Early childhood is the best time to positively impact the future health, wellbeing and development of a child.

The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (the Centre) has a vision for every child, regardless of postcode, family circumstance or cultural background, to thrive when they enter school. Currently around 1 in 5 children in Australia arrive at school developmentally vulnerable and once that gap opens it is difficult to close.

The Centre is funded by the Department of Education and Training (DET) to deliver the Early Start, Bright Future project aimed at improving participation into universal early years services and optimising the longer term learning and development outcomes for all children across Victoria and Tasmania experiencing vulnerability.

This project is focused on supporting professionals to connect families with children 0-8 years into appropriate early years services, with a focus on access to two years of kindergarten before school.