Best Start

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Hume/Broadmeadows

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The Hume Early Years Partnership has 28 agencies and schools working with a joined up “whole of government agenda” through a signed partnership agreement. The partnership includes representatives from health, education, early childhood and community sectors at a manager and worker level. It conducts regular community consultation and priority setting and includes a Parent Advisory Group.

Objectives

  • To improve access to universal services for vulnerable groups, especially culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.
  • To support universal services to identify and support vulnerable children and their families.
  • To strengthen and improve seamless pathways from universal services to appropriate secondary or tertiary services.
  • To provide opportunities for and support the development of neighbourhood cohesion and connectedness in order to achieve more child and family friendly communities.

Issues identified during community consultation (May - June 2003)

What is working well with services for young children and families?

  • New purpose built Council facilities eg. Visy Cares Learning Centre, Global Learning Centre.
  • Number of co-located Council services eg. Maternal and Child Health Service (MCH), Preschool, Primary School.
  • Multicultural activities for children and parents in preschools.
  • Neighborhood Houses with programs for parents and children with childcare available.
  • Large number of playgroups (39).
  • Early intervention programs for children with additional needs and inclusion of children in preschool.
  • International playgroups with parents from diverse cultures.
  • Preschool story time for babies and toddlers, and story time in community languages at the library.

Common issues for service improvement

  • The need for improved access to preschool and a range of low cost early childhood programs and activities.
  • The need to consolidate existing programs that are working well.
  • Long waiting lists for secondary services such as speech pathology and early intervention for young children.

Best Start Broadmeadows Priorities 2003-04

The Partnership Group has identified three priority areas for action. The priority areas are described in the Best Start Broadmeadows Action Plan, September 2003, and are being implemented through cross-sectoral working groups led by Partnership members. The priority areas are:

  1. Promoting the early engagement of children and families with services and early childhood programs (targeting children aged two to five years).
  2. Coordinating community literacy and numeracy activities for young children, including babies and toddlers, and their parents
  3. Initiating activities that increase community connections for parents with more complex needs (for example, transient families, newly arrived families, Indigenous families and adolescent parents).

Local Activities in 2004

In response to issues raised during the community consultation, and Partnership priorities, eight Service Improvement Projects have been approved for implementation in 2004.

  1. Maternal Child Health /Parent Link Worker: A family support worker will provide home visiting for children 2 - 3 years old and their families to promote participation in early childhood and health programs.
  2. Playgroup Coordination Project Worker: Establish a network of playgroup leaders that will support the development, maintenance and coordination of playgroups in Hume City Council area.
  3. Action on Access to Preschool: Funding allocated for further research and action to reduce barriers to preschool.
  4. Playgroup seeding funding: Funding allocated to support the establishment of six playgroups.
  5. Preschool-school transition: Develop a process for transition to school that improves communication between professionals and increases parent engagement with their child's learning and development.
  6. Somali Community Connections: Development of a Somali Women's Group with weekly speakers from local child and family services.
  7. Caravan Park Nutrition: Improve access to fresh fruit and vegetables for families in local caravan parks with regular visits from a local grocer.
  8. Aboriginal Acceptance and Respect Project: Quality art murals will be provided to six mainstream services to promote cultural identity and access or Indigenous people. Cultural awareness training will be offered to these agencies and staff in local schools and child and family services.

LGA Profile

Population

  • The 2004 total population of Hume Local Government Area (LGA) was 148,195.
  • The Department of Sustainability and Environment projects the 2020 population of Hume LGA will reach 175,702.
  • There are 21,236 children aged 0 to 8, comprising 14.3% of Hume’s total population. This compares with 11.3% for Victoria as a whole.
  • There are approximately 760 people of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin in Hume, making up approximately 0.6% of the area’s population.

Socio-Economic

  • The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2001 Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSED) for Hume was 954.2. A lower score indicates a higher level of disadvantage. This compares with the State IRSED of 1016.
  • Hume was ranked 5 out of the 78 LGAs in Victoria on the IRSED. A rank of 1 was assigned to the most disadvantaged LGA.
  • Based on the 3rd Quarter of 2005, the unemployment rate in Hume was 9.2%, compared to 5.5% for Victoria as a whole.

Language/Cultural Background

  • 28.7% of Hume’s population were born overseas, compared to 23.3% of Victoria as a whole.
  • Of those born overseas, 28.1% speak only English and 52.7% speak English “well” or “very well”.
  • 18.0% of those born overseas speak English “not well” or “not at all”, this compares to 13.6% of all Victorians born overseas.

Families

  • There are approximately 17,746 families with children aged 15 and under in Hume.
  • 80.8% of the 17,746 families are couple families, compared with 80.6% of all families with children aged 15 and under in Victoria.
  • 19.2% of the 17,746 families are one-parent families, compared with 19.4% of all families with children aged 15 and under in Victoria.

Immunisation

  • Based on the 3rd Quarter of 2005, 92.1% of children in the 12 to 15 month age cohort in Hume were fully immunised. This compares to 92.0% of children in this age cohort across Victoria.
  • Based on the 3rd Quarter of 2005, 93.8% of children in the 24 to 27 month age cohort in Hume were fully immunised. This compares to 92.5% of children in this age cohort across Victoria.

Child Health

  • From July 2003 to June 2005 there were 227.1 Hospital Separations per 1000 of all children aged 0 to 8 in Hume.
  • This compares with a rate of 229.5 Hospital Separations per 1000 children aged 0 to 8 across Victoria for the same period.

Teen Pregnancy

  • There were 24.2 births per thousand females aged 15 to 19 in Hume during 2003 and 2004.
  • This compares to 19.0 births per thousand females aged 15 to 19 across Victoria for the same period.

Downloads

Contact Information

Uniting Care Sunshine and Broadmeadows
Best Start Community Facilitator

Phone: (03) 9351 3600