Best Start is an Victorian Government early years, place-based initiative to support families, caregivers and communities in providing the best possible environment, experiences and care for children from birth to school entry.
Purpose and focus
Best Start is a early years prevention and early intervention program that aims to improve health, development, learning and wellbeing of all Victorian children from birth through to transition to school, and has a particular focus on children experiencing vulnerability and all Aboriginal children.
Best Start outcomes
The Best Start outcomes listed below are medium-term outcomes, and have been devised to focus and organise partnership efforts so that they align with Best Start key directions.
- Children engage and participate in early childhood education (kindergarten and Supported playgroups) and enter school as confident and involved learners.
- Children and families actively engage with MCH services, attending key ages and stages visits to optimise health, wellbeing, safety, learning and development.
Best Start Partnerships
Best Start is based on formal partnerships of local agencies and service providers that use local data and community knowledge to identify those who are experiencing vulnerability and plan, deliver and monitor evidence-based strategies to improve outcomes for children.
This localised, targeted way of finding solutions to problems faced by families has been shown to be extremely effective. Efforts are focused on boosting children's participation in the programs such as kindergarten and maternal and child health (MCH) services.
The program also puts in place prevention strategies, such as providing referral pathways when targeted supports are required.