Early years’ services play an important role in supporting families, babies and children’s social and emotional development, and kindergarten education in the years before school is critical in providing a strong foundation for primary education.


At the August 2018 Council Meeting, Council resolved to:

1. endorse the Early Year’s Infrastructure Plan 2018-2028 and commences implementation of works;

2. develop a 10 year financial plan that incorporates expending $5.55M held in reserve;

3. undertake necessary works at Brighton South Playhouse;

4. receives a further report detailing options for the long term use of the Brighton South Playhouse;

5. endorses the relocation of Highett Maternal and Child Health service to the future CSIRO site;

6. considers the location of Hampton Maternal and Child Health; and

7. receives a further report following a review of the Infrastructure Plan in year five.


The endorsed Early Years Infrastructure Plan 2018-2028 is available here

What benefit (if any) would there be in having multiple early years services located in the same building/area?

Council is reviewing the benefits of locating services within the one facility or geographical area to better support families with young children. The services may include kindergartens, Maternal and Child Health centres, occasional care centres, playgro

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9 Comments
Level 2
Maternal Health Centres should be within a shopping area eg. Sandringham urrent location. Claose to train, coffee shops and supermarket to allow parents with babies the ability to easily access and be part of the community. This also facilitates their ability to socailsie and grow their community links. Kindergartens should remain as stand alone facilities so they can run a proper education program and not be combined with other services that could take away from that focus.
Level 2
I think as many services next to each other as possible would be great, can learn from each other, user can be a one stop shop and usage would increase dramatically. A wonderful idea.
Level 2
I think having Maternal and Child Health, occasional care, toy libraries and play groups located central to shops, transport and outdoor parks are key to developing community links for both parents and carers and children. I believe that kindergartens are organisations that provide education programs as a primary focus and community engagement is a close second. I feel that community kindergartens should be separate from the other early childhood services listed and more closely affiliated with schools to ensure smooth transitions to school.
Level 2
I explored the options and found centres with multiple ‘services’ in the same location were hectic, constantly busy and loud with (ever changing) people coming and going constantly for various appointments, along with difficulty in parking. Kindergartens should remain an (educational) focus and therefore separate to health services. Proximity to a park for ‘kinder community gatherings’ and feeder schools in preparation for the ‘next stage’ I believe are beneficial.
Level 2
Castlefield Community Centre has occasional care for children between 2-4 years old and a number of playgroups. In a sense we do provide integrated facilities as parents can access a range of children's services and activities in the one location. We previously had Council's Immunisation Program at the Centre. I think there is some advantage from co-locating services as long as they are located conveniently for families. We find that having playgroups act as a feeder for our occasional care program and children become familiar with the Centre. It is also crucial that the mix works as we find that programming in a community context needs to work with the drop off and pickup times in a small centre. I think the other advantage is that professional can partner more easily to provide holistic care.
Level 2
Our McH centre is amazing such a wkd refuel service. We love the appointments and drop in times. Maternal child health centres should be located near transport, shops and libraries. Our mothers group was formed at the Sandringham Maternal child health centre. We now still meet at the Sandringham shops for coffee and then go to the library for Baby Rhyme time and to get books. Many in our group walk to this activity or catch the train. This is important post birth to get fit and is crucial for those who have had cesarians and cannot drive. Please keep the existing MCH centres in their general locations but intergrgate in with shops. We went to the Highett Mch centre but it was near the kinder and kids stadium/sport centre and it was way too busy and chaotic for us. Kinders are aligned with schools and should be located near schools and ideally next to a park so that other kids can play whilst waiting for drop off and pick up. Could you please run an online discussion about more than just the location of centres? I wish to provide feedback about many family services.
Level 2
I have tried clicking on the contact staff link but it is broken. I am keen to provide feedback on more than just the physical buildings. Can you please let me know how we do this? - keen to have supported playgroups like what runs in Kingston council. Keen to have a dads drop in playgroup on a Saturday like Kingston. - keen to have more baby rhyme time and story time at the libraries. Kingston run their weekly and their at different times at different libraries. They also produce a booklet with all their songs and hand movements. Very handy - we love the toy library but it is too far away, could they rotate some of the toys to the Beauy or Sandy libraries for those that don't want to travel 25 minutes each way. Tricky with a small baby. - mothers group starts at six weeks I would have loved a feeding and settling workshop for new parents like parenting 101. Bayside runs a settling workshop from 3 months, but that is a long time for parents to go without sleep. - I think occasional care is brilliant but would love if it were suitable for smaller children. It is a wish list I know, but I can only put my two cents in and see how your review goes Many thanks
Level 2
No concerns with current locations of facilities. Most are near public transport and other amenities and are spread throughout Bayside. Investment spent in creating single co-located centre(s) could be better spent on other aspects e.g.: - Council run child care/occasional care with daily extended hours programs for working parents (e.g. 6am-6pm) - Fully enclosed parks - fenced and gated - Additional library baby rhyme times and early childhood development programs - Targeted programs to support other carers of children (e.g. Grandparents, Dads, Foster Parents etc) - Additional safety programs (e.g. free regular car seat checks) - Additional reusable resources (e.g. more hire capsules available for babies) And so much more... I would think that co-locating services is very low on the list of priorities.
Level 2
Those facilities are fine as is but their use is not maximised. For example the beaumaris maternal child health center is closed a couple of days a week but it’s a perfect venue for a mother group. We need to make better use of facilities. Hire community kindred out for birthday parties etc. Also please have more fenced and gated parks as a stay at home parent discussions in the park were often the only adult conversation I had all day, but once my toddlers started running off in different directions I couldn’t have conversations anymore it was very isolating