Welcome to our first Paediatrics and Child Health newsletter for 2026. I hope the start of the year has treated you well so far, and that the year ahead offers you success, positive challenges, and a healthy work/life balance.
In 2026, the RACP will deliver a new Flagship Series, RACP LIFT: Learning. Innovation. Forward Thinking, replacing the traditional Congress model. The series adopts a distributed approach, delivering a small number of high-impact, in-person events across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Of particular interest to our members is the Rapid Fire Clinical Update session to be held in Auckland on 8 May 2026. The topic is Paediatrics and Transition to Adult Care, and the event is timed to align with the April release of the RACP’s Youth Appropriate Health Care statement. You can find out more and register for this in-person CPD event here.
The PCHD Council met by videoconference on 25 February. During the meeting we received an update on the General Paediatrics Curriculum from Associate Professor Daryl Cheng, Chair, General Paediatrics Training Program Committee. The new General Paediatrics Curriculum was consulted on from October to December 2025, and a working group met to revise the curriculum in response to feedback received.
I attended a meeting on 29 January 2026 together with Dr Paul Hotton, PCHD President-elect, Associate Professor Daryl Cheng and others to review and endorse the final draft version of the curriculum for approval by the College Education Committee (CEC). The meeting was attended by Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Training Program Committees, Chairs of the Aotearoa and New Zealand PDECs, and Curriculum Committee representatives. We raised concerns voiced by Fellows and trainees relating to rural training, trainee feedback, and neurodevelopmental training. The draft curriculum was endorsed and once it is finalised there will be an implementation plan to communicate relevant changes to training sites to support trainees and supervisors. The curriculum has been approved by CEC and will be implemented with new incoming first-year trainees in 2027, subject to an implementation checkpoint by the College Education Committee in March.
Once the final curriculum and its implementation have been confirmed, we will communicate it to members and external stakeholders. This is currently scheduled for early April. Trainees entering general paediatrics advanced training in 2026 will continue to follow the current PREP program requirements, including the mandatory six-month rural training. For more information, and to view the consultation version of the curriculum, please see the website.
I hope you have all read the summary results of the New Fellow Survey 2025, which was made available to members in September last year. Having now read this thoroughly, I have been making enquiries regarding a number of areas covered in that summary including:
- supervisor support, and better recognition of the role of supervisors and advocating for training sites to provide protected time for supervisors
- support from RACP for the transition to consultant practice, including the possibility of dedicated events on this topic
- member wellbeing and work-life balance.
Having been informed that there are numerous College teams working on these matters, we have asked for subject matter experts from those teams to attend upcoming PCHD Council meetings to provide updates and answer any questions raised. If you have any questions of your own stemming from the summary results of the survey, contact us via Paed@racp.edu.au.
I have been involved in the following policy and advocacy activities and, as always, I am grateful to the Policy & Advocacy team for their expertise and support.
Meeting Victorian Health Minister
In February, Dr Linda Lin, member of the Victorian Committee and Co-Chair of the Victorian and Tasmanian Trainees' Committee, myself, Policy & Advocacy and Victorian office staff, met with the Hon. Mary-Anne Thomas MP, Victorian Minister for Health. The meeting covered key priorities including ADHD reforms, workforce sustainability and community-based care. Discussions highlighted the need for safe, nationally consistent ADHD care, particularly for children, alongside strong GP training, clear referral pathways and sustainable, public health funded community services. Workforce issues, including rural and regional training pathways, were also raised.
Meeting with the Commonwealth
Also in February, Dr Paul Hotton, myself and Policy & Advocacy met with Commonwealth Chief Psychiatrist and Deputy Chief Medical Officer regarding ADHD reforms, national work, and the new RACP Proposal for a National Model for ADHD Care. Keep an eye out for further communication on this once the document is live.
ADHD reforms
Meetings to discuss jurisdiction ADHD reforms have been held across all the States and Territories now, involving the Health Minister and advisers, and/or Health officials, such as the Chief Medical Officer. We’ve also had conversations with the national and local branches of the RACGP and RANZCP, with more in progress, and a meeting with ACRRM is being scheduled. The RACP has also received an invitation to an RACGP symposium on ADHD in Perth WA in March, which I will be attending. These reforms represent a significant opportunity to involve GPs in safe, shared care. The RACP is urging national consistency, and the RACP’s National Model for ADHD proposes a tiered approach that thoroughly expands the role of GPs while ensuring that care remains safe, evidence-based and child-centred so that children can receive high-quality, affordable and equitable ADHD care regardless of whether they see a GP or paediatrician. We are advocating for equal investment in publicly funded services as well.
Social media advocacy
Following the release of the Social Media Position Statement last year, I was interviewed by Clinton Maynard on 2GB Radio, and Dr Paul Hotton provided statements for some print stories. We both used these opportunities to convey that while social media has benefits, paediatricians are concerned about a range of negative health impacts including the harms from misinformation, poorer mental health, screen addiction, sleep cycle disorders and attentional problems. However, bans and platform-led age restrictions alone are insufficient and must be supported by government regulation, education, and safe online spaces to ensure all young people can feel protected, connected and prepared for safely navigating digital spaces into adulthood.
Thriving Kids
Thriving Kids represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform supports to children with developmental delay. This has been the subject of both a parliamentary inquiry and a report from the Thriving Kids Advisory Group. The RACP Paediatrics & Child Health Division has been invited to contribute extensively throughout this process. In addition to a deep-dive on allied health supports last year, I attended a deep-dive workshop with the Thriving Kids Advisory Group in November last year that focused on workforce, where I raised the RACP’s concerns including the need for further investment in paediatric training, models of care, and clear delineation of scope with pathways for escalation. The report from the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative recommended “that a separate item number, identical to the yearly review process available to geriatricians, be made available to paediatricians to conduct a yearly review for their patients, with case conferencing with other health professionals and educators involved”. This is an advocacy win for the RACP. Keep an eye out for a news post on Thriving Kids and the reports released from the Parliamentary Inquiry, as well as the Advisory Group.
Media involvement
I was interviewed for an article in the Sydney Morning Herald and affiliated news outlets for a story on the impact of parents paying to falsify vaccine records. You can read that article (behind a paywall) here.
As PCHD President, I have been engaged with our international partners across the Asia Pacific and globally, and I have been invited to and/or involved in a number of events:
- Invited to attend the International Pediatric Association Standing Committee meeting in Madrid, Spain in April 2026, with expenses covered by the IPA. In addition to discussion of current IPA initiatives, the meeting will bring together representatives of European national pediatric societies.
- Invitation to be chief guest at the Indian Academy of Pediatrics webinar, “Academics with Institutions” on 19th December 2025.
- Invitation to speak at PEDICON India in January 2026. As I was unable to attend this conference, Professor Nitin Kapur attended in my place.
- Attended Asia Pacific Pediatric Association (APPA) Standing Committee meeting on 25 January 2026.
- Attended IPA Standing Committee meeting in December 2025
- Attended several meetings as the coordinator for the IPA’s program for Early Childhood Development, childhood disabilities and primary care. Global survey in progress.
- Invitation to be a speaker for the APPA webinar on Suicide Prevention in March 2026.
- Invitation to speak in person at APCP2026 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in July 2026. The theme for this congress is “Redefining Paediatric Care – Blending Equity, Excellence and Technology”. I look forward to reporting back highlights in a future newsletter.
Speaking of interviews, I’d like to direct your attention to the latest episode of the College’s Pomegranate Podcast. Recently released, Ep143 “On the ground with MSF” talks to a number of College members who contributed to the incredible work of Médecins Sans Frontières in 2025, and paediatric advanced trainee Dr Aidan Tan joins to “help ask the questions that our junior doctors want answered”. Aidan is one of two trainee representatives on our PCHD Council, as well as contributing to an impressive number of other committees, College and otherwise, and we’re very glad he could contribute to this latest podcast episode. You can listen to it on your favourite streaming service, or via the RACP website here.
Last week I attended the College’s Specialty Society Forum in the Sydney offices. This event brought together Presidents of all specialty societies with RACP Presidents to discuss topics of shared interest.
I’d like to finish this first quarter’s President’s Post by sending well-deserved congratulations to these two PCHD Fellows, both Australia Day 2026 Honours recipients:
Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division
Dr Joseph Chun Ming Tam FRACP, “For significant service to paediatric medicine, and to rural health.”
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division
Dr Geoff Knight FRACP, “For service to paediatric medicine.”
Thank you both for your outstanding commitment to our craft, and to the Australian communities which you serve.
Dr Niroshini Kennedy
PCHD President
Pomegranate Health podcast: Your contributions welcome
The RACP podcast, Pomegranate Health, has published over 100 episodes since starting out ten years ago.
To provide more frequent and focused content we’re seeking contributions from our speciality societies, committees and affiliated professional organisations.
You already spend considerable time preparing lectures and webinars for your colleagues. Audio podcasts provide an easy way to reach thousands more around the world.
Each episode gets downloaded around 6500 times over the first 12 months from publication, with 21 per cent of listeners located outside of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
All you need to do is to organise one or more presenters and an interviewer familiar with the material. The podcast producer will coordinate an online recording lasting about one hour and then edit it down before publication. The intention would be to ‘brand’ regular episodes from your specialty society or organisation.
Please send any questions or ideas to podcast@racp.edu.au