Using Evidence and Innovation for a Healthier Start to Life

Right now, there is converging policy opportunity, support and ambition offering the best chance to achieve systems change for equitable and real-life improvements for our children to have the best start in life and better longer-term outcomes. Early years leaders and champions from across the region came together last Wednesday with Professor Sharon Goldfeld, paediatrician and Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital and Director of Population Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, who was visiting Gladstone.

This opportunity provided community leaders (educators, health professionals, service providers, and government representatives) to learn more about topics in focus across the national ecosystem and share local insights, considerations and realities.  

Our children’s health, wellbeing and development cannot wait. Professor Goldfeld acknowledged the recently released Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) data for 2024, which shows children in the Gladstone Region are developmentally more vulnerable versus the state and national average, and growing trend of more children identified as requiring further assessments. Radical pragmatism was called upon to rethink, reimagine and reinvent the early years system that Gladstone wants for its children and families.  

“Make the unthinkable thinkable by adopting an experimental mindset – test, trial and use data to prioritise efforts,” Professor Goldfeld encouraged. 

Policy and research was shared on: 

• evidence based universal and targeted services and supports, and the integration opportunities this creates 

• importance of prevention and intervention early (from conception) to support children’s wellbeing and development today and for the years ahead 

• why quality, quantity and participation matter, and how data can be used to understand gaps and drive improvement  

• holistic and whole of community response, together for our children. 

“Although we work in silos, we are caring for the same children,” Professor Goldfeld said.  

Children and families benefit when services work together. A pressure cooker metaphor was offered to highlight that this window of opportunity requires everyone to lean into collective efforts to improve integration.  

“Our children deserve a useful, joined up early years system.”   

Participants engaged in a table activity to identify untapped opportunities and what could be tackled more effectively together than alone. They held space for deep listening and courageous conversation.  

What emerged was a recognition of our community’s shared determination to move beyond conversation to meaningful action together, and that much of the knowledge, commitment and solutions needed may already be here within our community. 

A closing reflection shared by a participant captured the sentiment of the room:

“These are our children and families. We are the village. We can do this together.”  

Our children have a healthy start to life is a shared priority identified and included in the community-designed and endorsed Gladstone Region Wellbeing Action Plan.  

Early years leaders and champions interested in building on inputs gathered and shaping next actions for collective impact (immediate and long-term) are invited to participate in a workshop to be held 7:30–9:00am Tuesday 14 October 2025. 

GRT encourages those able to participate, and those interested but unable to make this time, to respond to the Expression of Interest or contact GRT.