Health and Wellbeing

Student Wellbeing

Best Start

Best Start is a whole of government prevention and early intervention project that aims to improve the health, development, learning and well-being of all Victorian children from pregnancy through transition to school (usually taken to be eight years of age).

Best Start is focused on reducing the impact of disadvantage (from any cause) and enhancing the life chances of all children, particularly those who are vulnerable and not currently accessing services, through strengthening and making more effective universal, preventative and early intervention services.

The Project involves parents, communities, providers and the three tiers of government in the design, use and evaluation of universal services at the local level. Exploring how ante-natal, maternity and maternal and child health services, child care, pre-school, and primary schools can best work together with other community resources on the ground to improve outcomes for children is the priority. The use of evidence-based approaches and effective models of care and support will underpin innovative work practices and service developments. Developing more effective linkages with specialist services that can build upon the universal service platform and provide additional support for those with greater needs is central to this endeavour.

Best Start will initially trial these approaches in 11 demonstration sites. The learnings from these projects will be broadly disseminated and will inform future policy, program and service development across the State.

Funding of $7.6 million over three years has been allocated to the Best Start project, a joint initiative of the Department of Human Services and the Department of Education. See Best Start (http://www.beststart.vic.gov.au/)

Demonstration projects

Five Best Start three-year trial projects began in September 2002 in the cities of Hume, Maribyrnong, Frankston, Shepparton and Yarra Ranges Shire. Collectively these municipalities have approximately 67,000 children aged up to eight years.

These projects will explore how universal early years services including ante-natal, maternity and maternal and child health services, child care, pre-school, and primary schools can best work together to improve outcomes for children and their parents and families.

Six new Best Start demonstration sites announced in December 2002, include the Cities of Whittlesea, Casey, Ballarat and Geelong (Rosewall); Shire of Wellington; and Swan Hill Rural City Council (Robinvale).

They will join the five already endorsed sites to trial new strategies for providing support to young children and their families. Innovations including mobile services to engage the most disadvantaged and transitional programs between key early years services are likely to result from the strengthened working relationships that will be developed between local health, education and community early years providers.

For more information, see Best Start: Partnerships for Young Children and Families (Word - 93Kb)

Current activities

 

Further information about this initiative is available at Best Start (http://www.beststart.vic.gov.au/)