In 2024, Professor Elizabeth Denney-Wilson and Heilok Cheng represented EPOCH-Translate CRE as witnesses in the NSW Legislative Assembly Committee on Community Services’ inquiry on early childhood health and development checks. The inquiry was launched to address barriers that hinder access to health checks, which tracks children’s progress against developmental milestones.

EPOCH-Translate CRE’s submission highlighted the role of child and family health nurses, bicultural workers and interpreters in addressing gaps in outcomes for vulnerable children, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and the barriers that affect parents’ access to routine health and development checks.

During the inquiry, Professor Denney-Wilson and Ms Cheng provided witness testimony on the importance of front-line primary health care staff being placed to identify rapid weight gain in the first year of life, including child and family health nurses undertaking this during well-child checks. In closing remarks, they noted the national shortage of child and family health nurses, the importance of improved nurse, bicultural worker and interpreter staffing to support front-line care, and need for support to deliver evidence-based obesity prevention as part of healthy growth and development checks.

The Committee’s report was tabled in August 2026. The Committee’s findings highlighted the importance of supporting health and development in the first 2000 days of life, with health checks being part of supporting early intervention and prevention to improve early childhood outcomes. The recommendations included targeted services for priority populations, including multilingual resources and partnerships with community-led organisations.

The EPOCH-Translate CRE submission and witness testimony was referenced regarding the role of child and family health nurses in conducting well-child checks for healthy child growth, the need to expand availability of child and family health nurse services, and home visiting services that meet families where they are located.

EPOCH-Translate CRE welcomes the Committee’s recommendation to consider conducting a further inquiry to examine potential strategies to improve access to early childhood health and development checks for particularly vulnerable families, including children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal communities, and rural and remote areas.