Page 4370 - Week 12 - Thursday, 24 October 2019
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programs and services that come into contact with this vulnerable cohort. To this end, MACH will continue to work with birthing services across the ACT and will continue to monitor reasons for non-take-up to identify any barriers to access.
Of the six recommendations, five are agreed and one is agreed in principle. Where the government position is agreement in principle, the government supports the policy intent of the recommendation but recognises that important contextual information and resourcing constraints must be considered in ensuring that responses are effective and targeted to vulnerable children and families.
I would like to highlight that since the beginning of the audit the government has progressed reforms and reviews that will give rise to system-wide changes which will contribute to improved services and referral pathways for vulnerable children and families. The MACH service has undergone significant service review and redesign, including restructuring of the MACH service model to allow for local follow-up; a workforce strategy to maintain service capacity; and relocation of clinical services to meet community need.
Canberra Health Services is currently undertaking the early family support initiative to review and respond to identified gaps in services for families experiencing vulnerabilities. This will include opportunities to trial multidisciplinary sustained nurse home visiting programs.
Early support by design is a human services wide reform to shift the system from a crisis-focused response to one that enables early support and wellbeing. Key components of early support by design are intended to enhance system, practice and service responses for vulnerable families, including service responses that work with children in the context of their families and are co-produced in partnership with people with lived experience in order to minimise barriers to access and engagement.
A key component of the broader early support work is the development of the first 1,000 days strategy. This will drive a collective and coherent approach that ensures Canberra’s children have the best start in life. The importance of the first 1,000 days of life, from conception to the age of two years, is now well understood as critical in establishing strong foundations that have benefits over the life course. Getting it right in this time period, and supporting families and communities to do so, is the surest way of setting children, families and communities up for success and positive outcomes. The first 1,000 days strategy will draw on an extensive evidence base, bringing together what the ACT is currently doing to support this stage of life and identifying opportunities to further strengthen these supports. I look forward to providing more updates as this strategy is further developed over the coming months.
Furthermore, the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement 2019-28Â incorporates 10 action plans developed around core and significant focus areas, one of which is children and young people. This area has a specific commitment to achieving the outcomes of delivering quality services that support the positive development, health, and wellbeing of children and young people, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children growing up safely in their families and communities.
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