Each child’s social and emotional development is guided by their family and by the wider community and environment in which they are raised. The culture that the child is raised in will also impact on their upbringing and the way that their family and community interacts with them and develops expectations of them.

In 2010-11, Australia accepted 13,799 refugees. However, there has been little research into the experiences that families from refugee backgrounds have with Australia’s child and family health services. The child and family health service plays a vital role in linking refugee families to communities and services more broadly. Research into refugee families and their engagement...

Considerable work has been undertaken over several years to establish primary schools as community hubs in the City of Hume through the Hubs Strategy Group for the Hume Communities for Children Initiative and, more recently, the Supporting Parents Developing Children project. This work has highlighted the need for a primary school community hub toolkit. The...

While most families of young children are well supported socially and make good use of services, some do not. Children from families that have poor social supports and that make limited or no use of early child and family services are at increased risk of poor health and developmental outcomes. Research confirms what many professionals...

Parenting young children has become a more complex and stressful business, especially for those families in our community with the least resources (Grose, 2006; Hayes et al, 2010; Poole, 2004; Richardson & Prior, 2005; Trask, 2010). A widening gap exists between families that function well and those that are vulnerable. The paradox of service delivery...