This report explores ways to strengthen the provision of services to ‘hard to reach’ families in Frankston North, Karingal and Carrum Downs, suburbs on Melbourne’s outer metropolitan fringe. Parents and service staff were interviewed about factors which hindered or encouraged the use of services such as maternal and child health centres, dental services and childcare.

This report investigates the ways in which playgroups in Greater Dandenong, a culturally diverse municipality in south-eastern Melbourne, can foster the inclusion of many community groups, and identifies barriers to playgroup attendance for parents and caregivers.