Victoria outlines pathway to good health for children in the care of the state

Victoria’s Pathway to Good Health initiative has been created to deliver targeted health screening, assessment, referrals and planning to all Victorian children aged 0-17 years of age entering or re-entering statutory child protection care, including children and young people in home-based care and residential care.

The program is delivered through a designated community health service in each of the seventeen Victorian child protection areas, addressing statistics which show that children in statutory care have poorer physical, developmental and emotional health outcomes than other children. 

By identifying children’s health needs each time they enter care, they can be referred and supported to receive the right health care they need to prevent poor health and wellbeing outcomes.

The Victorian Government has invested $37.8 million over four years to deliver targeted health support for children in care that will improve access to assessments for children and young people in care. This investment will expand the Pathway to Good Health program across Victoria through a phased rollout across the state.

How to engage with the program

Child Protection refers every child or young person who enters or re-enters care to the local Pathway to Good Health service in the designated health service. Child protection practitioners collect and share relevant children’s health and social information with the Pathway to good health provider.

The Pathway to good health program is being rolled out across Victoria from 2023-2026. As health service providers come on board the details in the table below will be updated.

A Service Framework to guide health services implementing the program has been developed.

To learn more about each stage of Pathway to good health service delivery, including referral, triage, screening and assessment please see here.

All Pathway to good health services must provide culturally safe services for Aboriginal children and their families. Work is also underway to enable Aboriginal communities to design self-determined models of care as part of this program. The consultation and design of this work is being led by the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO).