Paediatricians advise NSW Gov to improve the number of young children receiving essential early childhood health checks

18 November 2024

As the New South Wales Government re-opens its inquiry into improving access to early childhood health and development checks, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has advised the state government to make health checks more comprehensive and accessible, to address systemic inequities [1].

Early childhood health checks can help identify additional medical, social or cognitive needs, enabling children to access the supports and services they need to thrive from early on.

However, access to early childhood health checks differs greatly across New South Wales, with children from vulnerable communities, including from rural and regional and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, receiving fewer and less frequent checks.

Professor Nitin Kapur, President of the Paediatrics and Child Health Division, said that access to early childhood health checks was critical for children’s health and development, particularly for children from vulnerable communities.

“The early years are vitally important for children’s health, social and cognitive developmental outcomes.

“By making regular and comprehensive health checks accessible at early childhood education and care services and other community settings, we can help ensure that children with additional needs can be referred for appropriate support.

“This can be transformative for children with additional needs and improve their health, social and cognitive outcomes in the long run.”

Professor Kapur is attending a public hearing of the NSW inquiry today and will be emphasising to the Committee five key issues:

1.      Prioritise and invest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health leadership and genuine community engagement to achieve improved health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

2.      Invest in and expand models of care which support children in rural and remote communities to access local intervention and diagnostic services.

3.      Collaborate with health services to support multidisciplinary teams for child assessments, ensuring early detection and coordinated referrals of developmental issues.

4.      Invest and scale up models of care which aim to integrate variations of health, social care, family support, and education to promote equitable service access and supports, such as child and family hubs.

5.      Invest in initiatives that support access to quality early childhood education programs for all three-year-olds, particularly in rural and remote locations. A key ask of the RACP Kids Catch Up campaign.

“The NSW government recently announced $7.2 million for early childhood education and care services across NSW. This will allow more integration of early childhood health checks across the state and we encourage the government to take additional measures that make access to these checks more comprehensive, widely available and equitable for all children.

“The state government must engage in direct consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and prioritise investment to make health checks more accessible within Indigenous communities.

“Early detection and intervention can be one of the most meaningful ways in which we can help address the health inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

“Additionally, the state government must ensure that children living in rural and remote parts of the state can access health checks regularly.

“This includes addressing workforce shortages in remote communities, especially by strengthening the paediatric workforce.

“The NSW government must also work in collaboration with health services to develop new, more comprehensive and multidisciplinary models of early childhood health checks.

“Taking the steps necessary to improve access to comprehensive health and wellbeing checks for young children, in an equitable way, will pay dividends for years to come,” Professor Kapur said.

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