One of the most significant challenges currently facing education in Australia, and globally, is the decline in school attendance rates, along with a growing awareness of the associated harm being done to many children in attending school environments. Much policy attention is now focused on declining attendance, including a recent Australian Government Senate Inquiry into school refusal. Using a transformational change through public policy framework, this paper analyses the recommendations of this Senate Inquiry to understand their potential to deliver transformational change. We find some potential for a systemic, cross-sectoral approach that builds change through many incremental actions. However, there is little scope for reconceptualising the problem and generating novel solutions. The recommendations present a pattern of imposing a single top-down framework with limited room for diverse perspectives, and do not incorporate the knowledge of those with lived experience, including parents and carers. Overall, the Inquiry’s outcomes appear more likely to reinforce the status quo than drive transformative change.

IntroductionTransgender (trans) young people participate in sport at lower rates than their cisgender peers. Whilst barriers and enablers to participation have been identified for trans adolescents and adults, we know little about the participation in sport of trans children. Parent accounts of supporting trans children are a rich source of knowledge about accessing health and education, but to date have had little to say about participation in physical activity.MethodsData comprises interviews with 16 parents of trans children and young people in Australia about how they have supported their children to participate in physical activity such as sport and dance, and how they navigate these community environments.ResultsWe find that children communicate and affirm their gender through their choice of sport or dance, and what they wear when participating. Parents undertake a significant amount of work as allies for their children in community sport and dance environments. Limitations on participation are the increased importance of competition as children get older and the impact on children's mental health of their broader experience as trans people in the world. Access to inclusive sport and dance environments for trans children enables community participation and gender affirmation. Kindness in supportive community is important, with competition much less so.DiscussionSport and dance continue to be dominated by cis-normative gender binary practices including uniforms and administrative processes. As a result, opportunities for non-binary participation are restricted. Deploying normative resistance and inventive pragmatism, parents navigate balancing privacy and disclosure to navigate access to participation and find their place in a community.

Children in families experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage are more likely to start school with unaddressed developmental needs than children who do not experience disadvantage. Participation in well-child checks and developmental screening programs is low in Australian disadvantaged communities. This research explores an integrated approach to addressing this challenge by embedding place-based child and family nurses in early childhood education settings and community centres to facilitate easy access for families to health services. We conducted a mixed methods study, employing focus group, survey, interview and data linkage methods to evaluate a trial of the 'Check-Ups Before School' (CUBS) program. Our participants included health and community service providers, early childhood educators, primary school teachers, parents and carers. We found that a child health check, conducted in a safe and familiar environment for the child and their family, can act as a catalyst for wrap-around care and service integration. Such an approach should be place-based, listen to families and provide them with tools and information for agency, where relationships are fundamental to good care and supported by information flow through the family's ecological environment, particularly in the transition to school. These findings can inform agencies in the design and implementation of integrated health and school readiness initiatives for children in the early years. Also discussed in the paper are policy implications for realising the potential of early childhood services as 'community hubs' and sites for integrated health and education, as well as implications for the role of educators as 'brokers' in relationships between parents/family members and health professionals.

This paper explores an Australian place-based collaboration of ten agencies to reform the delivery of integrated health and social care services to children and families with complex health and social challenges. Data comprises interview transcripts of semi-structured individual interviews with 17 employees across the six most-engaged agencies in late 2022. Employing thematic analysis, we found that whilst there was agreement on the vision of creative, trust-based collaboration to drive, implement and scale up service delivery reform, points of tension highlighted complexities that acted contrary to this vision. These tensions suggest the need to clarify the governance role of the collaboration, attend to project maturation processes, revise the strategic direction as collaborations evolve, maintain communication and agency involvement, and continue to listen to consumer and clinician voices. We conclude that, in a complex service system environment, it is crucial to maintain and review a shared vision, clear strategies and a healthy collaborative environment. These conclusions may inform other interagency collaborations and policies with the goal of integrating health and social care.

Diverse family structures and non-binary and transgender identities have become increasingly visible in Australia. Nonetheless, gender diversity and LGBT parented families are currently challenging topics in early child education and care (ECEC) despite their inclusion in the Early Years Learning Framework. This co-design study explored the current experiences of educators in ECEC services with respect to inclusion of LGBT families and children's gender diversity. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ECEC educators from 17 services that were seeking training in diversity and inclusion of LGBT families. Reflexive thematic analysis generated themes relating to knowing queer people, the centrality of the boy in a dress, variations in the ways the topic is handled in ECEC programming (or not), concerns about community reactions (both LGBT and mainstream), and allyship. Findings suggest that work is needed to build educator capacity to have conversations with children, embed learning in programming, and work together with parents.

This paper explores children's understandings of Acknowledgement to Country practices and Aboriginal knowledges. Guided by the relational lenses of respect, responsibility and reciprocity, we conducted focus groups with children across five Australian early education centres. We found that Acknowledgement practices were evident through recitation of their Acknowledgement to Country, engaging with artefacts, and/or discussion of artworks. Secondly, children demonstrated emerging understandings about place names, the symbolic use of flags for places and people, and Australian plants and animals. Thirdly, Aboriginal cultures as living cultures were evident in temporal discussions about people and culture. Finally, imaginative play implied efforts to make sense of Aboriginal concepts and language. Across the study, children were active in experimenting with ideas in their own meaning making. Acknowledgement to Country was not a moment in the day; rather, it was embedded throughout the day through routines, storytelling, play and creative activities, all designed to foster learning.

BackgroundAs more general practitioners (GPs) are consulted to navigate inclusive care for transgender and gender diverse (trans) children and young people, the experiences of families seeking care for trans children can inform GP practice.AimsThe aims of this study were to understand the experiences of parents of trans children in their interactions with GPs when seeking care for their children; to inform GPs about families' experiences of good care; and to complement existing guidelines and resources for GPs on affirmative trans healthcare for children.MethodsThis was a nation-wide, qualitative, constructivist study using semi-structured in-depth interviews, which was nested in a larger study on experiences of parents with a trans child across a range of Australian services and agencies. Eighteen parents of trans children in Australia were interviewed, recruited from online support and advocacy networks for parents of trans children.ResultsWe found that although parents valued ongoing care from their family GP, some had to seek a new GP because they had or feared a negative reaction from their regular GP, or their regular GP did not have the knowledge to support their family. Parents sought GPs who would validate their child and affirm their child's gender. Parents expected practical care from GPs such as referrals to gender-affirming specialists and other health practitioners, routine clinical procedures, and letters of support to services and agencies. Qualities that parents valued in a GP were a respectful manner, listening, putting the child first, asking appropriate questions, and being willing to learn.DiscussionGPs that understand trans healthcare for children across a range of health areas and can respond positively in a respectful and matter of fact way to families are in short supply. Parent knowledge can inform GPs to support trans children in line with the Australian Standards of Care.

The childhood and adolescence of transgender and gender diverse children and young people (trans children) is contested in many areas, such as media, education, health, and increasingly in the political sphere. Parents and carers of trans children navigate services and societal relations in their journey to affirm their children, from happy childhood to trans adults. This paper reports on the accounts of parents of trans children in Australia. Semi-structured interviews with 18 parents of 15 trans children in four states were analysed to understand the journey holistically, and interactions with services and institutions on this journey. Children ranged in current age from 8 to 21 years, and were 2 to 16 years when they first expressed their trans identity. These journeys highlight moments of gender euphoria, and points of both positive and negative interactions with a range of services such as GPs, specialist healthcare, trans healthcare, schools, foster care, government records, and sporting environments. This research demonstrates that parents have a collective body of knowledge on supporting and affirming trans children that should be drawn on to inform child and youth services.

While much is known about transgender students' experiences of high school, less research has explored their experiences in primary/pre-schooling settings. This paper presents an analysis of parents' (N = 15) recounts of their transgender children's (N = 12) experiences in Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) and primary schools. The research is situated in a trans-emancipatory theoretical framework that recognises the impact of cisnormativity in educational spaces. We find that the early years play-based approach contrasts with primary school settings, where children are regularly organized by binary gender categories. Whilst early childhood settings are child centred and often celebrate transgender children's individuality using a trans-accommodative approach, they can simultaneously reinforce cisnormativity through enforcing binary gendered norms. Binary norms erase transgender identities while, paradoxically, making the transgender child hypervisible. Findings can inform a whole-of-school approach to the inclusion of transgender identities and the wellbeing of trans children in ECEC and primary schools.

Community playgroups are member-run parenting groups in Australia, aligned with early childhood services. Parents and carers meet weekly with their babies, toddlers and preschool children. Through interviews with mothers who attend community playgroups, I find that these playgroups are important sites of social support for parents. Social support is interwoven with parental and family identity, and the shift in identity when becoming a parent. This is demonstrated through three themes: making a connection, shared practices and language, and judgement and respect. Parents seek out a playgroup in which to belong, where they feel included and respected. These findings can inform the creation and operation of parenting groups.

This article explores the practices of 'Acknowledgement to Country' in Australian early childhood education contexts. Acknowledgement is a process of seeking out and honouring local Aboriginal Country and knowledge and investing in local resources of language, art, stories, nature and songs. Twenty educators across six early learning centres participated in semi-structured interviews to explore the experience, processes and resources that supported the implementation of Acknowledgement practices. Acknowledgement practices were not limited to a daily protocol but embedded in each centre's physical place and programming. Wanting to be respectful yet fearing offending Aboriginal people, most educators expressed feelings of uncertainty and under-confidence about what to do. Developing relationships with local Aboriginal people and identifying resources were also concerns. Acting from the heart with good intentions was regarded as a way forward together, with commitment, resources and a strong distributed pedagogical leadership culture, where educators felt supported to take small yet foundational steps.

The COVID pandemic has had an uneven impact on families and communities, exacerbating existing structural disadvantage. We demonstrate that the construction of the pandemic by policymakers as primarily a medical problem has shaped the public health response in such a way as to hide the resulting lack of access to necessities for many and deterioration in people's wellbeing. We interviewed social welfare service providers in an urban area of high cultural and linguistic diversity and low socioeconomic advantage, about their experiences in the 2021 lockdown period. Our findings highlight the unanticipated impacts of the public health response on people who cannot be recognised in the normative subjects constructed by policy. We bring to the fore the hidden experiences behind the government-reported COVID health statistics and explore the (dis)integration of services that support survival. To avoid worsening structural disadvantage, policy responses to crisis require conceptualising the problem and its solutions from diverse standpoints, built on an understanding of the different elements that shape who we are and the way we live.

LGBTQ families have to navigate parenting in a heteronormative world. Like many other parents, LGBTQ families create playgroups to support their parenting endeavour. Drawing on research into how family and parenting identity influences playgroup participation and choices, this paper reports on interviews with members of an LGBTQ playgroup in a city in Australia. The group provided a space for many LGBTQ families to be supported and nurtured in their parenting and LGBTQ identities. However, as with any group, some families were not present or did not feel welcomed in the group. This paper examines how the playgroup drew its boundaries, who was included and who excluded, and the mechanisms that created these boundaries.

This article employs narrative policy analysis to examine how community playgroups are constructed in the ECEC policy framework, in order to understand what might exclude families, and how more families can be included in community playgroups. Playgroups are a widespread and important component of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision in Australia, where parents and carers meet weekly with their babies, toddlers and preschool children. They are sites of social support for parents, together with play-based learning and socialisation activities for the children. Through the lens of intersectionality theory, four narratives are constructed through analysis of interviews with policy elite informants. The classic narrative draws on the enduring model of community playgroups from the 1970s, and the vulnerability narrative centres the supported playgroup model. The belonging narrative and the intercultural narrative indicate possibilities for future policy approaches to community playgroups.