Submission to the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability
Response to an inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative
3 October 2025
Contents
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Submission to the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability
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- Examine evidence-based information and resources that could assist parents identify if their child has mild to moderate development delay and support parents to provide support to these children.
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- Examine the effectiveness of current (and previous) programs and initiatives that identify children with development delay, autism or both, with mild to moderate support needs and support them and their families. This should focus on community and mainstream engagement, and include child and maternal health, primary care, allied health playgroups, early childhood education and care and schools.
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4. Identify gaps in workforce support and training required to deliver Thriving Kids.
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5. Draw on domestic and international policy experience and best practice.
Contact details
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Website: http://www.communityhubs.org.au
Definitions, Abbreviations and Names
Unless otherwise specified, these definitions apply for the purposes of this submission:
Migrants: all temporary and permanent migrants, regardless of their circumstances of arrival in Australia.
Community hubs/hubs: the place-based community hubs operating in primary schools in culturally diverse Australian communities under the National Community Hubs Program.
Key abbreviations:
CHA: Community Hubs Australia Limited
NCHP: National Community Hubs Program
Introduction
The National Community Hubs Program
The community hub model is a proven place-based and people-centred way of building connections and social and economic capital within culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Hubs are embedded in primary schools and help bridge the gap between families and the wider community. They connect families with each other, with their school, and with local services and support.
Families take part in a variety of activities in the hubs, ranging from playgroups and social ‘coffee and chat’ sessions to learning conversational English and vocational skills. Attending a local hub helps improve participants’ confidence, social connection, educational outcomes and employment potential. Further details regarding the hubs program including its outcomes can be found here - https://www.communityhubs.org.au.
Community Hubs Australia
Community Hubs Australia, a non-profit organisation committed to helping improve social cohesion in Australia, is responsible for overseeing the delivery, reporting and continual improvement of the National Community Hubs Program at the national level. We work with federal, state and local governments, business, philanthropic, not for profit and community organisations to deliver a proven grassroots program that increases connection between individuals and communities.
Our network
There are 100 community hubs in Queensland (24 sites), New South Wales (25 sites), Victoria (41 sites), and South Australia (10 sites). As part of the Albanese Labor Government’s 2025 election commitment, a further 25 hubs will be rolled out next year in new regions including the Northern Territory and Tasmania.
Funding and costs
The NCHP is funded through a partnership between philanthropy (Scanlon Foundation), all tiers of government, and the education and community sectors. The Federal Government has funded the program since it was founded in 2011, with the program currently funded through the Department of Home Affairs. At a state government level, it is funded through the Department of Education in Queensland, Multicultural NSW in New South Wales, Department of Premier & Cabinet in Victoria, and Department of Human Services in South Australia.
Supporting women and children
Hubs are welcoming places, embedded in primary schools, a location that is easily accessible for many in the community. Through the hub, parents can access English tuition in a way that suits them, allowing them to participate more fully in their child’s education and make it easier to navigate the service system for things like kindergarten and health services for both themselves and their children.
Hubs are a gateway that allows hub leaders and volunteers to build meaningful relationships with migrant families, where they can refer them to the early years or kindergarten services that they need and help them to navigate that system (such as completing forms or understanding the enrolment process). With the support of the hub, migrant families are increasing access to existing kindergarten services, and boosting their own knowledge of early childhood learning at home, leading to increased school readiness in young children. Hubs provide a social space, where migrant families can feel connected and supported. It’s a space to meet other parents who may be in a similar situation and connect in with the services they need.
Response to the Terms of Reference
1. Examine evidence-based information and resources that could assist parents identify if their child has mild to moderate development delay and support parents to provide support to these children.
In 2023, CHA engaged Deloitte to undertake a social return on investment evaluation (SROI) of the National Community Hubs Program, as it had previously done in 2021.
The 2023 SROI evaluation concluded that $65.7 million of social benefits were derived nationally through participation in the community hubs network - generating a return of $3.50 for every dollar invested$^1$. The social benefits included improved social cohesion, jobs creation, development outcomes for children, and the opportunities that come from volunteering.
Compare this to Deloitte’s 2021 evaluation where $33.9 million of social benefits were derived through participation in community hubs in 2019 - generating a return of $2.20 for every dollar invested.
In 2023, Deloitte found that hubs provided:
- $41 million in improved quality of life (62.2% of total social impact). Through improvements in social connections, access to services, and improved confidence and skills, hubs contributed to improved social cohesion and the quality of life.
- $17 million in economic contribution of hub participants who gained work by being involved in a hub (25.9% of total social impact). Hub activities supported participants to find 422 jobs in 2023.
- $7.3 million in improved educational outcomes. Children who participate in hubs, have an increased potential for greater lifetime earnings (11.1% of total social impact).
- $754k reduction in school costs associated with improved development of children with difficulties. Hubs’ early years and school readiness programs reduced vulnerability for children.
- $454k value of volunteer hours.
In 2016, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute undertook a qualitative study to assess the impact of hubs on school readiness. The report demonstrated that children from backgrounds where English is not spoken at home are among the most developmentally vulnerable in the Australian community, and interventions are needed to ensure they arrive at school ready to learn.
The report found that community hubs are providing these interventions, making the transition to school smoother for new students, their families and school staff, compared to the experience prior to hub implementation. The report also notes the impact of hubs beyond school readiness, particularly in building the confidence of parents to engage in their child’s schooling and in undertaking their own vocational training.
$^1$ National Community Hubs Program SROI Evaluation Report, https://www.communityhubs.org.au/news-events/deloittes-social-return-on-investment-evaluation-2023/.
Community Hubs Australia recommends a holistic, whole of family approach to ensuring that students succeed at school. It is more than just school curriculum that determines a student’s success. Ensuring that their family has access to services, support and opportunities to succeed and contribute to a child’s education will have benefits for the child, family, school and community.
2. Examine the effectiveness of current (and previous) programs and initiatives that identify children with development delay, autism or both, with mild to moderate support needs and support them and their families. This should focus on community and mainstream engagement, and include child and maternal health, primary care, allied health playgroups, early childhood education and care and schools.
Founded in 2011, community hubs play an important role with engaging families before their children start school, with the opportunity to identify and put in place any needed support, enabling a smoother transition to kindergarten and school for children, their families and school staff.
In June 2025, our hubs in Ipswich and Logan completed the Early Childhood survey. Developed by CHA in collaboration with the Queensland Government’s Department of Education in 2023, this survey has been a way of learning more from parents or carers of a child (or children) aged 0 - 5 years that attend early years activities in the hub.
Survey responses from families about the support received from the community hubs were overwhelmingly positive, where:
- Nearly all (99%) were happy with hub activities.
- Most agreed (95%) they felt more involved in their child’s care and education.
- Most agreed (97%) they were supported by the hub as a parent.
- All agreed (100%) their child benefited from hub activities.
As part of our national hub census conducted in August this year, 80% of participants with children are more likely to speak a language other than English at home than those without children (66%). Research tells us that children who are not proficient in English and/or grow up in a household that does not speak English are more developmentally vulnerable. Similarly, children are twice as likely to be developmentally vulnerable if they live in economically disadvantaged areas of Australia.
Studies into school readiness show that it’s most effective to address any developmental gaps earlier in a child’s life. Once a child starts school, it becomes much harder to provide the necessary interventions. Early childhood education and early identification of learning delays are key ways to address these gaps in development.
Awareness of the importance of early childhood education is a significant barrier to success. Families might not be aware of the importance and benefits of early years learning, and/or lack access to resources and knowledge of child development.
Accessing early childhood education is not always easy, for many culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families the Australian school system can be difficult to navigate, especially for those with limited English. For newly arrived families, the settlement process can be intensive and if they are focused on housing and employment, they might not have time to arrange early childhood learning. Additionally, these families are often navigating this without the support of extended family or friends and can be dealing with significant isolation or trauma.
Community hubs offer an effective early childhood program for engaging and meeting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Hubs are established in communities with a high migrant/refugee population and high levels of socio-economic disadvantage. By placing the hubs in primary schools, they are more accessible to families as they are within a safe school environment.
Our national hub census told us this year most hub participants (93%) are women, and three quarters (75%) of these are under 45 years of age. Most participants (87%) have at least one dependent child at home, and 46% of this group have pre-school aged children. Of those with pre-school aged children, 85% are bringing their children to the hub and 47% of these don’t take their children to other community services outside the hub.
The main reasons people come to hubs are to spend time with other people (52%), improve their English skills (45%), for their children to join in playgroup (41%) and to learn about services (33%).
Hubs offer a range of early childhood programs, including playgroups, supported playgroups and parent/child language programs. Evaluation of the program has shown that it has increased the uptake of early childhood education programs by CALD, migrant and refugee families. Evaluations of the hubs have shown that they are achieving their goals, increasing the wellbeing and school readiness of children before they start school. Following the evaluations families, hub staff and volunteers noticed:
- Children have better literacy and spoken English skills
- Children are feeling more familiar, comfortable and develop a positive attitude towards school
- Referrals to additional support and services were made when needed
- Behaviour improved among children attending hubs
Hub benefits for children Hubs are having a positive impact on young children, supporting their health, development and wellbeing at a critical time in their lives. This fills a crucial service gap, as half of hub parents with a child under the age of five have not taken their child to any other early year’s services outside the hub. For children, hubs improve English and literacy, help children engage with early learning services, encourage friendships, support smoother transitions into school, and improve social cooperation and self-regulation skills.
“We had a family who attended every playgroup from the day their child was born. Over time, I watched the child grow and noticed delays in development and skills. Starting last year, we encouraged the mother to seek medical advice, but both parents, especially the father, were reluctant.
Through regular hub engagement and attending early childhood intervention sessions in our speech pathology supported playgroup, the mother gradually understood the importance of early support. Convincing the father was challenging, but with consistent guidance and information, he eventually came on board. As a result, we referred the family to Kudos, who provide early childhood intervention and NDIS support. The child is now in line for intervention, ensuring they receive the support needed for a brighter future. This journey highlights the impact of persistence, education, and community support in empowering families.“
Hub leader, Playford College, Playford, South Australia
Hub benefits for families The positive impacts for early childhood learning are not limited to the children, parents and families also experience benefits from the hubs program. Hubs help families by:
- Improving English language and literacy skills
- Improving parenting capability
- Connecting them to the school, local community and services
- Providing vocational training and volunteering opportunities for parents
- Instilling a sense of empowerment
Migrant and refugee families can often feel isolated, unaware of the importance of early years learning or distrustful of large organisations and institutions. Hubs are a gateway that allows hub leaders and volunteers to build meaningful relationships with migrant families, building trust and promoting family involvement in the child’s education.
At Hilltop Road Public School in Cumberland, New South Wales, this year marks their 20th ‘Ready Set Go’ program that sees families enrolled in kindergarten at the school supported in the hub. Families in the ‘Ready Set Go’ program could have a child with diagnosed serious additional needs, a child with undiagnosed additional needs, a child with mild speech or behavioural issues, or a child with no additional needs. Each family is supported by the partnership between the hub and the kindergarten teaching team at the school.
The transition program focusses on exposing children and their families to the primary school environment, including routines such as lunch time, putting your bag away, and sitting in a classroom with other children. For some families, the hub supports applications for a place in a supported kindergarten class while running one-on-one ‘Ready Set Go’ sessions tailored to their child’s specific needs. For other families, the hub will reach out to their pre-school or childcare centre to learn from them how to best support the child through transition into the classroom. The hub leader builds trust with families with undiagnosed children, and supports referrals to occupational therapy, speech therapy, or other developmental assessments.
In another example from regional Victoria, the hub leader from St Georges Road Primary School reflected this year:
“This term, one mother of a child with additional needs experienced a meaningful shift, supported by the ongoing care of the hub leader and child carer. Through gentle encouragement and trust built over time, she has started attending a parenting program, joined a group speech program with her child, and is now exploring further support for her son - while also considering additional family support services. She shared that she has never felt this level of trust or support before. Where there was once hesitation and overwhelm, she now feels more hopeful, less stressed, and is beginning to imagine greater possibilities for her future. While this story speaks to one mum’s journey, it reflects the experience of many women supported through the hub.”
Hub benefits for schools Hubs are improving the cultural competence of schools and having positive impacts on the wider school community. Evaluations conducted in 2015 showed that hubs in schools have:
- Enhanced respect for cultural diversity
- Increased cultural inclusiveness
- Increased capacity to respond to the needs of migrant families
- Increased capacity to work in partnership with migrant families
Without the hub, isolated migrant and CALD families can miss out on these essential services.
Since January this year, our national network of 100 community hubs has made 8,426 referrals and partnered with 522 local organisations to deliver programs and services including referrals to family support (1,152), community health services (950), preschool (678), and maternal and child health (307).
In addition, the hubs continue to play a vital role in early intervention referrals to services or organisations that support families in accessing assistance at the initial stages of a concern. These concerns may include developmental delays, disabilities, mental health challenges like depression or behavioural issue s- connecting families to essential supports and empowering them to engage with services they may not otherwise access. Since January 2025, 406 referrals have been made to early intervention providers including Mercy Community, Mission Australia, and Salvation Army.
Inviting local service providers into the hub plays a crucial role in facilitating referrals and increasing awareness of available external supports for families to access. Delivering this engagement in a safe and familiar environment enables participants to better understand services and fosters a sense of ease when seeking assistance.
At Mooroopna Park Primary School in Shepparton in regional Victoria, the hub leader collaborated closely with school staff to deliver comprehensive support to students and their families. This partnership played a pivotal role in identifying younger children with additional needs, particularly through targeted playgroup activities delivered through the hub, including “chat with a speechie” sessions. Facilitated by a speech pathologist during the playgroup, these sessions provided opportunities to identify areas where children required additional support and facilitated timely access to early intervention services, through sensory-based activities. This allowed children to engage in exploratory play while parents participated in informal conversations with the specialist. This relaxed and supportive approach fostered early engagement and created a welcoming environment for discussing developmental concerns that might have otherwise not been addressed.
Referrals often occur during playgroups with local service providers joining the hub to complete assessments and refer participants accordingly. With hubs playing a key role in supporting pre-prep transition programs on behalf of their school, this ensures referrals are made earlier helping children be better prepared for starting school.
The hub at Riverview State School Hub partnered with West Moreton Health - an initiative that makes a step towards improving health outcomes for families in the local community - to engage a child health nurse into its weekly playgroup sessions. As an active member of the Riverview Collective Action Group (CAG)$^2$, the hub leader advocated for an outreach child health nurse to attend the hub playgroup. Through her conversations with mothers in the hub, the hub leader became aware that they weren’t accessing basic health checks for their children with identified longstanding barriers to health engagement, due to complex community needs and barriers in accessing health support.
Responding to these concerns, the CAG prepared a report outlining significant unmet health needs and service gaps for families at Riverview State School. This was presented to the Primary Health Network (PHN) and West Moreton Health, who responded by initiating a collaborative partnership to deliver targeted support. The integration of the child health nurse into the familiar environment of the hub playgroup has created a safe and accessible space for parents to connect with essential health services.
$^2$ The Riverview Collection Action Group (CAG) is facilitated by Mission Australia, bringing services together to look at the needs of the broader Riverview community.
“Establishing trust with families of the Riverview State School community has taken time and families are cautious of speaking with unfamiliar people and services. Through my ongoing relationships with families attending the hub playgroup, I observed firsthand the urgent need for a child health nurse to be accessible for the community. Numerous parents shared that their children had not previously received a health check.”
Hub leader, Riverview State School, Ipswich, Queensland
Programs, such as community hubs, that are based within primary schools, are an effective way of engaging families from culturally diverse backgrounds with pre-school aged children that might otherwise fall through the gaps. The hubs offer a space where families feel supported, and any concerns relating to their child’s development or even their settlement in Australia can be addressed.
At Wyndham Park Primary School in Wyndham, Victoria, a School Paediatric Outreach Clinic - delivered in partnership with Mercy Health since 2023 - is providing a much-needed service to the school community and delivering better health and educational outcomes for students. By bringing health services like these into the hub, children are less likely to miss school, and families are supported in a familiar environment. This ease of access means children requiring further review and follow-up are more likely to attend appointments.
“This program is excellent. When children are sick, it is difficult to explain the situation due to the language barrier, making it hard to follow up with a specialist. We also need to figure out how to seek specialist doctors.”
Ni, hub participant, Wyndham Park Primary School, Wyndham, Victoria
3. Identify equity and intersectional issues, in particular, children who identify as First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse.
Early childhood education is a critical element in preparing young children for kindergarten and school. Research shows that children who aren’t adequately prepared for school face lower outcomes longer term and are more likely to face challenges later in life, compared to their better prepared peers.
Early childhood education is an important part of promoting and establishing school readiness in children under 5 years old, as any emerging problems are easier to address before a child begins school.
School readiness is ‘the level of functioning in children’s cognitive, social and physical skills that permits them to benefit maximally from formal instruction and related classroom experiences’. School readiness is achieved when a young child has experienced the physical, social, and emotional development needed to not just enrol in primary school, but also succeed in the classroom.
The definition of school readiness has expanded over recent years to include all the environments that a child is exposed to in their early years, such as early childhood settings, schools, neighbourhoods, and communities.
School readiness is a joint effort - the child must be ready for school, the school must be equipped and ready for the child, and the community must have the capacity to provide the appropriate support to ensure a child’s development and learning.
There are two significant disadvantages in school readiness in Australia:
- Children are more developmentally vulnerable if they are not English proficient and/or grow up in a household that does not speak English;
- Children are twice as likely to be developmentally vulnerable if they live in the most economically disadvantaged areas of Australia.
These effects can compound for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children, as CALD families have an increased likelihood of living in disadvantaged areas, and face disproportionately high rates of unemployment and poverty. It is more difficult for CALD families to access preschool education because the complex school system in Australia can be difficult to understand. This is especially relevant for recently arrived families or those with limited English. In addition to this, families may be unaware of the importance of early childhood education and/or lack access to resources and knowledge of child development.
English language learning should be supported and encouraged for the whole family, not just for the child. Engaging mothers in learning English enables them to participate in their child’s education, to help with homework or engage with their child’s teacher. For some mothers, it strengthens their connection with the school and provides a pathway to volunteer in the school community.
To engage mothers in English language, it’s crucial to offer childminding services. Having dependent children is one of the most significant barriers to engaging in English tuition. For the women, they can focus on learning English knowing that their children are being looked after close by, in some cases even in the same room. For the children, childminding offers an opportunity for to increase their school readiness by developing their social and cognitive skills.
English classes at a community hub are accessible, and often easier to access than English tuition at a TAFE or university. Hubs are embedded in local primary schools, where generally families don’t need to rely on public transport. The classes are not too long, are tailored to the needs of the community and are flexible to suit their family responsibilities.
For children, early years language programs are a vital learning opportunity for children to develop necessary skills for school, build capacity of parents to offer these opportunities at home, and important early identification and response to any children’s’ needs or issues. Children’s literacy programs increase school readiness, develop key skills and provide an opportunity for children with low English proficiency to develop their language before starting school. Some examples of literacy programs offered in hubs include:
- Let’s Read
- Sing & Grow
- Bilingual Storytime
- Toddlers Reading Group
- Littles in the Library
- Identify gaps in workforce support and training required to deliver Thriving Kids.
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- Draw on domestic and international policy experience and best practice.
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- Identify mechanisms that would allow a seamless transition through mainstream systems for all children with mild to moderate support needs.
Community Hubs Australia recommends that the Federal Government:
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Continues to recognise the critical role that hubs plays in delivering the National Community Hubs Program to support the identification of children with developmental delays, autism or both, with mild to moderate support needs and support them and their families, particularly families from culturally diverse backgrounds.
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Continues to expand the National Community Hubs Program into communities with high levels of cultural and linguistic diversity as it has done since 2011.
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