Healthy Start is a new national strategy to help young children of parents with learning difficulties.

Around 40,000 Australian children under five have a parent with a learning difficulty. Healthy Start is a national 3.5 year strategy to better resource the practitioners and organisations who support these families - and in turn to create safe, stimulating and supportive environments for young children.

Healthy Start addresses the need identified by practitioners for access to evidence about what works in the area, for formal training, and for the opportunity to learn from others in the field. It does this by:

• Building an Australia-wide network to connect professionals and share expertise - the Healthy Start network
• Providing extra training, resources and support for practitioners
• Creating access to tailored, evidence-based programs for parents and practitioners.

Healthy Start is a joint initiative of the University of Sydney and the Parenting Research Centre, and is funded by the Australian Government under its Early Childhood - Invest to Grow initiative.

Consultations with state and territory governments have resulted in a range of collaborative arrangements for the implementation of Healthy Start. Each state and territory will adapt the strategy to suit existing programs and meet local needs.

Better support for practitioners

Through the Healthy Start network, practitioners will be able to tap into the learnings of others across health, disability, family support and children's services. They will also receive:

• Free training in how to support parents with learning difficulties, including the University of Sydney web-based training 
• Access to programs based on evidence and specifically designed for parents with learning difficulties

This will be achieved by creating Healthy Start Leaders and regional Learning Hubs in each State and Territory.

What are Learning Hubs?
Healthy Start Learning hubs are networks of individuals and agencies. These could be based on geography, region, local services, roles, projects, interests or pre-existing links or networks.

Hubs will be connected and supported on-line via email, newsletters and a website, and will enable sharing of knowledge between practitioners, agencies and service workers.

How will Learning Hubs be set up?
Healthy Start Leaders in each Australian State and Territory will recruit and support local Learning Hub Convenors. Healthy Start leaders will also host two forums in their area per year.

What do Learning Hub Convenors do?
Convenors will work in the local community to share knowledge, establish local networks for service workers and to support the expansion of evidence-based programs. This includes:

• Hosting the learning hub
• Recruiting members and establishing networks
• Recruiting practitioners to run local programs with parents with learning difficulties

To find out more about Learning Hubs click here

Timeline

Creating a healthy start

Research tells us that, with appropriate resources, parents with learning difficulties and intellectual disabilities can learn, adapt and overcome parenting difficulties. This includes creating safer, more supportive environments for their young children.

Healthy Start addresses this by:

1. Setting up a national network to provide more support to practitioners and families

2. Rolling out two evidence-based home learning programs for parents with learning difficulties

• Parenting Young Children promotes positive parent-child interactions and child care skills.
• Healthy and Safe. An Australian Parent Education Kit equips parents with child health and home safety knowledge and skills.

3. Trial of two innovative programs for parents with learning difficulties

• Healthy Start for Me and My Baby promotes the health and wellbeing of pregnant women.
• Me and My Community enhances community connections, support networks and self-advocacy skills of mothers.

To find out more:

Catherine Wade or Sue Malone Parenting Research Centre Level 5, 232 Victoria Parade East Melbourne VIC 3002 healthystart@parentingrc.org.au Tel: +61 3 8660 3500	Gabrielle Hindmarsh Australian Family & Disability Studies Research Collaboration Faculty of Health Sciences University of Sydney PO Box 170 Lidcombe NSW 1825 fhs.healthystart@sydney.edu.au Tel: +61 2 9351 9510