Next phase of Restacking the Odds launches

The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (Centre for Community Child Health), Social Ventures Australia, Bain & Company, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation have announced the launch of the next phase of Restacking the Odds.

The Restacking the Odds initiative aims to transform the capacity of service providers and communities to collect and use data on service availability, quality and participation for the children and family services sector.

It focuses on five evidence-based platforms and programs in early childhood, namely: 

• Antenatal care
• Sustained nurse home visiting (based on the universal child and family health nurses)
• Early childhood education and care
• Parenting programs
• The early years of school. 

The initiative’s objective is to make these fundamental existing platforms available to all populations, especially those experiencing adversity, to create a cumulative effect that amplifies and sustains their benefit over the first eight years of life. 

At present, the collective believes, too many of these strategies are delivered with low fidelity and variable quality, and too many children and families miss out.

Paul Ramsay Foundation Chief Portfolio Officer Abhilash Mudaliar said that a new grant of $6.7 million from the Foundation would support the continuing work of Restacking the Odds, which “will focus on improving quality and access to services that we know are critical to early childhood development”.

This new phase builds on the progress and lessons from the first phase of work, which was co-funded by the Foundation in 2017 with Eureka Benevolent Foundation and the Department of Social Services. It aims to embed the use of the Restacking lead indicators at the scale needed to accelerate system level change and make a real difference to children experiencing disadvantage across Australia. The work will also expand into new communities across Australia and include a rigorous evaluation process.

Social Ventures Australia CEO Suzie Riddell said that “early childhood is a critical time for interventions that can deliver lifelong impact for education, employment, and health. Delivering high quality and accessible services for children and their family at this stage sets them on the best pathway into school and can make a tremendous difference in terms of breaking cycles of disadvantage.”

Olivia Hilton will lead the day-to-day operations of the initiative in her role as General Manager. Ms Hilton brings more than 15 years of non-profit executive experience and will start in the role in February 2022.

Learn more about Restacking the Odds here.