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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-23 Daily Xml
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CHILDREN'S CENTRES

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Early Childhood Development. Can the minister update the house on progress in implementing children's centres, which are so important to support children and their families in the early years?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:43): I would like to thank the member for Reynell for her question and for her passionate advocacy—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —for children not only in her electorate but around the state. Investing in the early years of life has been a hallmark of this Rann Labor government.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Bragg!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We know that the experiences of children in those developing years has a profound impact not only on their learning but also on their health and wellbeing. The future health trajectory of a child is fundamentally affected by what happens in the first five years of life, and so as many resources as we can put into that area are absolutely crucial. That is why we have developed the concept of the children's centre, bringing care, education, family support and health services under the one roof.

Children do not see themselves as having particular needs that fall into portfolio areas. They are children, seeking to develop in a healthy way, and it is for us to bring those services together to make them accessible for them and their families. There is no such thing as a hard-to-reach family, there are just hard-to-reach services, and we have to make sure that our services are tailored around the needs of those families.

We now have provided 2,200 children's places, including 1,600 preschool places and 500 childcare places in these children's centres. That is why I was very proud to recently open the latest in our network of children's centres, including the O'Sullivan Beach Children's Centre last week and just yesterday the Trinity Gardens Children's Centre.

These two facilities were made possible by the incredible collaboration of a group of passionate citizens—professionals—all coming together, together with their communities, to create these services. At Trinity Gardens we have a range of services, including a Positive Parenting program, which helps parents develop strategies.

The truth is that every family that has a newborn child come into it is under enormous pressure. It does not take many nights of sleeplessness for parents to feel desperate, so being able to come together and share information with other parents in an environment where they are supported is a fantastic thing.

The My Time peer-support group is another fantastic initiative. That is an initiative where a parent of a child with a disability comes in for a couple of hours. Someone makes them a cup of tea. Their child is looked after by a paid professional, and, while the child is getting support and assistance and is introduced to a range of maybe therapies, toys or other things they might not have access to at home, the parents are also given an opportunity not only to have a break but also to talk to other parents who are parenting children with disabilities. It is incredibly valuable when parents realise that someone else is going through exactly the same thing as them.

There is also a range of programs, such as Getting to Know Your Baby, a parenting course for new parents. In the Trinity Gardens Children's Centre yesterday, I was very pleased to announce that the local headquarters for the Australian Breastfeeding Association is now located there. They were looking for a new home. They have secure funding. I think that they are funded by the federal government, and they have found a home in the Trinity Gardens Children's Centre, and that provides incredibly valuable support for new mothers, and also for expectant mothers. This sounds like a small thing, but the question of breastfeeding and whether or not that works in the first weeks after a child is born can be an enormous source of distress for parents, families and for children.

At the opening of the O'Sullivan Beach Children's Centre the other day with the member for Reynell, I announced the government's latest commitment to the Smith Family's Let's Read program, together with a fine citizen, Mr Jaeschke, who, I think, had a relationship with those opposite once upon a time. He now runs the Smith Family's Let's Read program. He is its chief executive in South Australia. Together we had the great pleasure of announcing $365,000 of funding to bring this successful program, which assists people in reading to their children from the early years of life, into each of our children's centres across the state.

It may sound like a small matter, reading to a newborn child, but we know that so much of the profound brain development occurs even in the first seven months of a child's existence. That first seven months is the most profound activity in the wiring up of a child's brain receptive for language. That is frightening when you consider that it is not until two years before they tend to produce their own language. But, when you are talking to the child, what is actually happening is that you are wiring up that child's brain for the later capacity for them to learn.

This is an incredibly important initiative, and it is one that I am sure all members of parliament would support. I would like to thank the communities of both the O'Sullivan Beach and Trinity Gardens children's centres for inviting me to be a part of their facilities. It was wonderful to see the way in which the community has embraced these facilities. This is going to make the most profound difference to the healthy human development of these children and to the capacity of our community in the future.

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