Recommendation 167

The Australian Government will continue its commitment to providing universal access to healthcare, education and early childhood education to all children. The Australian Government's needs based schools funding model allocates funding to state and territory governments as well as non-government education systems. This approach recognises that schools and school systems are best placed to understand the individual needs of students including Indigenous students. It also allows schools and Indigenous communities the autonomy to pursue bilingual education, if they choose.

The National Framework for Health Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families articulates a vision, principles and approaches for the delivery of child and family health services to Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander people. It aims to provide a guide for policy and program design, and for the development and implementation of services.

The Australian Government's Connected Beginnings program integrates early childhood, maternal and child health, and family support services with schools in a selected number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities experiencing disadvantage. Connected Beginnings aims to better prepare Indigenous children for school. To date, 12 communities are delivering the program with continued progressive implementation.

In June 2016, the Government committed $48 million over four years (2016–17 to 2019–20) to support the expansion of The Smith Family's Learning for Life Program.  The Program provides financial, practical and emotional support to help disadvantaged students and their families with a focus on improving educational outcomes. Support is provided from the early years of learning right through to high school. Under the expansion, an additional 24,000 disadvantaged students will be assisted, taking the total number of students supported across Australia to some 56,000. Parent engagement is at the core of this Program. Families are supported to hold high expectations of their children and to accept shared responsibility for student attendance and educational outcomes.

Free access to public hospital services, and partially or completely subsidised access to medical services (through the Medical Benefits Schedule), and medications (through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme), are available to all Australian residents and certain categories of visitors to Australia. Information on relevant policies and programmes can be found on the Children and Youth Health page on the Department of Health website.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of quality teaching in the achievement of student outcomes, specifically for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Through the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership, the Australian Government is continuing to work with jurisdictions to drive reforms in quality teaching and school leadership.

The Australian Government also funds youth specific mental health services. The headspace program provides youth friendly community based services for young people aged 12-25 years who have, or who are at risk of, mild to moderate mental illness. Services are provided at no or low cost across four key areas – mental health, related physical health, alcohol and other drug use, and social and vocational support.

For information about state and territory policies and programmes related to children, visit:

• Australian Capital Territory – Community Services Directorate
• New South Wales – Department of Health and Office of the Children's Guardian
• Northern Territory – Territory Families
• Queensland – Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services
• South Australia – Department for Communities and Social Inclusion
• Tasmania – Department for Child Protection
• Victoria – Department of Human Services
• Western Australia – Department for Child Protection and Family Support

For information about state and territory policies and programmes related to children's education, visit:

• Australian Capital Territory – Education Directorate
• New South Wales – Department of Education
• Northern Territory – Department of Education
• Queensland – Department of Education and Training
• South Australia – Department for Education
• Tasmania – Department of Education Tasmania
• Victoria – Department of Education and Training
• Western Australia – Department of Education

For information about state and territory policies and programmes related to children's access to health services, visit:

• Australian Capital Territory – ACT Health
• New South Wales – NSW Health
• Northern Territory – Department of Health
• Queensland – Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service
• South Australia – SA Health
• Tasmania – Department of Health and Human Services
• Victoria – Health.vic
• Western Australia – Department of Health