Changing Children's Chances

Overview

A child’s early experiences and surroundings shape their health, development and wellbeing for life (Figure 1). If a child gets the right support from the beginning, they have the best chance to thrive. Unfortunately, some children do not get the best support for their needs.

More than one third of children in Australia experience some form of inequity. This might be because of their family’s social or economic situation. These inequities can affect children’s health, development and wellbeing now and in the future. It can also make it harder for them to reach their potential.

Childhood inequities can be prevented.

What is the Changing Children’s Chances project?

The Changing Children’s Chances project is focused on making sure every child has the opportunity to thrive.

Over the past decade, the CCC approach has been refined to draw on existing data to determine the policies that are critical to address inequities in child health, development and wellbeing.

Figure 1. Framework for understanding child disadvantage from a social determinants perspective.

Our research has already shown that if we reduce these challenges, we can improve children’s health, development and wellbeing. We’re now looking at ways to combine different types of approaches to help children who may face more complex challenges.

We work closely with a group of policy experts to make sure our research is useful and makes an impact. This group is made up of Australian state and federal governments and non-government organisations.

Our impacts and achievements

CCC 1.0 (2016 to 2020)

We described the complex circumstances in which children are born, live, learn and grow – known as social determinants.
We detailed how these social determinants shape children’s health, wellbeing and development.

CCC 2.0 (2021-2024)

We worked to better understand policy opportunities for reducing inequities in children’s mental health, physical health and academic achievement.
We modelled 'stacking' interventions that can reduce inequities, particularly for those experiencing the greatest vulnerability or disadvantage.
We proposed that actions taken together at the family, community and policy level, can be used to best improve children’s health, wellbeing and development.

CCC 3.0 (2025-2028)

We now know that meaningfully reducing inequities requires ‘stacking’ a range of complementary policy interventions in the early years. That is, targeting combinations of the modifiable social determinants that shape child health, development and wellbeing.

While Australian governments have made a commitment to reducing child inequities, greater specificity is urgently needed on which interventions, and in what combinations, should be prioritised for maximum impact. Importantly, this takes into account limited resources.

This will support more precise policy responses by identifying the most effective strategies across health, education, and social services. These strategies can then be aligned with the right populations, timing, and intensity.

To address child inequities, evidence points to the importance of:

Taking a life course approach. Development starts from birth and is shaped throughout childhood, with lasting effects into later life. Intervening early is key to promoting long-term health, development and wellbeing.
Addressing the social determinants of health. CCC has developed a framework to understand the many factors that affect children’s health, development and wellbeing, and determine where to intervene. Reducing inequities means addressing both structural issues (such as household income or housing), and more immediate ones (like parenting).
Moving away from ‘silver bullet’ solutions. Addressing inequity is complex and requires complex intervention approaches. CCC is helping to drive a shift in thinking, suggesting that combining or ‘stacking’ multiple complementary interventions across key developmental stages, rather than relying on isolated efforts, is key to addressing inequities on a more substantial scale (Figure 2).
The link between child development and health. Investing in all aspects of child development supports a healthier, more productive society and prevents future problems. Australian health policy already recognises the need for coordinated, cross-sector approaches to promote children’s holistic development.

Figure 2. Stacking interventions for reducing inequities.

What does Changing Children's Chances hope to achieve?

After nearly a decade of impactful work, CCC is positioned to lead a global agenda to reduce inequities in children’s health, development and wellbeing. Through our collaborations across Australia, the UK and Canada, we can foster a growing global network of researchers to tackle common challenges and find solutions together.

Our approach

In CCC 3.0, the CCC research program will build on nearly a decade of impact by:

Building capacity to leverage existing data to better understand and measure inequities. We use existing Australian and international data sources - both cohort studies and linked administrative datasets - to understand the drivers of inequity and inform more effective policy. Our work is improving how childhood disadvantage is measured, monitored, and understood to better guide action. Our data sources include:
Using cutting edge tools to model interventions. Using existing data sources, we will use modelling to find out which intervention targets, in which combinations, would achieve maximum impact on child inequities. We can efficiently, robustly, and rapidly generate evidence on the potential impact of stacked policy interventions that would be slow, unethical, or expensive to test in randomised controlled trials.
Translating research into real-world policy impact. We work in close collaboration with our Knowledge Translation Reference Group (KTRG) made up of policy experts from Australian state and federal governments and non-government organisations. This helps to ensure that our investigations are relevant and accessible to knowledge users (Figure 3). By helping knowledge users understand which combinations of interventions are beneficial, our findings can help direct limited public funds towards opportunities that have the greatest impact.

Figure 3. Achieving and assessing research engagement and impact.

Our team

Investigator team

Professor Sharon Goldfeld (Lead Investigator), Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Dr Meredith O’Connor, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Professor Naomi Priest, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Associate Professor Margarita Moreno- Betancur, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Dr Marnie Downes, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Professor Hannah Badland, RMIT University
Professor Susan Woolfenden, The University of New South Wales
Dr Amanda Alderton, RMIT University
Dr Sarah Gray, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Dr Andi Camden, University of Toronto, Canada
Rachel Whiffen, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Leanne Constable, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Professor Gerry Redmond, Flinders University
Dr Astrid Guttmann, University of Toronto, Canada
Dr Josie Dickerson, Bradford Institute for Health Research, UK
Professor Ruth Gilbert, University College London, UK
Dr Francisco Azpitarte-Raposeiras, Loughborough University, UK

The Changing Children’s Chances team works closely with our Knowledge Translation Reference Group, made up of policy experts from Australian state and federal governments and non-government organisations.