Under the Indigenous Early Childhood Development National Partnership Agreement it has been agreed that at least 35 Children and Family Centres will be established across Australia by June 2014. To date the locations for 36 Centres have been announced.

The Children and Family Centres are targeted at addressing the needs of Indigenous families and their young children and will also provide services to all families in the community.

Each Children and Family Centre will be different to suit the community where it is located. However, every centre will: 

• bring together important services for children and families including child care, early learning, parent and family support programs. 
  
• use existing community strengths and resources to help establish the centres and make sure every centre responds effectively to its community 
  
• connect with other services in the community to ensure families can easily access the services they need, for example, maternal and child health services, playgroups or family literacy programs.

While consulting the local community about their needs, consideration will also be given to how existing Australian Government funded services (e.g crèches and playgroups), can be incorporated in, or linked with, the Children and Family Centres.

The centres will be spread across the country in a mix of urban, regional and remote locations. They will be concentrated in areas where there are high proportions of Indigenous children in the 0 to 4 age range and in areas of high disadvantage. Not all sites will include the construction of a new centre, but might use existing facilities to enhance or expand services.

As of December 2009. 36 centres have been announced for the following locations: 

• Northern Territory: Yuendumu, Maningrida, Gunbalanya, Palmerston and Ngukurr 
  
• Queensland: Mt Isa, Cairns, Mareeba, Ipswich, Doomadgee, Mornington Island, Mackay, Rockhampton, Marsden and Palm Island 
  
• Western Australia: Halls Creek, Kununurra, Fitzroy Crossing, Swan Region (Perth) and Roebourne
  
• Tasmania: Bridgewater, with an annex at Geeveston 
  
• Australian Capital Territory: West Belconnen 
  
• New South Wales: Campbelltown, Blacktown (2 Centres), Ballina, Walgett, Shoalhaven, Lake Macquarie, Brewarrina and Gunnedah Local Government Areas. 
  
• Victoria: Bairnsdale and Whittlesea
  
• South Australia: Ceduna, Whyalla and Christies Beach/Noarlunga.

State and territory governments are taking the lead on establishing the centres and have started talking to the local communities to ensure the centres meet their needs. Some of the key community issues may include:

• the site for the centre
  
• how best to design a new facility or adapt an existing facility
  
• the services most needed in the community
  
• the existing community services and resources that should be built into the centre
  
• how to involve the community in the ongoing operation of the centre.

Allocation and funding of Children and Family Centres

Below is the distribution of Children and Family Centres across Australian states and territories.

Table 1: Distribution of Children and Family Centres across states and territories

The table below outlines the Australian Government funding contribution for the Children and Family Centres in each state and territory.

Table 2: Funding per state/territory – 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2014

Fact sheet:

• The Children and Family Centre fact sheet ( PDF 65KB | RTF 56KB)