Submission to the Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative

Community Health First welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative to contribute to the design of the system and services that will support children under 8 and their parents and families.

To inform system design that truly builds on existing community services, we encourage the inquiry to examine what can be learnt from the current model of care being delivered through Victoria’s registered independent community health sector that is making a tangible difference to lives of children statewide.

Registered community health organisations in Victoria are among the largest providers of paediatric allied health in Victoria, delivering speech pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and psychology at scale alongside developmental assessments and autism diagnostic.

Our large, multi-disciplinary workforces spans occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy, psychology, dietetics, music therapy, nursing, general practice, counselling and support workers who deliver trauma informed, wrap around care that supports not just the child but their parents, families and carers to get the best outcomes possible.

The Victorian community health model has already proven effective in working with young children and their families to deliver targeted and effective early interventions, while also reducing long term system dependencies, through:

• Delivering a team around the child model of care

• Ensuring integration with universal services and delivering services is familiar setting

• A ‘one-stop-shop’ approach to support seamless transitions

• Prioritising early intervention

• Being trusted local providers embedded in communities

With over 250 locations statewide community health organisations already have a trusted brand, deep community relationships, robust governance, clinical expertise, and integration with universal services that families already use such as maternal child health and early childhood education.

Against this backdrop, registered community health organisations are well positioned to deliver a statewide platform of support for young children across Victoria and partner with government to deliver on the objectives of the Thriving Kids initiative.

Community Health First also makes the following recommendations for reform in the roll out of Thriving Kids:

• Implement funding flexibility

• Embed early intervention as a core principle

• Invest in system navigation

• Prioritise equity in system design