Making it easier to give your children the best start in life
Brighter Beginnings supports children, families and carers in the first 2000 days of life, from conception to the time a child starts school.
CASE STUDY
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Having a child is a wonderful experience but can be challenging and overwhelming at times. Juggling the demands of parenthood is hard enough without having to stay on top of a child’s health, developmental and educational needs — especially when parents have only had 4 hours of sleep.
Hard to navigate support services
Feedback from parents indicated that it can be difficult to access and navigate the support services available to them. Some struggle to find the information they need, while others find it difficult to keep on top of vital health and developmental checks for their child.
“It’s hard when you have your first child as everyone just throws info at you. Could be a more organised way of providing what is available.”
– NSW parent
Making it easier for parents and carers
Brighter Beginnings is a NSW Government initiative that makes it easier for parents and carers to give their children the best possible start in life. The first 2000 days (from conception to age 5) are an important time for physical, social and emotional health. Experiences during these early years have deep and long-lasting effects.
The NSW Government recently announced a landmark investment in Brighter Beginnings to increase universal access to education, health, community and government services, and provide targeted early interventions to families experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage. The expanded suite of Brighter Beginnings programs will deliver lifelong benefits for every child and will particularly benefit families that most need support.
Find out more about Brighter Beginnings and the Early Years Commitment.
“Like many new parents we registered the birth of our baby with the relevant government channels, and this triggered the flow of information on our child's health and immunisation plan. It was a wonderful time in our lives and the process was smooth, simple and informative. The gratitude we felt to live in a place where our baby's immunisation plan is all mapped out for us.”
– NSW parent
Almost 100,000 births in NSW each year
- On average, parents will interact with 17 different NSW Government websites, 10 Australian Government websites, 30 NGOs and other businesses in the first 5 years.
- Significantly fewer children attend their health and development checks after the age of 1.
- 2 in 5 children are not developmentally on track by the time they start school.
Parents with children under 5 were surveyed
Find out more about the report
CXS Source: NSW Government Customer Experience Survey (CXS). About the survey methodology.
Fieldwork: January to June 2022.
Questions: Thinking about your experience with the government service…
- How easy or difficult was it to do this?
- How satisfied or dissatisfied were you with this experience?
- To what extent do you trust the government service to be working in your best interests?
Base: Parents who have dependent children that have not yet started primary school, and have interacted with government services in the last 12 months.
Sample size: n=1073.
Definitions and notes:
- Ease of service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Very easy’ or ‘Somewhat easy’.
- Satisfaction with service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Very satisfied’ or ‘Somewhat satisfied’.
- Trust in service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Trust a great deal’ or ‘Somewhat trust’.