A NATIONAL AGENDA FOR YOUNG CHILDREN IN AUSTRALIA

About the National Agenda for Australian Children

It is never too late to help someone who is in trouble.  there are indications that a lot of young people are in trouble in Australia - as evidenced by the high rates of Attention.

Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, depression, drug addiction, youth suicide and juvenile offending.  A number of important initiatives are in operation to counter these established and increasing problems.

There is now convincing evidence that the Early Years of a child's life set the scene for subsequent development. Preventative interventions in these Early Years are much more likely to be effective than costly correctional activity when problems become entrenched.

International and Australian studies demonstrate that children experiencing disadvantage are more likely to have poor life outcomes in terms of physical and mental health, school achievement, employment and general life satisfaction.  They are more likely to experience injury and to be objects of, and the perpetrators of, violence and criminal activity.

A National Agenda for the Early Years must encompass the provision of services to disadvantaged families and the facilitation of community development in disadvantaged areas. In addition, the National Agenda must look further back along the causal pathways of poor health and social outcomes to the prevention of disadvantage itself.

In a time of rapid social change when families are experiencing a perception of loss of control over their lives, job insecurity and the perceived threats of globalisation, it is not only the children of obviously disadvantaged families who are potentially "in trouble".  Despair and disillusionment in a significant proportion of young people are apparent across the breadth of Australian society. A National Agenda must be relevant to all Australian children and their families.

A National Agenda for all children and families in Australia must be inclusive of all recognised groupings such as children with disabilities, geographically isolated children and children of recent migrants to Australia.  Despite this inclusiveness, the special circumstances of the indigenous children of Australia may warrant the development of a separate agenda for Indigenous children.

Much of the evidence on which a National Agenda will be based has been from overseas studies.  It is important that the Australian Agenda includes an extensive research element and a strong evaluation component to identify those activities that improve life outcomes and to abandon those that clearly do not.

A National Agenda for the Early Years will only be effective if it is developed in cooperation with families, communities, all those who work with children, researchers, corporations, all levels of Governments and, where ever possible, children and young people themselves.  It may be necessary to develop a series of documents adapted for specific groups.

It may also be necessary to develop specific detailed papers on some priority items on the Key Components of the National Agenda.

There are potential down sides to a National Agenda for the Early Years that need to be considered.

• The National Agenda, of necessity, must cover an enormous field.  As such, it is likely to appear cumbersome and discursive.  On the other hand, because ordinary human beings tend to look for tasks that are more immediately "do-able", it is likely that the Agenda may tend to focus more on the provision of services rather than tackling, head on, the root causes of disadvantage and loss of social cohesion.
• A feeling of despair and inability to make a difference to life events is often as much to do with perception as to genuine threat.  Individuals who are already having difficulties balancing work, economic needs and parenting do not need a message that they have already failed their children during their Early Years. The Agenda needs to avoid producing feelings of guilt in already stressed parents or providing some members of the community with ammunition to blame all of our social ills on poor parenting.  It must also avoid appearing to offer single, simple solutions to complex problems.

A National Agenda for Young Children in Australia
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