Ensuring all children in Buloke Shire start school ready to learn
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​At the end of 2019 the North Central LLEN received funding from the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust to deliver a new early years program in 2020-2021 designed to ensure all children in the Buloke Shire start school ready to learn.

SFSC Buloke recognises that it takes a village to raise a child and focuses on supporting families and children, strengthening the services available to help them, and building on our existing community capacity to ensure the benefits of the project are long lasting and sustainable.

We will use learnings from each child/family to make the service system more responsive, to develop and build on the strengths of our local workforce and support them to better meet ALL children’s needs, and to advocate to create system reform.

The project has engaged an Early Years Facilitator to work individually with families and early years services to try to increase access for children and families to the services and resources they need to help children develop into the best they can be.

This included supporting playgroups, working in preschools with Early Years Educators, liaising with Maternal and Child Health Nurses and supporting schools, particularly with children transitioning to school. 

The Facilitator also investigated barriers or challenges families face in accessing the help they need and explored ways to remove these barriers and increase access to services and supports.

Another core element of the project has been the commissioning of the State of Buloke's Children & Young People Report to help us get a clearer picture of key indicators for the health, wellbeing and development of children and families within the Buloke Shire.

Recent data shows that the number of children in Buloke Shire arriving at school 'ready to learn' has decreased significantly in recent years with the 2018 Australian Early Developmental Census results showing that 30.8% of children commencing school in the Buloke Shire were developmentally vulnerable in one or more domains - up from 11.5% in 2015. 

SFSC Buloke is implementing a number of initiatives that are designed to change these statistics over the next few years with an integrated, coordinated approach involving a range of service providers who have the opportunity to positively impact these families and children.

A priority of SFSC Buloke is to improve family knowledge and confidence to access the support they need - when they need it - and to know what services are available to them. 

To help with this, a dedicated Facebook page has been established which families are being encouraged to follow – www.facebook.com/sfscbuloke. 

The SFSC Buloke Partnership is being led/facilitated by the North Central LLEN, Buloke Shire Council, and supported by a network of Buloke Early Years educators, health, education, and community sector representatives and is being funding through a grant from the Helen MacPherson Smith Trust.  

It will also work alongside the established SFSC Loddon Partnership that is funded by the William Buckland Foundation. 

For more information about the SFSC Buloke program contact Early Years Facilitator Jess Turner on 0418 811 414 or by email to [email protected].

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Comprehensive Monitoring Project: Birth to 21 years

​This project builds on an established collaboration with the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) which aims to strengthen community-based approaches to promoting mental health, and preventing mental disorder, within and across generations.

Encouraging children, young people and their families to participate in this survey has been a major focus of our organisation over the last two years so that we are able to clearly see where investment needs to take place in the future to make the biggest difference.

​Click here to read more.