Solid Foundations

From Cradle to Careers! The Solid Foundation team work with children aged 0-11 years. They invest their time into the earliest years of a child's life by building the capabilities of families, services and the community to ensure all children begin school ready to learn and actively participate in community life.

Loddon Children's Health & Wellbeing Local (LCHWL)

The Loddon Children’s Health and Wellbeing Local (LCHWL) provides a range of health and wellbeing services to children up to 11 years of age who may be experiencing some challenges such as developmental, emotional, relational or behavioural concerns. Services are available to families across the Shires of Campaspe, Central Goldfields, Loddon, Macedon Ranges, Mt Alexander, and Greater Bendigo.

The LCHWL is an innovative model co-designed with partners – paediatric service providers, and people with lived experience - to provide a regionally based system response that improves access across prevention, primary and tertiary care in the Loddon Campaspe region.

The service is particularly targeting those children who are not accessing support under other mechanisms such as NDIS. Services provided through the LCHWL include paediatric health, mental health support, parenting support, specialist assessments, allied health, family services and care coordination.

The LCHWL has recently been established in response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Led by Bendigo Community Health Services in partnership with Bendigo Health and regional partners Bendigo and District Aboriginal Cooperative, Njernda Aboriginal Corporation, Echuca Regional Health, Dhelkaya Health, Sunbury & Cobaw Community Health, Bendigo Community Health Services, Maryborough District Health and the North Central LLEN.

Strong Families Strong Children (SFSC)

Buloke

Loddon

What we’ll do

Our Vision: For all children in Loddon Shire to start school ready to learn

Outcomes

All children arrive at school ready for learning
All children have a voice and influence
All children are happy and enjoy healthy lifestyles

Priorities

Change the way services work so it is easier for families to get what they need
Resource and support services in partnering with families
Help children to live in safe, caring and supportive families
Support children to have the best start in life and be ready for learning
Improve social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing of children & their parents & carers
Increase voice, influence and participation of children and families in Early Year’s activities
Improve family knowledge and confidence to access the supports they need - when they need it
Raise family and community expectations of education

How we'll do it

Earliest Support - We will invest in the early years of children’s lives by enabling children, families and the community to break the cycle of disadvantage.

Co-design for Maximum Impact - We will ask families what they need and do our best to provide this in a way that works best for children and families.

Strong Connections & Partnerships - We will develop quality connections, conversations and relations with children, families and services. We will join forces to work on making it easier for families to get the support they need when they need it.

A Flexible & Responsive Model - We will share our resources and expertise to ensure services bend to meet the needs of families. We believe is it our responsibility to change to be there for families and not the other way around.

Stronger Families - We will increase the voice, participation and influence of children and families and always prioritise their wellbeing. Our work and the changes we need to make will be based on what children and their families tell us is needed to make the service system better for local families.

Outcomes Based Accountability - We will measure our progress against our goal of children and their families getting a better deal when it comes to support services and challenge whether anyone is better off.

How we will know if we've made a difference

Maternal Child Health, Kindergarten, Playgroup and School attendance in the early years will improve
More children will be on track developmentally when they start school. We will measure this against the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC)
More parents and carers will tell us they are feeling confident about knowing what is needed for their children and how to access or provide for this
More children will be living safely with their families. Fewer children will need statutory intervention by Child Protection Services
More families will tell us the service system is easy to access

SFSC Buloke

At the end of 2019, the North Central LLEN received funding from the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust to launch the SFSC Buloke program (2020-2021), aimed at ensuring all children in the Buloke Shire start school ready to learn.

The program takes a community-focused approach, supporting families and children, strengthening early years services, and building local workforce capacity to create long-lasting benefits. An Early Years Facilitator works directly with families, playgroups, preschools, schools, and Maternal and Child Health services to improve access to resources and address barriers families face.

A key initiative is the State of Buloke's Children & Young People Report, which highlights challenges like a rise in developmental vulnerability among children starting school (30.8% in 2018, up from 11.5% in 2015). The program is implementing coordinated efforts to reverse this trend, focusing on improving family knowledge of available services and boosting confidence in accessing support.

Led by North Central LLEN and the Buloke Shire Council, with support from local educators and health representatives, SFSC Buloke also engages families through a dedicated Facebook page: www.facebook.com/sfscbuloke. It operates alongside the SFSC Loddon Partnership, 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 j.turner@ncllen.org.au.

Ensuring all children in Buloke Shire start school ready to learn

The State of Buloke Children's and Young People Report

SFSC Loddon

As part of the three-year Strong Families Strong Children (SFSC) Loddon project funded by the William Buckland Foundation, families in the Loddon Shire will receive direct help to make sure their children are properly prepared to start school by connecting them to local support services through an Early Years Facilitator.

The SFSC partnership is aiming to “change the system one child and family at a time” in order to progress towards a sustainable, evaluated model that has the potential to be scaled to help children in other rural areas. Individual children and their families have joined with this partnership to look at their needs and address barriers they face in navigating the service system. Whilst receiving services to support their child’s journey towards school readiness, they are also helping to improve the system for every child and family.

The SFSC Loddon Early Years Facilitator works 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 includes establishing and 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 investigates any barriers or challenges families face in accessing the help they need and explores ways to remove these barriers and increase access to services and supports.

The role of the Early Years Facilitator is also to try to connect the services and supports that are already working in the Loddon Shire and investigate ways these services can work together more to help children and families in the Loddon Shire.

Ensuring all children in Loddon Shire start school ready to learn

The State of Loddon Children's and Young People Report

Comprehensive Monitoring

This project, in collaboration with the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET), aims to promote mental health and prevent mental disorders across generations by implementing a population-level system to monitor social and emotional development throughout life—from childhood to young adulthood and into parenthood.

Building on decades of longitudinal research and the success of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), the project extends the AEDC with seven additional surveys covering key life stages: perinatal, toddlerhood, middle childhood (9-12 years), adolescence (15-18 years), and young adulthood (18-21 years). These surveys track developmental pathways (e.g., mental health, behavior, and positive growth) and asset classes (individual, relational, and contextual) to provide a comprehensive understanding of psychosocial development.

The project uses existing platforms like maternal health and education systems to collect population-wide data, ensuring scalability and accessibility. Field-tested in regional Victorian communities, the system is now being expanded in Loddon and Buloke Shires through North Central LLEN. It aims to strengthen community-based mental health approaches and provide governments with data to support long-term social and emotional well-being.

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