporting the initiative, Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government, Victor Dominello announced that NSW Health’s Blue Book would become digital to make it easier for families to access and keep track of their child’s health and development information.
In a statement, NSW Health said the Blue Book was provided to parents of children born in NSW and contained valuable information about a child’s health and development.
Ms Mitchell said that in addition to the developmental checks, the expansion of the Brighter Beginnings initiative would increase the number of Aboriginal Child and Family Centres across the State, make Pregnancy Family Conferencing available to more parents across NSW and expand the Sustaining NSW Families clinical nurse home visiting program.
