Amplifying the Child and Family Hubs Network

Published

Monday, March 10, 2025 - 8:47 AM

The Network welcomed the recent legislation to enshrine the universal right to three days of early childhood education and care for Australian children and the removal of the activity test.

Guaranteeing children access to quality early childhood education regardless of parental employment status will be transformative for Australian children and families, and particularly those experiencing adversity.

The recent announcement of the $1 billion Building Early Education Fund to expand and build new early education centres in regional and outer suburban areas is also to be commended. The Building Early Education Fund’s focus on co-locating early childhood education services, schools and child and family health services on-site, is an opportunity to further realise in practice the importance of ‘one-stop’ Hubs for children and families.

The Network’s activities for the first quarter of 2025 have focused on two key priority areas identified in the Network Strategy 2024-2029:

1. Invest in the National and Family Hubs Network
2. Secure long term funding to support Hubs.

 

Unlocking the potential of Child and Family Hubs & amplifying the Network

The Network submitted two funding proposals to the Commonwealth Government’s pre-budget submission process in late January 2025:

• The ‘glue’ needed to unlock the potential of Child and Family Hubs
  • This submission requested the Commonwealth Government invest $270 million over four years, followed by $95 million annually to provide critical glue funding for 200 Child and Family Hubs to improve child and family outcomes and unlock the value of existing investment in Hubs by improving integration and connection.
• Amplifying and sustaining the impact of Child and Family Hubs across Australia
  • requested $6 million to invest in the Network and increase its impact through learning collaboratives, knowledge translation and virtual Hubs.

There are three components to the 'glue' of Child and Family Hubs: Internal integration, external integration, and family outreach and community engagement.

 

The Network also collaborated with member organisations to develop funding proposals for philanthropic organisations. The Network gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ian Potter Foundation for providing initial seed funding over a three year period (2023-2025). The recent funding proposals to philanthropy have focused on expanding the Network’s capacity building work, core infrastructure, research and advocacy. The outcome of the funding proposals to philanthropic organisations will be announced soon.

The Network’s governance structure has expanded to include the following streams of work that are supported by working groups:

• Early Childhood Hubs (Chaired by Social Ventures Australia),
• Schools as Community Platforms (co-Chaired by Our Place and The Bryan Foundation)
• Advocacy, and
• Virtual Hubs.

Similarly, work on integrating the voice of the child and family into the Network has commenced.

 

Collaborative advocacy

In 2025, the Network will continue to advocate for systemic investment in the glue or service integration in Hubs to support children and families thrive. We invite Network members and critical friends to support this work through participating in webinars, sharing your experiences online and advocating at a local and national level for this investment. A useful starting point is the Network’s Hubs advocacy pack which contains social media tiles that can be shared broadly.

Schools as Community Platforms working group in person meeting in December 2024.