EMBARGOED UNTIL 12 am 20 FEBRUARY 2026
New Plan to Address Growing Number of Australian Children Growing Up in PovertyAs pressure on families and public systems intensify, a new national framework has been launched in Sydney to shift Australia’s approach from crisis response to early prevention.
With one in six Australian children – around 761,000 – growing up in poverty and another child entering out-of-home care every hour every hour, the National Primary Preventive Framework focuses on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
This time is a critical window where early support can prevent disadvantage from taking hold and reduce long-term pressure on health, education, and social services.
Developed through a partnership between SEED Futures and the University of Sydney’s Sydney Policy Lab, the Framework provides a clear, evidence-informed roadmap to support systemic change and ensure families receive better support from the very beginning.
SEED Futures Founder and CEO Bernadette Black AM said the Framework brings together existing evidence, lived experience and policy expertise to support long-term, sustainable reform.
“Australia has a strong foundation of research, expertise and community knowledge, and we need to use it now. We are working with Government bodies to turn that evidence into action, so the system works as intended for all Australian families,” Ms Black said.
“International evidence shows that when we invest in primary prevention early, family safety, social cohesion and long-term security all improve together. The first 1,000 days are the most powerful point of intervention, and we need to meet families’ needs before disadvantage takes hold”.
Without early intervention, too many children face compounding challenges across education, health, and safety, increasing the risk of disadvantage becoming entrenched across generations.
The National Primary Preventive Framework sets out an all-of-government approach that embeds incremental and place-based reform through long-term investments and shared accountability across portfolios such as health, social services, education, social services and housing. For families, this means support that is coordinated, consistent, and easier to access.
Director of Sydney Policy Lab, Dr Kate Harrison Brennan, said the partnership reflects the role of policy labs in translating evidence into action at scale.
“This is a significant opportunity for Australia to act on what international evidence already shows works. By building an integrated, cross-sector approach to primary prevention, we can tackle the root causes of disadvantage rather than responding after harm has occurred,” Dr Harrison Brennan said.
The launch builds on SEED Futures’ recent place-based pilot work in Tasmania, which demonstrated how coordinated investment and community-led solutions can improve outcomes for families experiencing vulnerability.
Ms Black said the Framework supports a shift toward more proactive, data-driven decisionmaking, drawing on insights from existing programs and national data.
“We have the data, the evidence and the insight to do this differently. If we act early and act together, we can change the trajectory for families and future generations, and prevent disadvantage before it takes hold,” Ms Black said.
Media contacts:
GT Communications
Mollie Smith, Senior Advisor
mollie@gtcommunications.com.au | 0403 558 440
Shalisse Thompson, Advisor
shalisse@gtcommunications.com.au | 0420 791 440
About SEED Futures:
Supported by studies in international primary preventative strategies, Bernadette Black AM discovered that the experiences of young parents could guide efforts to help all families at risk of entrenched disadvantage, especially during the critical first 1000 days. In 2009, Bernadette established Brave Foundation to support expecting or parenting teenagers, drawing on her own experience of becoming a mother at 16 years old. Bernadette has been awarded Barnardos Australia Mother of the Year, Tasmanian Australian of the Year and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021.
SEED was launched by Tim Costello AC in 2022, as a systemic advocacy initiative to re-envision how we tackle disadvantage and poverty in young people and families. SEED aims to see everyone in the ‘system’ win, from lived experience to the authorisers of policy. The SEED team are well on target in meeting their goal with transformation taking deep roots in our systems.
