National Child and Family Investment Strategy

April 2026

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Overview

Driving the shift to early support and strengthening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector.

The National Child and Family Investment Strategy (the Investment Strategy) sets a clear national direction for transforming how Australia supports children and families. It shifts the system away from crisis-driven responses toward early support, prevention and community-led solutions, recognising that children and families are best supported when services are accessible, culturally safe and grounded in community.

Developed under the Safe and Supported: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander First Action Plan 2023–2026, the Investment Strategy responds to longstanding evidence that current systems invest too late and often only once families are in crisis. It provides a pathway to balance investment toward earlier, targeted supports that strengthen families and reduce the need for statutory intervention.

At its core, the Investment Strategy focuses on:

• prioritising early, targeted supports that strengthen families and prevent harm,
• addressing the social and structural determinants that impact child and family wellbeing, and
• embedding healing-informed, culturally safe and community-led approaches across the system.

Central to this reform is a commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination. The Strategy recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations are best placed to design and deliver supports for their children and families. It calls for sustained investment in the growth and capability of the community-controlled sector, alongside a proportional shift in funding and service delivery. This shift is critical to addressing the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection systems and to ensuring supports are responsive, culturally grounded and built on the strengths of families, culture and community. The Investment Strategy reinforces that solutions already exist within communities and that lasting change requires governments to invest in and partner with those solutions.

While grounded in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership, the Investment Strategy sets a vision for all children and families in Australia. It supports a system where:

• families can access support early, before challenges escalate,
• services are coordinated, accessible, and responsive to need, and
• all children grow up safe, supported and strong in their connection to family, community and culture.

The Investment Strategy provides a national framework to guide this transition, including:

• shared principles and system elements to drive investment in early support,
• a consistent understanding of early and tailored supports,
• clear direction to transition funding and services to community-controlled organisations,
• requirements for jurisdictional implementation in genuine partnership with communities, and
• an Innovation Fund to support and scale community-led approaches.

In summary, the National Child and Family Investment Strategy is a blueprint for transforming the child and family service system, shifting investment to early support and backing community-controlled solutions so Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children can grow up safe, supported and strong in culture.