National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development

On 3 July 2008 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to sustained engagement and effort by all governments over the next decade and beyond to achieve the Closing the Gap targets for Indigenous people. As a first step, COAG agreed in principle to the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development with joint funding of around $547.2 million over six years to address the needs of Indigenous children in their early years. This funding builds on the $16.8 million committed over five years for the Indigenous Child Care Hubs, which takes the total amount of funding under this Agreement to $564 million over six years.

At the COAG meeting on 2 October 2008, Australia's first National Partnership Agreement, the Indigenous Early Childhood Development National Partnership Agreement, was signed as the next step to achieve the COAG Closing the Gap targets for Indigenous children. On 2 July 2009 a revised National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development was agreed which superseded the previous version of the National Partnership Agreement regarding Indigenous early childhood development, agreed by COAG in October 2008.

The Three Elements of the National Partnership

All governments recognise that a shared commitment to improvements in Indigenous child mortality requires better access to antenatal care, teenage reproductive and sexual health services, child and maternal health services and integrated child and family services which focus on quality early learning, child care and parent and family support.

The National Partnership Agreement is split into three elements:

Through the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development, the Australian Government has provided funding for the establishment of 38 Children and Family Centres across Australia by June 2014. The Children and Family Centres will deliver integrated services, including early learning, child care and family support programs. 

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. The design and operation of the facilities will differ from centre to centre so that services meet local needs. While the final service mix for each Centre will be subject to community consultation, it is envisaged that each 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 are being established in a mix of urban, regional and remote locations. They are concentrated in areas where there is demonstrated need for these services, are high disadvantage and a high proportion of Indigenous children under five years of age. Not all sites will include the construction of a new centre, but might use existing facilities to enhance or expand services.

As of March 2011, 38 centres have been determined for the following locations:

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

State and territory governments have the lead on establishing the centres, including undertaking consultations with communities. Community engagement with Children and Family Centres is vital for their success. Consultation involves key partners and stakeholders (including Indigenous communities, the non-government organisations delivering services and relevant peak bodies). Consultation and engagement is guided by state and territory plans and is underway in many locations. Communities may be interested in contributing to decisions on:

• 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 62KB | RTF 88KB)