Best Start

       

Best Start is a Victorian Government early years place based initiative that is funded by the Department of Education and Training to support families, caregivers and communities in providing the best possible environment, experiences and care for children from birth to eight.

Best Start places a strong emphasis on prevention and early intervention, and has a particular focus on children experiencing vulnerability and all Aboriginal children.

Through Best Start, local partnerships are established with communities and service providers to support the development of local strategies that work towards improving on the Best Start outcomes.

Frankston City's Best Start Priority Outcomes

• Children engage and participate in early childhood education  
• Children and families actively engage with Maternal and Child Health services

Key facts about children in Frankston City

• A higher percentage of children aged 0-8 years than the Victorian average
• A significantly higher percentage of one parent families than the Victorian average
• A significantly higher percentage of child protection substantiations for children aged 0-8 years than the Victorian average
• A significantly lower percentage of children attending the 3.5 year key age and stage Maternal and Child Health visit than the Victorian average
• A significantly lower percentage of children participating in kindergarten than the Victorian average although there has been a marked increase in this area in the past two years

Book Cubbies

The Frankston Kids’ Own Book Cubby is a specially designed portable library in which books made by children are displayed and celebrated. The Book Cubby is a place where children can read stories written by other children and discover other worlds.

The cubby is available to be borrowed by groups such as schools, kindergartens, child care or playgroups who want to run book making activities. All children involved in bookmaking or publishing workshops are invited to leave a copy of their newly created book on the shelf for other children to read and enjoy.

Thank you to members of the Langwarrin Men’s Shed who have built two book cubbies for Frankston City Council's Early Years Community Facilitator.

For more information contact Frankston City Council.