The Challenge

Australia now spends $22.3 billion each year on late intervention for children and young people – a 47% increase since 2019.

Yet despite decades of investment in additional programs and services, many communities across the country continue to experience long-term disadvantage.

Children growing up in socio-economically disadvantaged communities are more likely to start school behind their peers. Once this gap opens, it is difficult to close and, as evidence shows (Figure 1), more often widens over the school journey.

At Our Place, we believe that continuing to fund more stand-alone services is not enough. New ways of working are urgently needed to reduce the barriers families experiencing disadvantage face in accessing the same opportunities as other Australians.

At Our Place, we believe this pattern reflects the limits of a system that responds too late and too often in isolation. Supporting families from birth, identifying challenges early, strengthening development well before school, and building strong connections between families, early learning and schools are critical to preventing gaps from opening in the first place. Continuing to fund stand-alone services is not enough. New ways of working are urgently needed to reduce the barriers families experience in accessing the same opportunities as other Australians.

To close the gap, we must act before it opens.

Figure 1: Proportion of disadvantaged students reading and writing below expected levels in 2022 by year level.

The Solution

Research consistently shows that education plays a critical role in breaking cycles of disadvantage and that school-based hubs can make a real difference.

The Our Place Approach brings education, health, parenting supports and community services together at local schools, creating a single, trusted place where families can easily access the right support at the right time. This way of working helps families navigate a complex service system and enable services to work better together, minimising or removing many of the barriers that children and families face in accessing the services and support they need.

When families are supported early and consistently in a safe and welcoming environment, children are more likely to start school ready to learn and thrive in the years ahead, helping to break cycles of disadvantage and improve educational outcomes.

From a system that works against families

To one that puts families at the center.

The Role of Partners

Evidence behind the Our Place Approach shows that there are five essential Elements every community needs for children and families to thrive.

Our Place partners bring expertise and deliver services across these key areas of education, health and development. Through the Our Place Approach, partners are connected and supported to work together in more integrated and coordinated ways

The Elements

The Role of Our Place

Our Place connects families to services and supports partners to work in more integrated ways to respond to local needs.

We call this ‘the Glue’. It describes how People, Place, Purpose and Practice work together to enable collaboration and turn co-location into genuine integration. Each plays a distinct role, but it is their interaction that creates change - people working together in shared spaces, guided by common purpose, and supported by consistent ways of working. Together they create the conditions for coordinated action and better outcomes for children and families.

The 4 Ps of the Glue

People

Skilled staff and leaders who strengthen relationships, coordinate services, build trust and engage families

Place

The infrastructure that supports schools to function as community hubs, where services operate and communities connect.

Purpose

Shared governance and common goals, created through collaborative structures that align partners and drive integration.

Practice

The use of evidence, learning and systems to guide joint action and continuous improvement.

The Change We Seek

The Our Place Approach is designed to achieve lasting change for children and families, and to improve education outcomes over time.

Our Theory of Change articulates how this change happens. It sets out what needs to be in place, how different parts of the Approach work together, and why each element matters. It provides a shared framework that guides our work across sites and connects day-to-day practice with learning, evidence and impact.

Theory of Change