Horsham Rural City Council is hoping to get more parents reading to their children, as part of a suite of improvements it is planning to support children in the municipality.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
At the municipality's meeting on Monday, councillors adopted the 2019-23 Early Years Plan.
The plan aims to provide children and their families with the best possible foundation for life, from newborns up to 12-year-olds.
Among the objectives is increasing Horsham parents' engagement in literacy programs, and developing their skills and confidence to read more to their children.
The council's manager of community services and emergency Mandi Stewart said reading with children even before they could speak helped.
"(It) builds language skills and set them up to become confident readers. Reading with children can also provide quality one on one time for children often missing in our busy lives," she said.
Ms Stewart said now the plan had been adopted, the Early Years Reference Group would be reconvened. A working group looking at the implications of universal three-year-old kindergarten will also be formed.
The state government is supporting all three year old gaining access up to 15 hours of kindergarten. The scheme will start in Yarriambiack, Hindmarsh and Northern Grampians shires next year and in Horsham in 2023.
"Horsham Rural City Council does not deliver kindergarten programs but owns the standalone venues in Horsham," Ms Stewart said. "We have been working with the Department of Education on their review of existing venues and future needs for our community. We will also work closely with local providers to discuss their plans for the roll out."
Anther objective of the plan is to "improve opportunities for participation and connection with services for parents". Ms Stewart said council was working to improve its website as a portal for early years services.
"We are interested in hearing more from fathers and grandparents about their experiences and how the service system can better support and educate them in raising children," she said. "We will be planning engagement later in the year."
At Monday's meeting, councillor Pam Clarke moved the motion, seconded by Cr John Robinson.
Cr Clarke said the statistics in the document were excellent at helping the council see the areas it needed to improve. "The thing that worried me was teenage pregnancy being the highest in the state," she said.
"The statistics show quite clearly people prefer bringing their children up here, and I think it is a really good community for children."
Cr Robinson said getting children's early years right was crucial.
"Cr Les Power and I both know from many years in law enforcement, the mistakes we make in the justice system unfortunately end up being dealt with by police, rehabilitation services and the like," he said.
"If we get the early years right, we will be diminishing the number of people that go through the justice system in the first circumstance - sometimes due to issues beyond their control."
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox twice a week from the Mail-Times. To make sure you're up-to-date, sign up here.