Analysis of Australian longitudinal data, collected through the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children and the Australian Temperament Project, affirms that what happens early in a child’s life can continue to exert an effect throughout childhood. This creates a theoretical window of opportunity to improve a child’s development trajectory over the longer term.

Early childhood interventions are programs that aim to do this. They are intended to address the impacts of intractable social problems such as low educational achievement and attainment, crime, welfare dependence, family conflict and instability, unemployment and poverty, early in the life course.

In the context of increasing disadvantage in welfare-dependent communities in Australia, governments spend considerable sums on these programs. The rationale is that investment, in theory, will reduce the cost of government services in the long run. But this rationale is borne out only if the programs are proven to be effective. Otherwise, money is simply wasted.

Broadly speaking, there are two main types of early childhood intervention practiced in Australia:

• Place-based interventions: ‘one-stop shops’ in disadvantaged communities offering openly-accessible services, including centre-based early learning, playgroups, facilitated parent-child interaction sessions and parenting programs. Participation is driven by users.
• Targeted interventions: a more structured program involving specific steps and multiple modules, sometimes driven by referral from child protection services.

This report brings together all the available evidence, and scrutinises state and federal government programs from the past two decades that focus on improving children’s cognitive, behavioural and emotional outcomes and have a publicly-available evaluation report.